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Earthly love, earthly glow

In 2003, Steven Curtis Chapman released his 13th album, and it was 'All About Love' – I rather think Steven timed it to be #13 because it's all about love and 'the Christian music industry takes a dim view of earthly love songs' (Lisa Zhito, 'Love Story,' January 2003, Barnes & Noble.com). Lisa asks Steven, 'What do you think of that unspoken rule that Christian artists shouldn’t do love songs?' Steven says:

'I don’t know that anybody would say that's off-limits as much as we probably don't go there because it's not what’s expected. It seems like as you're writing songs about your spiritual life, and especially recently, with a lot of music really moving towards worship themes, it's become even less of a theme you'd hear in Christian music. We just don't write about our horizontal relationships with one another as opposed to the vertical relationship with God. I don't know why that is.'

Some people separate the spiritual from the earthly. In the US, this is not surprising because of the way earthly love is treated – a human right, so that you have the right of a child to education and the right of a woman to her body and so on. Steven has a different view from most Americans, including Gospel songwriters. He says:

'I really feel like this record is as deeply spiritual in every one of the songs as every record I’ve ever written. I write music out of my experience of and exploring God’s grace and where God shows up in my life. There's no place in my life where I have seen more profound relations of God and His presence and my need for Him than in my relationships, and particularly in my marriage.'

So, is a kiss spiritual, and romance, and passion?

'That’s what I'm most excited about with this record. I feel like it does operate on the level of realizing that God has given us all of our human experience – the power of a kiss, the feeling of romance and passion – as an expression of Himself in our lives. It is a deeply spiritual thing going on.'

Earthly love, earthly glow. It is not a human right – it is a divine gift.

1 May 2006