Upon This Rock

Punk rock and Christianity. Can the two possibly go together, or is Christian punk simply an oxymoron? A group of three courageous young musicians are proving that the two can be compatible, and they are attracting a real storm of opposition on social media because of it. I interviewed Peter 118 at Creation Fest and featured them in a post called Jesus was a punk . It went viral, and a storm kicked off on Facebook. Many it seems, were outraged by the groups stand for Christ, and their no-compromise attitude in the face of overwhelming online abuse and criticism. But they still wanted to read more about this controversial trio.  Reading one particular Facebook thread about Peter 118 requires some fortitude because there is an angry, baying mob on there, and several of the comments come from those who patently aren't thinking too clearly about what they are typing. Those posting to the discussion page seem polarised by the band. Some comments are vitriolic, ad hominem at...

I've spent a lot of time in the studio over the last week or so, recording programmes for my new show which will air this Autumn on CrossRhythms radio  (see dates below!) The show is called Just Vinyl, and it features classic Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) tracks, drawn largely from the 1970s and 1980s. I'm playing exclusively vinyl because it has a particular quality and although there are a few clicks and pops every now and then, I think this just adds to the beauty of the medium. Many of the artists I'm featuring are giants of the genre, pioneers of CCM when it was in its infancy, when very few of the musicians were full-time. Today, Christian music is big business - there are radio stations, record labels and management/touring companies dedicated fully to promoting it. Back in the day, very little of this existed, and those who were involved in pioneering CCM had to forge their own pathways. It was not easy to finance ventures into Christian music - most musi...