SHARED IGNORANGE

I just took a look at one of my frequented sites blog.worship.com. Anyway, they had the breakdown of all the 2008 Dove Award winners. I shouldn't have been, but I was shocked at some of the winners. There are two notables that baffled me and I just wanted to mention them here. The winners in question were Song of the Year and Worship Song of the Year.

First up, Song of the Year was won by none other than Christian music super group/wannabe preachers (have you read their lyrics....good sermons, not so great songs) Casting Crowns with their smash hit/nonsensical and ever-so-confusing "East to West". Oh man, have I ever mentioned how much that song bugs me. I know I know...the underlying meaning, the heart behind it, etc. etc......but man that song...seriously seriously! They also won Christian Group of the Year, which I am totally fine with, if they now consider that award the Christian Group Who Uses (read as Abuses) the Art Medium of Music to Preach. (It's at this point that I want to make it clear to those of you now doubting my salvation that I am not against preaching, or the message....and I'm not totally against music with a Christian message..just not so sure that we're doing art and music justice when we overstate our points in mediocre-at-best packaging to an audience who is most likely already convinced....especially when we use would-be-tired-if-they-actually-made-sense cliches...again I understand the east is to the west reference, it's the comparison that seems incongruent. All I'm really asking for, from myself and others, is a little bit of artistic integrity).

The second winner which left me with furrowed brow and tilted head (try it...you'll see what I mean) was the winner of Worship Song of the Year. The winner....."How Great is Our God". We'll overlook the fact that a song won an award (does the song have hands to accept the award, a mouth to say thanks, a list of song-friends to thank?!?! Just asking!)and get to the main question. Isn't this song like 5 years old? To correct myself, the song came out in 2004 and is considered the most popular worship song in the whole world by CCLI. What you may not realize is that this song already won Worship Song of the Year in 2006. (I wonder if the 2008 song thanked itself --the 2006 version of course-- for this honor and success?!?!)So my question to the Dove Awards (the entire collection of trophies preferably) is what does a song have to do to STOP winning an award? I mean how long can this song....and by the way, I think it is a great song....great for corporate worship, lyrically sound, singable, decent music....how long can it continue to win? I mean, if "How Great is Our God" continues to win best worship song, what's to keep "Good Ol' Gospel Ship" (huh? Can someone PLEASE tell me what this song means!??!??!) or "Old Time Religion" (cough...heresy..cough cough) from winning the Southern Gospel Song of the Year 2008? In my mind, if you're going to allow a four year old song to win, you're gonna have to go ahead and consider a 54 year old song to win. And I'm just guessing that if you were to consider the aforementioned Southern Gospel songs, you would have no choice but to a)pick one of them and b) curl up in a bawl, cover your ears, and sing the ever-more-comforting chorus of "Momma Sang Bass Daddy Sang Tenor" until you fall fast asleep. At least that's what I would do. But I digress.

One final note.....the Dove's did give proper...props to some great music, most notably Glory Revealed, tobymac, and of course VeggieTales Music (not kidding).
So without further ado, I'd like to give an honorary Dove Award to you, the Dove Awards, for honoring the best, preachiest, confusing, and oldest songs in the debatable (perhaps tired, not worth it, and perhaps not nearly as bad as I make it out to be) Christian music genre.