What Is Christian? -The Response

Since contemporary Christian music is a constant on my car's radio dial as well as some of yours, a few songs I heard recently caused me to question their purpose and reasoning on Christian radio. So, I sent my blog post to a couple of well known Christian radio stations in hopes of shedding light on my post a week and a half ago. I asked myself or any reader as to who determines a song as "Christian" and how it is determined whether it is played on Christian radio. Here's the only response I received which was from Matt Stockman of 106.9 The Light out of Black Mountain, NC.

Your question is one that has plagued us "in the industry" for as long as I can remember. Ultimately, in the case of Christian radio, I think it's up to each individual station and the standards they choose to operate by. Here at WMIT, we have a policy that outlines that the lyrical content of the song should be pretty strong and clear about Who the song is being sung toward, etc.. Other stations I know and respect highly take a bit of a looser approach, allowing songs that are positive, pro family, etc., but not explicitly Christian into their programming mix.

In your e-mail, you mentioned radio, the artist, and the labels all being potentially responsible for determining whether a song is "Christian" or not... I think you need to factor in that each of those 3 entities has a different agenda... In radio, it's to attract as many listeners to the station as possible in an effort to share the gospel clearly with them. For most artists, it's primarily about creating great art, that comes from their heart, and so I'm not sure they pay as close attention all the time to how explicit the lyrical content is. For the labels, they're more financially driven... They still want to promote the Gospel, but the need to make a profit to continue... A crossover hit can really help that along. INO Records (A Christian record label) signed MercyMe as one of their first 3 artists... "I Can Only Imagine" crossed over, sold a bizillion copies, and now INO has about 30 artists on their roster.

Hope this shed a little clarity into a pretty muddy situation.