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Human beings have assigned moral value to art and music from time immemorial, and it has affected artistic and musical practice in countless ways. Consider the following.

When pipe organs were introduced into the church, Christians were up in arms. How could this monstrosity, taken from pagan contexts, be anything other than an instrument of the devil?

The Roman Catholic church for centuries, by official decree, divided music into sacred and secular categories, allowing the former and forbidding the latter in the liturgy. These decrees were applied to masses, motets, and other liturgical compositions by well‑known and well‑intentioned composers. The only problem with forbidden pieces was that they were perceived to be secular rather than sacred in nature.

Salvador Dali's painting Christ on the Cross or his Last Supper are considered to be straightforwardly pagan and secularly humanistic by some people, while to others they breathe something fresh and daring, even Christian, into older prototypes.

Many Christians condemn rock music, not just for being openly non‑Christian, but because they consider it responsible for causing immoral behavior. Others not only condone it but adopt it wholesale as being the most appropriate music for Christian worship.

New Age music is said by some to be the embodiment of Eastern cults, to be avoided like the plague by all Christians, while some Christian musicians freely experiment with its idioms as a part of their worship and witness. ...