just to weigh in, pretty darned weightlessly:
peter becker: in your post you adopted the personal, ideologically-neutral perspective, and with respect to one's own listening habits, it's totally valid. i do think there's an interesting sociological question here though: has the christian community taken up electronic music and grafted it onto their own cultural output? (i realize there are more than one christian communities; i'm simplifying here.) for instance hardcore punk, once upon a time a pretty oppositional form, eventually found its way to christian youth and now there's a thriving christian punk (and metal) scene. interestingly, there's a significant crossover into straightedge (for obvious reasons). so while i respect your belief-neutral listening habits, i do think there are probably interesting stories out there regarding the dissemination of "mainstreamed" electronic music into diverse communities and platforms.
(regarding politics and music: herbert's recent radio boy album, "the mechanics of destruction," is an excellent example of music infused with politics. in this case, it's an anti-globalization piece recorded out of samples of nikes, big macs, rupert murdoch newspapers, etc... also interestingly, i've been pitching it to the US leftist magazine The Nation, thinking it ought to be up their alley -- to absolutely NO effect. reinforcing my suspicion that most of the american left are tired old hippies with no musical taste.)
also re: christian dance music: blaze's deep house/garage productions are heavily invested in christian spirituality and gospel. and roy davis jr's "gabriel" is a straight-up bible story. i'm not a christian and i'm leery of any evangelizing, but i have to say, it's an incredible track, especially its two-step version (included on locked on's "sound of the pirates," mixed by zed bias). it really hits me hard, and i think the spiritual edge has something to do with that.
finally, for a worthwhile spoof of religion and hip hop, you could do worse than to check the onion's "god finally gives shout-out back to all his niggaz."
http://www.theonion.com/onion3731/god_gives_shout-out.html seriously, it's pretty damned funny.
philip sherburne
contributing editor, neumu
https://www.neumu.net/needledrops