"if the truth sets us free..why can't Christian singers ring true?" (Bono)

Thanks to St. Mike for finding this great piece by Mark Rodgers..excerpt below.
(Note: "Bono audio: God at the 9" Nails Gig" is a great companion piece from the same era.

..The conversation reminded me of one I had years ago with the singer Bono. It’s a topic this legendary artist has explored with others as well. In preparation for a meeting with contemporary Christian music (CCM) artists to talk about global AIDS, he wrote me a note: “If the truth sets us free and it does … Why aren’t Christian singers allowed to ring true?” What Bono meant, of course, is that the Church often stifles the creativity and voice of an artist to conform to its own sense of propriety and (in our American context) “family friendly” fare.
Later at the meeting, Bono remarked to the group that they probably couldn’t put Song of Solomon (one of only two books of the Bible which does not reference God) to song and sell it in a Christian bookstore. Why? Not enough Jesus’ per minute. Too sensual. Not “on message.” But as the Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which, Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’ ”
If this is true, why aren’t some Christian artists allowed to speak to the whole of the human experience? To all of creation? As he usually does,    C. S. Lewis put it succinctly when he wrote “What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects – with their Christianity latent.”
We need more stories and songs that “tell the truth,” as Walker Percy wrote in Signposts in a Strange Land, especially about the human condition. True stories that transform lives and societies. More Uncle Tom’s Cabins and less “little books about Christianity.”..

            -Full article, link