Since then, I’ve realized that this is natural and we do it in many areas. For instance in politics, we swing hard left or hard right to counter-balance “all those conservatives” or “all those liberals” out there. But if we thought about it, we wouldn’t really want a country that was 100% left or 100% right. We really want something that’s a good balance (though everybody disagrees on where that balance should land and whether it should lean left or right).

Then it hit me as Jessica and I were listening to some of Skillet’s slower songs last night (when a hard rock band does ballads, they’re some of the best songs ever composed, especially Skillet’s come my way, a little more, will you be there and you are my hope). Skillet is coming from an Arminian/Pentecostal background and (therefore?) focuses heavily on God’s Immanence (instead of His Transcendence), Human Responsibility (instead of God’s Sovereignty) and Emotionalism (instead of Intellectualism).

Now, if you’re coming from a Calvinistic/Reformed background, you’re probably thinking: those are Bad Things! But they’re not, really. Calvinists believe in Human Responsibility too, as well as God’s Immanence and Emotionalism (the need to have and express religious emotions – just look at Edwards’ Religious Affections!).

In fact, if you press a good Calvinist pastor on the subject, he’ll stress the need to have balance between the two sides and to not lose sight of Human Responsibility, Emotion and Immanence. But our natural reaction is to swing hard on the “party line” of our denomination or church distinctives and even to fight against “what’s out there”.

Personally, I think that listening to Skillet in high school brought a very good balance into my perspective which I’ve lost somewhat since then. Music is a great medium for communicating Emotion and God’s Immanence — and in a lot of ways, we shouldn’t strive for a “compromise” between the two ideas, but rather a “fullness of both”.

What do you think?