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It's somewhat fitting that on the heels of Christian music's biggest showcase—GMA Week and the annual GMA Music Awards—we would post a commentary about the state of the industry. Radio personality and cultural analyst Dick Staub, in a recent blog on his website, recounted a recent panel discussion where he spoke with conviction in a rant against the Christian music business. But when he woke up the next day, he seemed to hear the voice of God, also speaking with conviction . . . in the truest sense of the word. Instead of asking, "What's wrong with CCM?", Staub found himself asking, "What's wrong with me?"

I recently participated in a panel at Seattle Pacific University on the subject of popular music, with a particular focus on contemporary Christian music (CCM).

I found myself particularly feisty in my negative comments about CCM and awoke the next morning asking myself why. Three words came to mind: cocooning, counterfeit, and commercialism.

CCM represents the "cocooning" I've spent most of my adult life trying to avoid. Anytime Christians set up a parallel universe to the "real world," we are operating counter to Jesus, who was sent into the world because of God's love, spent his everyday life "in the world" at parties and in the public square, and then commanded his disciples to Matthew 28:19-20go into the world.

CCM concerts and radio stations regularly advertise themselves as "safe" places, by which they mean only "nice" is spoken here; we will not offend you. Parents are urged to encourage their kids to listen to CCM because their kids will avoid the "nasty" music out there in the world—and yet, ironically, the format (at least with most Christian radio) is actually targeted at the 35-year-old housewife, not the kids!

The more cynical among us could read all this as code for happy, silly Christians smiling goofily as if on a Disneyland ride. But like all seduction, the cocooning model is a half-truth. There is bad stuff out there in "the world," and parents are supposed to protect their kids while preparing for them for the real world. There is inspiration in the gospel, but like all half-truths, when you eat the fruit that looks good, like Eve, you may be surprised at the consequences.

Counterfeit lyrical content and aesthetic is the byproduct of a musical format aimed at cocooning ourselves from the world instead of going into the world and preparing our kids to do the same. The one thing a true artist does is tell the truth, and the one thing CCM assiduously avoids is telling the full truth about life, the human condition, our fallen-ness.

When you aim for "safe," you arrive at a counterfeit gospel, for not only is the world not safe, neither is God. Remember C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Lucy asks Mrs. Beaver if Aslan the Lion (Christ) is safe. Mr. Beaver replies, "Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

For those who know real life, any endeavor claiming to be art and represent the gospel—yet aiming for "safe and inspirational"—is a poser and will not ring true. If we fail to tell the truth about our human condition, which requires nastiness and messiness and is not all that inspirational, we will be unable to explore the riches and depth of the gospel, which is about restoring all that unraveled in the Fall. That means Jesus wants to shine a light on every dirty, shameful little secret corner of your life and mine and then begin the process of dealing with it.

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