Ryan Lackey
Ryan Lackey is a senior English major at George Fox University. He hopes to attend (and complete) graduate school. He would like to teach English, eventually. In his spare time, he reads, mostly – and not always just David Foster Wallace. Currently, he serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the George Fox University newspaper, The Crescent, and assists in editing The Wineskin, a magazine of literature and art. His writing also appears on his (erratically updated) blog, farbetterrest.wordpress.com, and on the George Fox University Athletics website. His fiction was shortlisted for the 2015 Channillo Short Story Prize. He supports Arsenal FC and his hometown Portland Timbers, and he believes with deep conviction in the immense potential of literature to work in, between, and among people.
by Ryan Lackey
Let’s do this AA-style.
Hi. My name is Ryan, and I’m a Christian who despises contemporary Christian music.
I admit there are people who find contemporary Christian music powerful. Affirming. Good. I am not one of those people.
There is one song – Matt Maher’s “Hold Us Together.” I first encountered this song at a church camp during a considerably more conservative point in my life, and considered independently, the song isn’t really anything remarkable. Maher has a pleasantly inert voice, sings over an acoustic guitar and handclap beat, and in a few places there’s just a touch of twang. What makes “Hold Us Together” really noteworthy is that Maher, a self-defined and explicitly Christian artist, manages to complete the song without a single overt reference to God. Or Jesus. Or the Holy Spirit. He never utters the words “worship” or “glory” or that contemporary Christian standby, “praise.” The song is positive and upbeat but about as religious as anything Taylor Swift sings.