Worship Wars?

We're currently in the book of Psalms as we read through the Bible as a church and I am reminded again of how many of the songs we sing on Sundays come right from this book. In light of this, it makes current 'worship wars' (worship war: when churches fight over the music part of a worship service) even more interesting. There's primarily three camps: traditionalists (hymns and organs, baby), contemporaries (the louder the better), and blended (acoustic versions of Shine, Jesus, Shine followed by Rock of Ages).

I'm not a musician, a vocalist, or even really all that qualified to write a post on worship, but what is interesting is the two primary charges that get leveled against churches who follow the contemporary style.

• Charge #1- The Devil's Music. While not flat out saying it, some still hold onto the perspective that drums are bad, guitars are from the devil, and anything that sounds like top 40 radio can not be pleasing to God. Fortunately, this charge has greatly diminished in recent years and you seldom hear this charge anymore.
• Charge #2- Weak Theology. The argument here is that the hymns contain deep theological truths that are missing in today's worship songs. This statement is a half-truth. Yes, the hymns of yesterday contain deep theological truths. But to say that contemporary worship music doesn't is not completely true, because many of the newer songs are right from the Psalms! I know there are examples of contemporary songs that are theologically weak, but I would suspect you could say the same of some hymns.