The Christian music industry is a sour, messy place. Theoretically, Christian music should be the best music in the world: powerful songwriting comes from good inspiration, so the most powerful music in the world would sensibly come from musicians who are playing under the direct inspiration of the creator of the universe. Talented musicians would use this heaven-sent creative force to worship God and also give fellow believers a way to gather together in a simple and earnest form of worship. But rarely is this the case, for these modern rock/gospel bands are often cited for bringing terrible music to the world, music that rewrites pop songs with biblical lyrics.

Honestly, a lot of religious artists are this way. They have a heart to make music that is worshipful, but they lack some mix of the real musical talent or divine inspiration needed to create the caliber of music God deserves, a caliber which is technically impossibly perfect but worth aiming for. Here’s when a listener must remember that Christian music has become an “industry.” Gospel record labels need to have a roster of artists that keep selling records. Sometimes, even talented bands who have clearly worn the stamp of God’s touch in their music sometimes end up releasing an album that simply doesn’t have inspiration.

dcTalk, the famous gospel act that successfully mixed together soul, rock and rap before anyone else, started their career as one of the most earnest and inspired bands in the genre, but they began to conform to secular standards as they continually increased in popularity. Plenty more examples exist. And then there are the thousands of artists who pick up a Bible and a guitar and consider themselves ready to write for the Lord and lead peers in worship.

Christian music needs to be taken a lot more seriously by these hopeful musicians: when a person decides to live life as a spiritual leader, they take upon the duty of upholding the words and messages they speak. As said by Brennan Manning, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

If Christian artists do not play with a holy chord and sing words from holy experience and truth, they do not have the right to call themselves Christian artists.

I would personally say this is the reason why some bands with a divine inspiration, such as Thrice, deny the “Christian” genre tag. Here’s the way I see it: Christian music shouldn’t be a genre, and no one truly deserves to have their musical creations share the same name as Jesus Christ. If artists call themselves Christian, critics will find a reason why they aren’t. If artists don’t call themselves Christian, listeners will be able to hear holiness when it arrives.