Newsweek story about Christian music companies battling the "spiritual perils of downloading".
Does "thou shalt not steal" mean "Thou shalt not
download"? Just like other computer-savvy listeners, evangelical Christians swipe songs off the Net–and Christian labels have watched their fortunes dwindle. Sales in the $845 million industry have fallen 11 percent this year, worse than secular music's 8 percent decline.Last week the Recording Industry Association of
America announced it could mount "thousands" of
lawsuits against individual file sharers. But
Christian-music companies are looking for a
faith-based solution. "For us, more than it's illegal,
it's wrong," says John Styll, president of the Gospel
Music Association, which launched a task force last
month to address the problem. One suggested approach:
getting pastors and youth-group leaders to preach
against the spiritual perils of downloading.But as the Rev. Paul Durham, pastor of Nashville's
Radnor Baptist Church, points out, many
Christian-music listeners think of file-swapping as
sharing God's message. "It's like a ministry," he
says. That's how Marlee Welsh, 18, of Bethesda, Md.,
sees it. "You're supposed to receive and spread God's
word," she says, "and by that I don't think
downloading is stealing." Darren Whitehead, youth
minister at the People's Church in Franklin, Tenn.,
questions the morality of file sharing, but he hopes
that "spreading the Gospel takes priority for the
music companies over profit–assuming that they're
Christian."
Link to story, Discuss (via Pho list)
