Hey! A bonus post!!! As I consider myself a Christian secular musician, I find myself sometimes (tho not often) misunderstood by fellow believers who have trouble seeing how I can be a believer-musician in a secular marketplace. I record secular tunes, I have written secular tunes, and I have performed in clubs and other secular venues.I am so in love with music, that I want to play anywhere I can. I am like that Scottish runner in the movie "chariots of fire" who declared that God made him to run fast and he felt God's pleasure when he ran. That's me and music. I used to be in love with playing the guitar, then in love with playing the bass, then back in love with playing the guitar again.... but the truth is, I am falling love with music, period.
As I have been preparing for this school years classes, I have been reading about Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, an Bach. I have discovered things about each of them that makes me feel almost like they are old friends. When I discovered that Handel was persecuted by the "mega-church" of his day (the Church of England) for composing operas and Oratorios concerning Biblical settings and putting them in the secular arena, I am so amazed. Especially when I read that one of his more ardent foes was non other than the author of "Amazing Grace", John Newton, a clergyman in the Church of England. Isn't it odd that one of history's greatest Christian musicians was attacked by the church? Christian musicians who have occupied their talent in the mostly secular arena have always been misunderstood and sometime even attacked by the one institution that you would THINK would have their back. Handel is even more a hero to me now - not because he wrote incredible music - but because he was comfortable with who he was as a Christian - and he expressed his Christianity by writing music.... all kinds of music. Not just music for the church. He just did what he was wired by God to do. He wrote music. Handel was the quintessential Christian secular musician.... and he is my hero.
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