Patton Dodd: July 2007 Archives

Growing up Christian means growing up conflicted about popular music. Different families and churches handle it in various ways, but it's generally true that all secular music (What Everyone Listens To) is seen as either potentially dangerous or completely taboo, and all Christian music is God-ordained, having been baptized and all that.

For many Christian adolescents and young adults, there's a two-fold problem with this dynamic of their religious culture:

1. Christian music is usually not as good, and definitely not as hip, as secular music.

2. Some secular bands sing Christian messages, hail from Christian backgrounds, or occasionally sport Christian t-shirts. ("The record label says 'EMI,' but they sure do seem to be singing about Jesus. And I hear their drummer goes to church!")

Until a few weeks ago, I pretty much knew what to think of Barry Bonds and his inevitable breaking of the home run record. I was on board with Michael Kress in thinking that Bonds was a great player, no doubt, but his greatness was overshadowed by his abuse of steroids. He was a cheater, plain and simple. The fact that he cheated before cheating was cheating--before Major League Baseball wilted under social and political pressure and made steroids illegal--did not mean Bonds got a pass. You take performance enhancing drugs to help you do something you can't do within the limits of your pure ability. Bonds had a ton of pure ability, but he cheated his way to more.