"The Coldest Heart" by The Classic Crime, Tuesday, December 12, 2023 (Repost)
I talked before about how Albatross, The Classic Crime's debut album was set to be the breakthrough mainstream album for both the band and for Tooth & Nail Records. And of course, neither of those happened because someone at iTunes or Tooth & Nail or EMI or any combination released this record in the genre "Christian Rock." Of the two 2006 secular signings of Tooth & Nail, Jonezetta avoided Christian radio, but The Classic Crime admitted defeat and even embraced the genre. With an album like Albatross, it would be hard to hear the songs and not think of Christian Rock. "The Coldest Heart" is a bit Calvinistic for the general music listener.
A COUPLE OF TEARS AND I'M A BROKEN MESS. "The Coldest Heart" belongs to a sub-genre of Christian Rock I've heard called "Shamecore," a term coined by licensed professional counselor Krispin Mayfield on his podcast The Prophetic Imagination Station. Shamecore comes from a Calvinist interpretation of the Bible, and verses like Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things" with a focus on the depravity of the human condition as an inescapable reality without the grace of Christ's sacrifice. Many Christian denominations and congregations take these teachings to the extreme. Pastors demand that their followers examine their hearts and surrender everything to Christ. Lay down your thoughts, your plans, and your ambitions. Let Christ mold you into who he wants you to be. Beat yourself down with humility. When you think you're doing well, check your intentions. Your righteousness was nothing more than filthy rags to God. And there was a constant soundtrack reinforcing this. So often these songs had to do with sexual purity, like Anberlin's "Feel Good Drag" or Seventh Day Slumber's "Innocence," but it could also be about perfection. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Songs like "Everything You've Ever Wanted" by Hawk Nelson, "Mirror" by BarlowGirl, and "Don't Look at Me" by Stacie Orrico all propitiated this idea that self-worth was found in Christ alone. Paper Route's "Are We All Forgotten?" asks the question "If we've all forgotten you, are we all forgotten too?"
I WAS BLIND TO THE THINGS I DID. I'm not talking about this to be sacrilegious. On the contrary, I believe that faith can be healthy. But one of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn't try harder to accomplish my dreams. I felt manipulated by my upbringing. "God doesn't want you to go to that college or study that," was in the back of my mind. God called me to Missionary College where I would study English literature and become an Adventist teacher. I couldn't imagine allowing myself to go to the much cheaper, much easier to transfer to state schools. Why? Because there was drinking and weekend hook-ups. There my faith would be tested. I bought into the idea that college could be a time when I would build up immunity to what the world offered. I would learn about my faith deeply and be equipped to fight against the damned world. What was my alternative? I was scared that at state school I would surely succumb to the life of drinking and partying and I would probably just become gay. But going to Adventist College really just put me behind because all of that would happen anyway. But I certainly learned a lot about Adventist teachings.
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