CCM under spotlight about the role it plays for youth

A COVER story in the September/October issue of Idea, the magazine for members of the Evangelical Alliance, explored the role of contemporary Christian music in taking the Gospel to young people. Amongst those quoted is youth worker James Hiram who told Idea, "Kids are listening to music all the time and learning from it." Hiram cited his own experience as a young Christian when he was disenchanted with church. "What kept me closest to God was my Christian music."
Another subject brought out in the article was the tendency of the American CCM companies to be bought out by secular multinationals. Chris Cole of Cross Rhythms is quoted: "Money is winning over spiritual content which is being diluted. If you've invested $5 million in making a star, there's a tendency to whitewash if something goes wrong. When Amy Grant went through a divorce last year, the president of the Christian Music Association issued a statement saying that this did not affect the truth of what she had been singing. True - but if (EA's General Director) Joel Edwards went through a personal moral crisis, wouldn't EA's board deal with that rather differently? Where is the accountability in the music industry? For God's sake, let's not consign our kids to the fire of nothingness because of the bottom line of dollars."