Saturday, July 14, 2012

Christian Country' s Queen

working on this semi-textbook for my women in media class, i've had to learn more than i ever wanted to know about current pop music.  it turned into a 30-page reading, which i hope my students will appreciate.  through the whole thing i kept wanting to delete it all and just  do one page with huge letters reading simply
LISTEN TO THE GERSHWINS.

as this seems a bit irrelevant, i have refrained, but grudgingly.   however, my research provided a few gems, which at times have made it fun.

so, in praise of Carrie Underwood. She is, the article tells me, the Queen of Christian Country Music, and i have no reason to doubt it.  i'm highly unlikely ever to hear her, although to be fair, country has produced Patsy Cline and k d lang, so it can't be all bad. and christianity has produced...well, jesus, for one, though many modern christians don't seem to listen to him.  but overall,  the combination of country and christian doesn't tend to excite me.

well, carrie underwood does.  in what seems to be a madly conservative genre, underwood has publicly stated her support for gay marriage.  what's more, she says that this support comes out of her christianity and her understanding of the message of love.  she is happily married to a man whom she deeply loves, and thought about the joy this has given her, and wondered how she'd feel if she had been forbidden to marry this man.  why should anyone who loves that much be kept from marriage, the ultimate expression of love?  so she and her husband have left their baptist church, whose minister attacks gay marriage, and they now go to a universalist church for their sunday worship.

among my friends and colleagues, such an attitude is hardly wildly radical. but the courage of someone in a very conservative community to follow her conscience in such a way is awfully impressive.  truly, may their god bless them. 

2 comments:

Ken Goldstein said...

Yay, Carrie! While the country genre is not my usual cup of tea, I've known she's a talented vocalist. Now I admire her even more, thank you.

But I'll still be listening to the Gershwins.

Anonymous said...

this is so nice to hear. she seems to be a deeply thoughtful human being. i wish everybody in the world would be so understanding....this is what i think a christian should be...based on what they say.