oh no, I love Tom Waits, just using him as example to say that my friend's taste is not Christian skewed.

so why do people thnk Mineral was a Christian band?

a lot of the lyrics can be taken as talking about jesus or religion and stuff
look up the lyrics to "Dolorosa" or "The Last Word is Rejoice"
really can't blame people for thinking it

starflyer 59! well they never called themselves a "christian" band but jason martin is a christian who doesn't pretend not to be. mewithoutyou i guess even though they're like a post-rock band that never gets loud. there were a number of decent bec/tooth & nail/bettie rocket/etc. bands during the 90s but they either became trendy or were dropped when tooth & nail/solid state became a joke label. even 90s cornerstone festival was a lot better, they'd have a large variety of bands with a lot of originality and a lot less suck. i hear now it's all facedown records and bands that demand fresh maine lobster as part of their guarantees.

Eh . . . I dunno, I spent some time thinking about it, and here's my theory.

(GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATIONS TO FOLLOW . . . STAY TUNED)

Christianity, in my view, is primarily used as a justification for keeping the surplus population calm and docile. Basically, the message is, "Don't worry about your shitty life now - it's all part of God's plan and you'll get to Heaven and it will all be honky dory." This way the working classes don't get pissed when the ruling classes heap a bunch of bullshit on them, and also don't complain about the obviously unfair distribution of wealth.

Music appears to me to be class-oriented. White man's music is classical European music. The brown races, finding themselves under the white man's thumb, make music of passion and rebellion. It seems like all good American music originated with black people or, at the very least, poor white people appropriating elements of black music. Rock and roll and its ugly bastard children, punk and metal, are examples of black music being modified by angry, young and poor white people. It's the music of rebellion, of the lower classes screaming against the injustices of the world. It's a rejection of the calming doctrine of modern mainstream Christianity.

Basically, I find Christian rock to be obnoxious because it's preaching the doctrine of subservience while wrapped in a style of rebellion. It's the same reason I hate rock shows with giant corporate sponsors and why I walked out of Riot Fest last year and why I won't go to House of Blues. In my mind it's hypocritical bullshit, style over substance.

I feel it necessary to add a caveat here - if people actually followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, instead of focusing on dumb shit like divinity and the trinity and the crucifixion - if they actually fed the hungry, helped the poor, gave their possessions away to help those in need, and lived in a more community-oriented fashion, the world would be a better place.

But they don't. Religion is another matter of control.

I completely agree with you there. But it doesn't end with Christianity but with all the religions of the world. I always felt that they were just a cop-out for not taking responsibility for your life and your actions. That there's just a "master plan" for everything and that's just "how it is". But it's not, it's that way because people make it that way and no one else. It's just another instrument to keep us separated and controlled. We don't have the luxury to have these archaic belief systems anymore in this modern world of push-button eradication. Our "differences" are just going to get us all killed someday.