Christians and music

Music has always been a part of my life, but I really became attached to it somewhere around sixth grade when the Spice Girls were popular. Around that time, my mother hoped that she could draw me away from secular music by introducing Christian music to me. She was wrong- it only added to my collection of Cds. Later on, Christian music did become my favorite genre. I became bored and sickened by most secular bands- until Country. I became entranced by Country music like Reba, Randy Travis and Shania Twain. Recently, foreign music has become my favorite.
Over time, I have heard many views on music from Christians. It has boggled my mind in many ways, because it is not like music will make a person sin- at least not in my experience. One day while in youth group when I was in high school, a pastor once told me that a person should only listen to hymns and that any other music, including Christian music is evil because of the beat of it. My mouth dropped open and I argued with him because no one was going to tell me that something godly was evil. Many Christians tell me that secular music is wrong because we are not supposed to listen to anything that doesn't praise God. I believe that the song "Happy Birthday" falls into the category of "evil" then. Here's my philosophy on music: ask yourself these questions-
*Does this bring you away from God?
*Have you stopped praying?
*Is this all you think about?
*Are you still devoting time to God?
*Is this music making you sin?
If the answers to these questions are "No", then I would say that you are fine. I do
While I definitely believe that some Christians are right to think that secular music is evil; it is not evil for everyone. For some people, there is a certain lifestyle of sin that is associated with it to them. So listening to this music brings it back to them. For other people, it distracts them from God. Inherently, most secular music is not bad. Excessive swearing and sex in a song is not something that I would listen to though. Not only is this type of music explicit, but I tend to draw my line right there. I think that that ruins the music.