Music Review: Stockholm Syndrome/ Derek Webb

Music Review: Stockholm Syndrome/ Derek Webb

When I walked away from Christian culture 30+ years ago, I walked away from a fundamentalist church fighting to stay segregated. I walked away from charismatic youth rallies, vapid emotionalism and warnings of The Rapture. Walking away was oh so easy.

For many years I lived indifferent to Christian culture. It didn’t concern agnostics. Then Christ showed me the path to faith three years ago, and I could no longer ignore what was going on in the Christian community.

I couldn’t ignore the similarities in language used to disparage gay people, so similar to the racial intolerance I heard as a child. Neither could I help but notice how the vapid emotionalism of those youth rallies from the 1970s now influences what passes for worship at too many present-day churches. Or the elevation of politics by Christians on the right and on the left. But most of all I saw Christians enslaved by fear. Fear is not faith. Fear is the opposite of faith. How did we get to this point where churches put up tall fences to keep out everything that is different? Let the homeless man come in while the food pantry is open, but chase him away if he lingers on the grounds. This, my friends, is not faith.

Derek Webb’s new CD Stockholm Syndrome addresses so many of the issues that have troubled me. I don’t feel qualified to address the musical style, but to my ears the digital techno music fits the themes perfectly. The brilliant lyrics and experimental music do overwhelm the first time through. It is as though this incredible artist unleashed with a barrage of thoughts on present-day Christianity and culture. From where I stand, he hit the bull’s eye every time.

The CD received much attention on Christian blogs last summer with the news that his label would not release Stockholm Syndrome unless the song What Matters More was removed. The song is Derek’s response to the way many Christians treat the gay community. The song included the following:

If I can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth,
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it’s about.
Yeah, it looks like being hated for all the wrong things,
And chasing the wind while the pendulum swings.

Cause we can talk and debate till we’re blue in the face,
About the language and tradition that He’s coming to save.
Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit,
About 50,000 people who are dying today.

The label objected to the word shit. While the song is not on the CD, you can purchase the uncut MP3 version from Derek’s website.

The Spirit vs The Kick Drum is one of my favorites. The simple repetition of lyrics so perfectly reflect my frustration with many churches. The main themes:

‘I don’t want the Spirit I want the kick drum.’

‘I don’t want the Son I want a jury of peers.’

’I don’t want the Father I want a vending machine.’

Stockholm Syndrome, taken from a lyric in Black Eye, refers to the syndrome when prisoners or kidnapped victims identify with their captors.

Stockholm Syndrome comes to where they’re keepin you.
You never know what time it is.

Much of the time I still feel like an outsider looking in at Christian culture. And it is easy to see Stockholm Syndrome in the fear/love that controls the lives of so many Christians. They fear death, they fear life. They fear doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, thinking the wrong thing.

Time is no friend to the ones who wait for daylight to come.
Time looks the same at the ones who hate and the ones that do nothing.

At first I thought that Black Eye was closely connected to Freddie, Please. This song obviously refers to Fred Phelps. Fred Phelps may put a face to hatred of gay people, and Black Eye‘ may correctly describe his brainwashed followers, but this would make both songs too narrowly focused. Tragically, there are many church leaders, and Christian parents of gay young people who are inflicting far greater harm. The emotional and physical abuse must stop.

Several songs on the CD deal with issues of politics and culture. The State challenges the church’s marriage to politics.

Right and wrong were written on my heart,
And not just in the laws that condemn me.
But now with Caesar satisfied,
I can even do the things that should offend me.

Becoming A Slave is another bull’s eye take on culture.

Talk from every head,
Product in every word,
Its under our feet,
You know its over our heads.
And everyone’s telling the truth,
In languages that nobody speaks,
If you listen close you hear what you believe.

What You Give Up to Get It is an amazing song. Consider the lyrics:

Like an indian casino and a tank of unleaded,
It was never quite worth what you give up to get it.

And the sarcasm in Paradise is a Parking Lot would have won my heart alone.

I complain more than anybody about the vast wasteland that is contemporary Christian music. But there is the occasional oasis. With Stockholm Syndrome Derek Webb shows us what is possible when a talented individual sings with honestly and boldness.