The Jesus Music

If you want to see where the dangers of Woke-ism and Cancel Culture began, all you have to do is look at Evangelical Christianity in the 90s, when Christians began turning on their own or, as the phrase goes, “shoots their wounded.” Jesus Music shows that the first crack in the armor is the legendary Amy Grant. She was the girl next door who loved God and loved her fans.

So popular that she was the first real crossover star into mainstream music. But by crossing over, she would don a leopard print jacket on the cover and sing a song that didn’t mention “Jesus” or “God.” The church accused her of selling out, which led to divorce from her first husband and her quick marriage to Vince Gill. Who cares about the circumstances leading to divorce? It’s the word that got her canceled.

“…filmmakers do a great job recounting the popularity of Contemporary Christian Music…”

Another band that crossed over was the soul/hip-hop fusion of DC Talk. They reached great heights in the mainstream, though it was short-lived because the band members drifted apart… more didn’t like each other. Another area of contention with CCM (which I was unaware of) was race relations. Christian Music should have been a unifying and powerful message of racial equality. But it ultimately turned stars like Kirk Franklin into victims of tokenism.

Then there’s fame and all its trappings. Drugs and alcohol certainly had their role in the downfall of CCM. The problem of carrying the “Christian” banner was if you had a secret like addiction or sexual promiscuity, you had to keep it hidden. However, God don’t play that game.

The Jesus Music is a fascinating documentary because it covers the long-forgotten phenomenon that was Contemporary Christian Music. It goes down the traditional route of talking-head interviews and features plenty of the best songs to come out of CCM in the 80s and 90s. It dares to tell an honest history, warts and all, from its inspirational beginnings, which led me to become a Christian to its rapid decline when I learned that even the godly were imperfect people. But then again, maybe God can still use these miscreants of music.