It's interesting that Radosh mentions Marilyn Manson, whose anti-Christian rock touched disturbed Christian children in much the same way. Kids just want some way to identify themselves, and for teenagers, the only two choices are obedience or rebellion. They latch onyo a big idea and declare themselves "for" or "against." But our corporate culture is far ahead of them, in its all-consuming drive for market share. So an idea like Christianity is basically nothing more than a brand; like your "local" NFL team or "supporting the president." Christian rock is Nike; Manson is Adidas; everyone spends all this money thinking they're making a statement by wearing one label or another, but none of these kids or their hypocritical parents can explain where their brand loyalty comes from, and none seem to realize they're all just being played for fools, whether by their caddy-driving ministers or the rock'n'roll singers dancing on their paychecks, as Beck put it.

Yes, Christianity does seem to be just another marketing brand these days. As a post Christian agnostic, OK atheist, living in the Bible belt, I find that the vast majority of "Bible believing" Christians are barely aquainted with the Good Book, or any other, come to think of it, and have no real knowledge of the doctrines or history of Christianity. The Devil's work is now being outsourced to Christians in pursuit of Mammon.

I believe that the thinking in Christian circles is that feeding their young with analogues of secular commercial pop culture provides an alternative means of letting off steam that isn't centered on drugs or alcohol, but it certainly isn't that old time religion that wasn't good enough for the baby boomers.

As Hank Hill once said "Christian rock doesn't make Christianity any better, it just makes Rock 'n' Roll worse"

I'm sympathetic to the Evangelical Christians' desire to somehow be rid of the confusion and anxiety that constitutes the majority of our modern lives. Escape and renewal has been a habit of Americans since the beginning of the country.

Unfortunately, what history has taught us is that these attempts to set up paralell cultures - from the Pilgrims, to 19th-Century Utopian ventures, to those who wnet back to the earth in the 60s - often just end up recreating the problems they attempted to escape. The tragedy in Pennsylvania is the country's first home-school shooting.

Is not what music the boy listened to. What mattered was that he owned a lot of guns. Thus, when confronted with a situation he felt he needed to control, he took his Glock along with him. Had he not had that option... well, you see where I'm going. People don't kill people (would this have happened in Denmark -- same situation, same emotions?), guns kill people.

First, that we can be fairly sure that conservative talk radio will try and take the reporting of Ludwig's musical tastes as being another example of the liberal media trying to hang Christianity out in the wind for public ridicule.

Second, that most of us look for a couple of key indicators to explain why kids steer off into the weeds. Heck, the first thing I thought was almost like that of a Maury Povich Show audience member ... shouting "Where are the parents?!" indignantly from the studio audience. Pick your prime mover -- movies, metal, Dungeons & Dragons. In the sixties it was Sylvia Plath. In the '20s it was jazz and bathtub hooch. It's never that simple. Like the movie "Crash" demonstrated, hurt that grows into hate and destruction is always launched with the proverbial butterfly sneeze in Taiwan. Something led to something that led to something that led Ludwig to make a hideously wrong choice in the way he dealt with his anger. That some in the media will try and hang it on music makes about as much sense as saying it was his mother forgetting to put Downey Fabric Softener in the underwear load.

Finally, this kind of thing happens all the time. Somewhere in the country every day. But an 18-year-old shooting his 14-year-olds parents to death doesn't become news until it crosses a race and class divide.

My main problem with Christian rock is that a lot of it seems to feed the sense of insularity in conservative Christian circles. I think the examples of Amy Grant, Jars of Clay or P.O.D. are instructive--all of them were adored by Christian music fans until they found mainstream success. Then they were accused of "selling out."

When it comes to pop culture, I'm a firm believer that God is you find him.

The fact that Daniel Ludwig was home schooled, listened to Christian rock etc is irrelevant. Why this is national news in the first place eludes me. What I would like to know is, was Daniel Ludwig currently or ever on anti-depressants, specifically those in the Prozac family. That is the common thread among all the 'school shooters' 'mall shooters', etc in the past 15 years(and the detail most often ommitted by our corporate press).

A point worth mentioning that's escaped the thread so far...

An adult in a relationship with a fourteen-year-old? That's what, eight grade?

I'm sure that she's "saving herself for marriage" (on second thought, they probably don't count anal, oral or manual sex, sigh). But still, that's just a bit beyond the pale.

Imagine if it were two boys or two girls in a relationship and the firestorm the Christian Jihadis would be launching over this one.

Me, I'd say they deserve to be hoisted by their own petard. The movement, that is, not the poor mixed up kids. Well, kid and adult... Christian music CLEARLY is responsible for child-rapists and paricidial manics.

The thing that's a shame is that the Left/Middle is too principled to make this into a cause celebre... Parts of it would be amusing to watch unfold.

I'm currently in my twelfth year of Catholic schooling, and while I don't believe that Christian rock moved David Ludwig to murder, it is an insightful modern example into what has allowed Christianity to become so ubiquitous in our society. Throughout history the Church has repurposed existing practices to fit their needs, ranging from the transformation of winter solstice rituals into celebrations of Christ's birth to the adaptation of spring festivals that coincided with His death.

While I've never been a fan of Christian rock (it seems to me that the musicians in the genre focused more on spiritual inspiration than musical) I go to school with people who do, and from what I've heard the experience is exactly the same as its secular counterpart, only the purpose is seen differently. This is exactly how I imagine the ancient Romans felt when their Saturnalia celebration became Christmas. This is how Christianity has spread throughout the ages.