I was listening to a new band called Sleeping Bag on Rdio. They had a song that had some religious references in it. In particular:
I’m not that kind of Christian
No I’m not that kind of a Lutheren
It’s not that type of a question.
I’m not that kind of a Christian.
That made me curious, so I looked at their label. It was curiously called Joyful Noise Recordings. I thought, surely they must be a Christian label – something similar to Tooth and Nail. After looking around their site, it seemed if they were a Christian label, they were doing a good job of hiding it.
I finally stumbled upon a link on their About page that enlightened me to their stance on religion. It was a link to Unfortunate Religious Connotations. It was a very simple WordPress site with only one blog entry. The entry, “On the name Joyful Noise”, explained the label’s position on its name and their relationship to religion/faith. The entry was very respectful and thoughtful, and concluded that they were in no way religious, but certainly wouldn’t be against taking on a religious group.
I would not shy away from working with a religious band, provided that they were artistically honest and aesthetically on par.
However, the reality of such a possibility came with this amazing caveat at the end of the entry.
We simply strive to be honest with our religious beliefs (which means we are basically agnostic), and we would be happy releasing an inventive Christian group alongside of Montreal’s genital draining fuckfests.
While they are certainly taking what I consider to be a high road, there’s a part of me that entertains the idea of purposefully using religious connotations in the use of organizations and movements that are not religious in nature. Mainly to show that good and morality are not exclusively held by those who are religious. Of course, there’s also the reality for some that religion is void of good and morality, but that’s a completely different blog entry.