Love Songs to Jesus! How about from Jesus?

Sometimes people seem surprised that I don't listen to a lot of contemporary Christian music. I don't know why this is surprising. I'm not into praise bands on Sunday, why would I be interested in them outside of Church? I suppose this is because in theory it's "good, Christian music". Well, aside from the fact that a lot of Christian pop is full of false doctrine (hey, wait, a lot of rock is full of error - yes, I know, but I'm not expecting it to deal with theology, I'm expecting it to deal with human emotion, which is messy) which makes it fundamentally "bad, Christian music". However, there is just another aspect.

Most of them are just sappy love songs to Jesus.

Seriously, they are songs that could be sung to your gal, your baby, your honey-bunny, except they happen to be to Jesus. And if I want a love song, I'd rather listen to Hysteria by Def Lepard, or Mandy by Barry Manilow (admit it, Mandy is one of the great songs ever. . . don't deny it!), or the obvious Lovesong by the Cure, or plenty of other wondrous love songs from Rock or even County (although Country tends to excel at the "He done me wrong so I had to, officer" genre, like Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood or Papa Loved Momma by Garth Brooks). But most of the Christian songs -- no, I don't give it a chance, and I really don't feel the need to.

But this isn't to say love songs can't be religious. This week our women's bible study will look at the book of Song of Solomon. It's a love song. It's poetry about love and romance - and of course it's really about God's love for the Church.

Hmmm... maybe that's the key. Maybe I don't want to hear so much about what I feel for God, but what God feels for me should take the foreground. And it does in the Song of Solomon. I suppose I'll even concede that there could be a good Christian lovesong - but it would probably start with Jesus and live there more. Like Song of Solomon.