Psuedocelebrities

The always-funny conservative writer Rob Long has a piece in the liberal Slate magazine about how weak the Republicans' "celebrity" convention guests are. I couldn't agree more. What's worse: no celebrity endorsers, or an endorsement from Bo Derek?

But aside from all that, Long makes a barely-related point about contemporary Christian music that sums up everything I've ever thought about the genre:

Even for me, an ultra-loyal Republican, the two creepiest words in the English language are "Christian rock."

I've listened to my fair share of it, too—long drive across the country; busted iPod—and there's something so weird about it. It sounds like regular bad music when you first tune in. The lyrics always seem like regular bad music lyrics, too—"I feel your body next to mine/ And that makes my whole life shine"—but after a second or two you realize that they're singing about, not some girl named Mandy, and the whole thing just seems, well, creepy. Because rock music—and most other forms of entertainment, when you really think about it—is fundamentally about carnal desire. And Jesus, when you really think about it, is fundamentally not.

I never, ever purposely listen to contemporary Christian music. Some of my Christian friends think this is odd. But I don't avoid it for spiritual reasons; I avoid it because I avoid all schlocky, adult-contemporary, Celine Dion-esque junk.

Give me The Boss any day--stupid, pedantic, ill-informed politics and all.