One artistic hallmark of my growing up was the Christian knockoff of otherwise popular songs. I heard it most recently in some truly feculant rendering of Sting’s immortal “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You.” (Granted, that’s a phenomenal pop song sung by a phenomenally gifted vocalist-but still. It struck me as just about as limp and unsatisfying as an evening of preseason NFL action.)
The basic gimmick on rehashes like that is that some Christian artist will secure the rights to a wise or noble “secular” song and, in plenty of cases, not change even a single word of it, and make a number one CCM hit of it.
Sting song, sung by Sting, playing on CCM radio?
No chance.
Sting song, sung by someone demonstrably “safe,” playing on Positive and Encouraging, Safe for the Whole Family(tm) KLOVE?
Let it rip.
The second most recent example of which I’m aware of this happening went down circa-2007, with a Christian rehashing of Mike+the Mechanics’ “The Living Years.” Same exact deal, as far as I know.
If you really want to stretch the nostalgia muscle, try and remember the kerfuffule of Amy Grant’s forray into the non-CCM game in the early 90s with her entirely innocent and peppy songs like “Every Heartbeat.” Not enough Jesus for that one to be a Christian Song (even if I’m sure plenty of dates turned into marriages which begat families, based on the good and pure sentiments of sappy tunes like Amy Grant’s).
And it does in fact work the other way around too; any guesses as to why they play MercyMe’s “I Can Only Imagine” on Today’s Soft Rock Classics here in Memphis? Sure doesn’t seem to fit in amongst their typical mix of Celine Dion and The Tony Rich Project!
Anyway, what prompted this screed was hearing this gorgeous Don Henley tune and thinking of how meaningful I’ve grown to find the chorus in the 10 or so years since I’d heard it last. (Thank you, Spotify.)
The chorus, which reads, “this love/is like nothing I have ever known/this love/is like nothing I have ever known/take my hand now/I’m taking you home.”
It’s not about God.
Don Henley himself has said, explicitly, that the song was about bringing his first child home from the hospital.
“This love… is like nothing I have ever known.”
It’s not about God.
It’s about a baby, and Henley’s glad to be “taking him home.”
And that’s like nothing he has ever known.
And that’s not about God.
If we Christian folk are so terrified of beauty for which someone isn’t footnoting precisely where God gets the explicit credit, then we’re as terrified and confused about our world as that bundle Henley’s singing about bringing home.
The song is about beauty that all parents (including this hopefully-eventual one) can relate to-a beauty that unites all humans.
Now that’s about God.
What everyone’s saying