Michael Gungor Beliefs and the State of Christian Music

Dr. Randy White

A recent controversy over contemporary musician Michael Gungor sent me to the internet looking at the lyrics of his music. Since I don’t listen to I contemporary worship music (nor any other kind of music, for that matter), I haven’t been fully up-to-speed on any of the lyrics beyond what is commonly heard in churches today. And while I’ve been disappointed with the average fare of modern church music, I found Michael Gungor beliefs, (at least as displayed in his lyrics),  to be so far out-of-bounds that I am desperately hoping that he is an anomaly in the industry.Frankly, I found the lyrics to be so unbiblical that I’m surprised there is even a controversy over his views of Genesis. If anyone is surprised that he does not believe in a literal Adam and Eve or a worldwide flood, it is because they haven’t seen how loosely he takes scripture in his other music.As I read the lyrics, I found a New Age mysticism expressing its leftist agenda in a warm and loving blanket. Much of his music has an almost pantheistic kind of god and a low-view of humanity. In “I am Mountain,” man is…mountain. Not metaphorically, but literally. Man is dirt and rock, he is “earth and wind” and nothing more than, “momentary carbon stories.” The heart of the song is that, “Life is here now, breathe it all in. Let it all go, you are earth and wind.”  Personally, I found more inspiration in the chorus, which I quote word-for-word:

La da da da, la da da da,  La da da da, la da da da da La da da da

Oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh Oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh Oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh Oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh, oh-ooh-oh

Is it Biblically true that we are “earth and wind?” Are we mountain, dust, and “constellations made of us?“   This kind of we are stardust thinking is evolutionary thinking at its best. The full truth is that we were, "made from dust,” but we were also given the “breath of life” and the “image of God.” The mountain, constellations, dirt, and wind do not have this breath nor this image. Mankind is unique among God’s creative work, and was given dominion over all the created order.The political views of Gungor are decidedly leftist in “God and Country.” The line, “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes” overflow=“visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=“1_1” background_position=“left top” background_color=“” border_size=“” border_color=“” border_style=“solid” spacing=“yes” background_image=“” background_repeat=“no-repeat” padding=“” margin_top=“0px” margin_bottom=“0px” class=“” id=“” animation_type=“” animation_speed=“0.3” animation_direction=“left” hide_on_mobile=“no” center_content=“no” min_height=“none”][I] may have lost a father, but they found a lot of oil” is politically charged and, in reality, a false-charge, since the USA hasn’t taken oil from Middle Eastern countries except through open-market purchase. In the same song, the lyricist uses just a very slight change of phrase to make a statement not be profane, as the song proclaims, “He was just a young man when they sent him off to war, Barely even knew what in hell he’s fighting for.” The song also contains what can at least be construed as a veiled sarcastic use of God’s name when it says, “God we love our God / Oh God we love our guns.” Is this meant as “god, we love our God?”  It appears to be a mockery of those who, as the President said, “Cling to their religion and their guns.” This appearance seems all but confirmed in Gungor’s own commentary on the song in his blog, when he wrote, “the American Jesus of the political right in the US tends to be a homophobic grouch with a shotgun in his hand, the Jesus of the Gospels was nonviolent.”  He went on to ask, “How many school shootings do we have to endure before we realize that our guns are inherently a bad thing?“  I would certainly take issue with this homophobic-grouch with a shotgun Jesus that Gungor imagines is the imagination of the American right, as I would his believe that guns are “inherently” a bad thing.When I read that Gungor denies a literal Adam and Eve, my first response was to look at song lyrics. The first song I ran across was, “Dry Bones.” Being a Christian Zionist, I immediately clicked, and immediately recognized that the lyrics contain a complete disregard for the meaning of Scripture. The “dry bones” of Ezekiel 36 were turned into a metaphor for our personal need for revival, and the replacement theology of “Surely our Messiah will make all things new” was night-and-day different from my own theology and my church’s doctrinal distinctives. With disregard for Scripture’s plain meaning, I am not at all surprised that Adam and Eve and the worldwide flood also became metaphor rather than reality.As I dug into the Adam and Eve issue, I read the blog posts Gungor (or his wife) had written in defense of his views, and found a strong disdain for the “fundamentalists” who hold to a literal account of creation. The post was filled with sarcasm toward a literal understanding of the word, and was also filled with a complete lack of understanding of the issues. Gungor has accepted as fact a “science” that is full of error and contradiction, and has disregarded the Bible (and the science that backs up a creation model) in order to align with the thinking world and away from the lunatic fringe of fundamentalists, who are likened to those who thought the earth was built on turtles or the supposed flat-earth beliefs of Biblical writers. Just a few minutes of education would have helped Gungor from making so many factual errors in the blog post.Gungor seems to be a searching soul. If his song, “Wandering,” is self-revelatory (and there is evidence it is), then he is, “looking for an anchor to hold me” and sings, “I’ve been stumbling through this world, Searching for the thread that might free me.”My Invitation to GungorOne of my jobs as a shepherd is to watch out for the sheep, and even to, “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 1:3).  Gungor and I both have the ability to be overly sarcastic in defense of our positions, which makes for entertaining reading but is admittedly painful for anyone on the receiving end. My heart goes out to Gungor because I think he is in serious theological error, and yet is clearly a man of deep feeling and talent. So, Mr. Gungor, I am available to give you my time to teach you a different perspective on God’s Word, and why it can be trusted at face value. I think you have misunderstood those of us who are fundamentalists and literalists. You have made conclusions based on a false characterization. I will meet with you for a learning retreat, a weekly skype session, or whatever it needs to be. You can reject my views (as I have yours), but you ought to at least understand my views (as I hope I do yours).[/fusion_builder_colu