by Tad Lindley
(For younger readers, before mP3s and CDs, we had records. Records looked like large CDs. You could put them on a record player and spin it backwards with your hands and hear the song played in reverse. This is the same technology that DJs use to scratch.)
You may have even heard the old joke: Did you hear what happened when they played the country western song backwards? The guy got his job back, his wife came home to him, he got his truck back, and he got off of disability.
Remember the rumors about that old Led Zeppelin song, Stairway to Heaven? Supposedly if you put the record on your record player and spun it backwards it would have some sort of message pledging allegiance to Satan. Then there was the hit song by Queen, Another One Bites the Dust, which when I spun it backwards on our record player sure sounded like they were saying, “It’s fun to smoke marijuana”.
Does the brain even care?
Some people seem to be quite concerned about what these subliminal backwards message are saying. I think that my brain probably has more important things to do than subconsciously play Led Zeppelin backwards. What I do know is that many times I have been unable to get a song out of my head that even when it was playing forward.
What about when they play the song forwards?
Even if we can hear and interpret these subliminal messages recorded in reverse. Another One Bites the Dust, when you play it forward, is about a man with hurt feelings blowing people away with a fully automatic weapon, does it really matter whether when played backwards it says, “It’s fun to smoke marijuana”? I wish I could get an amen on this. If it’s glorifying first degree murder, I don’t care if when you play it backwards it says, “Repent, get baptized in Jesus name, and receive the Holy Ghost.” It’s still glorifying murder (when you play it forwards). If the subliminal message is, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” but the lyrics are about getting bombed out your mind on cough syrup, then we shouldn’t be listening to it.
What are we pumping into our ears?
The Bible quite clearly gives us guidelines for listening to music. Finally brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8).
Let me break it down into a quick checklist:
Is it true?
Is it honest?
Is it just?
Is it pure?
Is it lovely?
Does it bring a good report?
Is it virtuous?
Does it give praise to God?
Our music measuring stick
If we really love God and want to please him, it would be good to apply the above rule to our music collection. In fact, not only is it a good rule for filtering our music, but also the websites we visit, for those who have TV, the programs and movies you watch, the books we read, and any other entertainment we expose ourselves to. God wants us to fill our minds with holy and righteous things, Hollywood and the music industry would like us to fill our minds and our mouths with their agenda, which unfortunately is far from God. Now in case you missed it, play this column backwards and catch my subliminal message in the last line here: tuoba kniht ew sgnith eht eb lliw, htiw sdnim ruo llif ew sgniht ehT.
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
