To be honest, I haven’t heard very many contemporary Christian rock musicians that I have cared for. Most contemporary Christian songs I’ve heard have bland, saccharine lyrics.
Derek Webb, on the other hand, writes songs that present a unique, radical view of Christianity and make the listener think. Because he is such a controversial artist, many Christian radio stations refuse to play his songs on the air.
One CD of his which has caught my attention is Mockingbird.
The songs on this CD are about people’s tendency to distort the Bible’s teachings in order to make them conform to their viewpoint, rather than looking at the Bible objectively, their viewpoint unclouded by self-interest, and adjusting their practices to fit its teachings.
One particularly stinging passage that reinforces this idea is from “A King and a Kingdom:” “There are two great lies that I’ve heard:/ ‘The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die’/ and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class Republican/ And if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like him.” Christ, of course, was actually Jewish and lower-class, and there were no Democrats and Republicans in his time.
“A New Law” satirizes the view that being a Christian exempts a person from thinking for themselves. If one doesn’t look closely, it’s easy to miss the sarcasm in the first two verses and the chorus. “Don’t teach me about politics and government/ Just tell me who to vote for . Don’t teach me how to live like a free man/ Just give me a new law/ I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy/ So just bring it down from the mountain to me.”
“Rich Young Ruler” is about American indifference to the poor. In the second verse Webb alternates between the voice of Christ and the voice of a character making excuses for his failure to measure up to Christian ideals of charity. “What is this, hey what’s the deal,” says the character. “I don’t sleep around and I don’t steal.” “I want the things you just can’t give me,” replies Christ.
In “My Enemies Are Men Like Me,” Webb uses a cleaned-up version of a common ’60s anti-war slogan, “Peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication.” Webb isn’t just condemning war in this song – he goes on to say “It’s like telling someone murder is wrong/And then showing them by way of execution.”
Mockingbird is a thought-provoking CD about mercy, charity and hypocrisy. If you’re interested in Christian music that is a little different from the norm, go check it out.

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