Teacher’s challenge leads students to connect popular songs to their faith
By John Shaughnessy
As a teacher, Anton Wishik often calls on the Holy Spirit to help him find intriguing ways to connect his students to the Catholic faith. Still, Wishik had an extra smile when he received an unusual inspiration for his public speaking class.
The inspiration came near the beginning of this school year when Wishik’s wife Tina was listening to the radio as it played a hit song from 1986 called “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” by The Georgia Satellites.
Wishik focused on the key lyric of the smile-inducing song, a line that a woman repeatedly tells her boyfriend—“Don’t give me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself.” And when he heard the singer belt out another line— “she started talking about true love, started talking about sin”—Wishik viewed the song as a reflection of the Catholic teaching that “sex outside marriage is a sin.”
That thought led to the assignment in which he challenged his freshman and sophomore students at Lumen Christi Catholic High School in Indianapolis to deliver a speech about a mainstream song that relates to Catholic teaching.
“They rose to the occasion,” Wishik says. “Music is big to teenagers, sometimes the biggest thing. Some of them commented that they didn’t realize there were so many songs that supported Catholic teaching. We think of rock n’ roll of having this opposite message. It’s not all drugs and sex. I wanted them to come to that thought, and they did.”
After choosing a song—“It couldn’t be a hymn or a Christian song,” Wishik notes—the 15 students in his class had to tie the song to Church teaching by referencing two Bible verses and another Catholic source.
While the school didn’t share the names of the students involved in the project, here are some of the songs they chose and the connections to Catholic teaching that they saw.
“What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park
The student who chose this song believes it demonstrates two major elements of the Catholic faith: forgiveness and mercy.
The student sees that connection in several lyrics, including one that declares, “ ‘cause I’ve drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies.” He also focuses on the refrain, “So let mercy come and wash away what I’ve done.”
The student concluded that the song shows “the importance of self-forgiveness and the significance of the sacrament of confession. ‘What I’ve Done’ is a great song that shows the mercy of God.”
“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
Two sets of lyrics in this song stood out to the student who chose this song. The first one notes, “I see trees of green, red roses too/I see them bloom for me and you.” The second one notes, “I see friends shaking hands/saying, ‘How do you do?’/They’re really saying/‘I love you.’ ”
The student used these lyrics to conclude that the song “supports the Catholic beliefs that the world is a gift to us from God, that the world is good and holy, and that even when things aren’t perfect, it helps to remember the beautiful things God has made.” He also added that “friendship is another beautiful part of our world.”
“Where the Streets Have No Names” by U2
The student who chose this song believes its title is “a metaphor for heaven.” After connecting many of the lyrics to biblical references and Catholic teachings, the student concluded that the song “shows how our ultimate goal is heaven, and that’s what we should always be striving for, and how our sin causes us to want heaven even more.”
“Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons
One reference in this song captured the attention of the student who chose it. It’s the line in which the singer declares, “Never be enough, I’m the prodigal son.”
In that reference, the student sees the connection to one of the tenets of the Catholic faith—repentance.
“The prodigal son sins against his father and squanders his inheritance,” the student noted. “When the son returns and repents, his father is overjoyed and forgives him. God wants for us to repent when we have sinned and then welcomes us back.”
“If We Have Each Other” by Alec Benjamin
In choosing this 2018 song, the student focused on the lyrics of the chorus: “The world’s not perfect, but it’s not that bad/If we got each other, and that’s all we have/I will be your mother, and I’ll hold your hand/You should know I’ll be there for you.”
Showing the lyrics’ connection to Catholic teaching, the student concluded, “In the song, the ideas of helping one another and caring more about God than material goods are supported and elevated. In order to be good Catholics, we must also practice these ideas in our daily lives.” †