Joe - I love the "jesus is my boyfriend songs" term - most apt. The song you quote comes from the movie "Sister Act" where Whoopi Goldberg is a Vegas showgirl hiding out pretending to be a nun - so she's showbizzed up her choir & that pop parody was the result. Loved it in the movie, but would NOT care to have it as any part of an actual worship service. I can do ya one weirder: "Jesus is my stalker" song called "In the Secret." First time I heard it I refused to have anything to do with it in worship. I'd long been aware of the term used for childhood sexual abuse victims being called "children of the secret." and that's what kept running through my head.

I had a difficult time sorting out the difference between contemporary religious songs and praise songs when I first encountered the latter. It was only in the context of having someone point out the scriptural basis of the hymns I that I find moving IS the reason I respond that way. They've got some meat on their bones, theologically. So to me, praise songs are those with no scriptural content. I will admit to enjoying singing a few of 'em.

I think Joe had a sharp point in calling them "commercial" and mentioning the appeal to teenagers. You tend to hear 'em on Christian radio stations like "the Fish" (or whatever they call it in your area) I see this as the house music of megachurches - the non-denominational churches with no liturgical year or larger affiliation - with rock band backup. It's church pop music for those who want a pop religion - let's feel good and do good stuff! pfaugh. Yet established churches, who often don't look beyond a hymnal full of 4 of the last 5 centuries, are loosing congregants to these same megachurches.

There are some contemporary songs/hymns that do resonate well for me. It seems that in the larger context of a good sized Episcopalian diocese, I'm in a peculiar parish. We've run the contemporary song/ traditional hymn dichotomy 'round and round over the last few decades in our parish, and what has come out of it is a mix of the two, all the time. The music we tend to use usually has a specific scriptural basis, or a liturgical function. As we've started looking beyond our walls, and in acquiring an international congregation we've incorporated "world music" to great effect. We've branched out into spirituals and gospel at times -using the "Lift Every Voice" African-American flavored hymnal often.

Just as with gospel-spiritual-hymn it's a continuum, I think praise songs are on that same continuum (just on the very shallow end).

Joanne in Cleveland (who's playing in a world music Evensong service this Wednesday)