So, just picked up ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ by Derek Webb and I’m wrestling with my opinion of his song ‘What Matters More’. It’s a scathing rebuke of Fred Phelps, Westbro Baptist Church and the ‘godhatesfags.com’ crowd (I’m not linking…you can look it up).

Here’s the thing: Derek comes from a long line of singer-songwriter types who are not ‘got’ by the CCM crowd at large. They are, by definition, thinkers, worshipers, askers of big questions. As a result, there is a certain amount of leeway given to them in exploring lyrical territory.

With this song, Derek does two things, I think, weakly. He underestimates the power of words. In the song he drops the S bomb: “Cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face/About the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save/Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit/About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today” and in the same song ironically uses the line: “Cause if you really believe what you say you believe/You wouldn’t be so damn reckless with the words you speak”

Yes, words mean things and so do the way you say them; even in this crazy post-modern world we still rely on the message and the medium. But I can see the thoughline here ‘You know, they’ll be more concerned that I dropped a cuss word than they will the people dying of AIDS in the US’. But, yet, that message of the song was directed straight at the members of the church; a church whose ears will be deaf to the message, even if they hear it, by the use of four letters.

We rely on messages and the medium translates message and communicates as much as the message. Tonight, we watched ‘Willy Wonka’ with Gene Wilder and Aidan was frightened out of his socks and is now lying in his bed with the lights on in the hallway because he didn’t want to turn into a blueberry or be a ‘bad egg’. I could go on at length about the Law given as message in the movie and the horror brought on Aidan’s 5 year old imagination. But, oddly enough, it was grace and love that brought comfort to his spirit as we gave him a dose of that before he went off into his dark room.

‘What Matters More’ is roughly the equivilant. It’s berating Westbro’s love of ‘Law’ so much that grace is lost in the rebuke. A well crafted rebuke, which is what the song is, loses its teeth because of Webb’s choice of words. So, what’s left? Is it a spiritual ‘pile on’? The unfortunate consequences of such a song might end up being the raft of people who spiritually polish their own turds pining away at the idiocy of Westbro’s attendees.

Stockholm Syndrome’s message brings with it a healthy dose of freedom. Is it good art? Maybe. It’s definately an meritable artistic leap for Webb on my second listen through the CD. Is it effective commentary on the state of the church? Yes, it’s eloquent at other points in the album. Is it an effective message? I’m not so sure. Webb would do well to mine the depths of hope and grace that he has to give and might find that a longer message of hope, grace, and love might allow the fear the Law brings to dissipate and allow people to see the God who loves them is in the dark rooms of their life.