Not just an old fashioned love song. . .

So I was reading some rather dull statistics when this jumped out at me:

Back in 2011, Albany psychology professor Gordon Gallup and student Dawn R. Hobbs published a study in Evolutionary Psychology showing that 92 percent of the 174 songs that made it into the Billboard Top 10 sometime during 2009 contained what they hilariously dubbed “reproductive messages,” including references to “sex appeal,” “arousal,” and “genitalia.”  Billboard reports that lyrical occurrences of the actual word “sex,” have surged relative to “love,” which peaked in 1988 and has plummeted since. “Sex” peaked in 2009 with Ciara’s “Love Sex Magic,” and Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex,” both of which hit the top 10. And while it’s still going strong, artists today seem to prefer other, often more explicit terms.

That was 6 years ago.  So do you suppose that things have reversed direction?

These lucky scientists had to listen to 1,250 pop songs from 1960-2008 and found a surge in sexual themes by artists of both genders, but especially men. Among female performers, references to sex climbed from 6 percent of songs in the 1960s to 21 percent by 2000. Among male performers, songs with sexual subject matter went from a mere 7 percent in the 1960s to 40 percent in the 2000s.

Now lets put it all in a little context.  In the same time we have seen the same sort of erotic trend among praise and worship songs.  The chaste "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart" seems like a hopelessly sanitized love compared to Kari Jobe's "The More I Seek You."  In fact, some of the worship songs sing so intimately that it is not clear whether Jesus is your best friend, boyfriend or Savior.  Of course, there have always been songs or hymns that bordered on bad taste with lyrics that were, at best hokey, but, at worst, in appropriate.

He touched me. Oh, he touched me.
And oh, the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened, and now I know!
He touched and made me whole. –He Touched Me

Our culture is clearly over sexed but this is clearly one trend that should not be followed in the Church.  The shape of God's love, according to Scripture, cruciform and that love is revealed most profoundly by sacrifice.  Our love, in response to His, should not be shaped any different.