Billy Corgan to Christian Artists: "Suck Less"

That's not exactly what he said, but it's the gist of his point in an interview with CNN. R.J. Moeller comments:

In response to the question, “What advice do you have for Christian rockers?” Corgan replied, “Make better music.” 

And there it is. Make better music. It seems so simple and obvious to most, but given the lackluster quality of most Christian rock music I was encouraged to listen to as child growing up in the evangelical church, I’m not sure it is always the top priority. 

... 

In a free market of ideas, there is plenty of room for openly and decidedly Christian entertainment. But Corgan is right – if Christians have any interest in being taken seriously in an industry like rock music, we’re going to have to create better art. Stamping “Jesus Freak” on sub-par music doesn’t make it listenable.

I think that's just about right, except not about music. Goodness knows, I understand exactly what R.J. is talking about when he refers to the painfully lame Christian rock that we had to pretend to like when we were kids. Petra was all we had!

But since my youth, Christian music has gotten a ton better. Switchfoot, Relient K, Anberlin, LeCrae, MxPx, Flyleaf, Robert Randolph -- I could go on and on. Whatever your favorite genre of music is, you can find a very good Christian version of it. Except for praise music, which is terrible.

But replace "music" with "movies" or "TV" and the outlook isn't so bright. Those forms of Christian artistic expression have got a long way to go before they're even up to the standards of Canadian TV, much less anything people in the free world are used to seeing. Hopefully, Christian artists can soon make the kind of leaps in those forms of media that they have in music. Because I'm still scarred from having to sit through "Facing the Giants."