Album Covers and Lyrics

My apologizes to my artist friends. Ok? I'm not talking about YOU! I'm talking about someone else. (ahem)

Why are so many album covers by Christian artists, always a guy, standing on the top of a mountain with his arms outstretched to the sky?

Or, the other cover - the same guy (!!), standing overlooking an ocean, with his arms outstretched? You know what I mean? It's the same scene you see on the church screen with worship lyrics over it.

I guess the view from majestic mountains and seas with no limits remind us of the awesomeness of God. But - it's the same photos re-captured over and over. It's so unoriginal. Right now I can think of four artists with that same cover.

Now let's talk about lyrics. Why are so many Christian songs, (I'm not talking about rock songs, but the nice, contemporary songs), a rip-off of scripture? Yes, scripture is wonderful and singing scripture out loud is edifying, but as a commercial artist isn't it plagiarism to copy the Bible and claim them as "your lyrics". They aren't.

One of my favourite Christian songs is "Meant To Live" by Switchfoot because it's Jon Foreman's commentary, not a transcribed Psalm. There's lots of songs that a commentary, but there too many other newly released songs with unoriginal lyrics.

You artists are creative, abstract people. Please write more Christian songs that reflect your thoughts, your love, your observations, instead of stealing what David wrote and we've already sung a hundred times before.