I asked Jay to further clarify what he means by “Christian worldview music”:
We believe strongly that music is not a tool just for evangelism, or just for praise and worship, or just for teaching Christians things about Christianity. We believe it should be a biblical reflection, the same way the Bible is, whether it’s Ecclesiastes, or the Psalms, or Song of Solomon, most of the Psalms are actually laments – crying out to God, in desperation; most Christian music is not that way. We’re encouraging these artists to give into that urging to bring Christ into all of life, whether it’s our marriages, whether it’s our professional lives, whether it’s how we treat our neighbor and how we love the poor; and we’re saying, yes, it honors God when you sing about all of these things from a biblical perspective.
I then asked Jay, what of the perception that the Christian music industry is all about money:
I’ve been in this business now for about 14 years. I worked for Christian record labels for ten years, and with CCM Magazine for about four, and I’m grateful to say it’s not all about money. That said, I will say money influences too many of our decisions as an industry. But in these years I’ve gotten to know dozens of artists and, you know, it’s about calling; it’s about being salt and light in culture, showing the world who Christ is. (The world) has written off Jesus based on parodies of the church that aren’t real. Some of these artists have a passion for our culture to see who Jesus Christ really is, and that’s why I am still here after 14 years.
While listening to the interview, I heard mention that Bono was a Christian (actually, not a Christian, per se, but that he loved Christ). I have been aware of this popular singer and human rights/environmental advocate for a lot of years. Before this, I never, not once heard his name and Christ’s mentioned in the same sentence. My question is, what’s the point of being a Christian if you don’t, in some way, witness? Especially someone like Bono, who could be a most powerful witness for Christ given his resources and exposure to the media.