Andrew Weatherford’s Feb. 11 column, “Pop culture a reflection of immoral society,” makes the argument that Britney Spears’ music is a reflection of society’s moral status. I could not disagree more.

Using Spears as a barometer for our nation’s moral status is just as asinine as lumping the entire music industry together as one moral sampling. Spears’ new single “If U Seek Amy” is a reflection of something else – limited musical ability and lack of depth as a human being.

Eminem’s music, however, is more on point as a reflection of the circumstances in which he grew up as an impoverished youth. A great deal of his music talks about his dad leaving when he was young, his mom’s constant drug problems and the general crime- and poverty-ridden area in which he was raised. Anyone who grew up in those circumstances will have a very different view of things than those who grew up in an affluent society. The point is that all artists are not the same, nor do they represent the morality of 300 million people.

Besides, it’s not like we have only immoral music in the music industry. There is an entire slew of Christian rock music with extremely limited musical quality full of tired, recycled and contrived themes. I much prefer the creativity and originality of an artist like Eminem (even the pathetic music of Spears) than the vacuousness of Christian music. I also find that interesting and creative art has an inversely proportional relationship to its level of religious morality.

Aside from this, I take great offense to Weatherford’s presumption of morality to begin with. The problems with society that I see are not because of a lack of religion but an obsession with first-century morality. In fact, I find the Bible to represent the worst kind of morality imaginable: the clear sanction of slavery, murder and rape as long as it’s God’s chosen people doing the work – the notion that people are responsible for the crimes of their ancestors, the inferiority of women, the idea that if you do not agree with any of this you deserve the worst kind of torture that should last forever, as well as the notion that brutal torture and murder can represent a great act of love. Who would agree with these acts besides an abusive father?

Andrew Mabry is a sophomore prebusiness major from Southlake.