We have discussed before how there is a surprisingly robust Punk & Indie fandom among the strength and youth of Zion–which, upon further reflection, isn’t so strange after all, since LDS Millennials and Gen Zers would naturally gravitate and resonate with genres that (like the Faith of their Fathers) find their fullest expression on the cultural margins–or even whose ethos of DIY Indie-labels fit in comfortably with the libertarian entrepreneurship of the Intermountain West.

Nevertheless, it is still admittedly odd to find so many Punk fans among Mormon youth, for it is indeed the same genre that gave us such atheistic anthems as Dead Kennedy‘s “In God We Trust, Inc.,” Minor Threat‘s “Filler,” The Avenger’s “We Are the One,” and pretty much the entire corpus of Bad Religion. It is entirely understandable for older generations of Church leaders to be mildly flummoxed by the matter-of-fact popularity of Punk among recent RMs, BYU grads, and YSA ward attendees.

Nevertheless, there is also the fact that all those aforementioned–and predominantly white–Punk bands of the early-’80s were themselves deeply and immediately influenced by Bad Brains, the original Hardcore Punk band. (Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was a huge fan, and they were an obvious and direct precursor to both Black Flag and Minor Threat’s entire D.C. Punk scene.) It is worth noting, then, that for all their influence upon an overwhelmingly white and agnostic/atheist Hardcore scene, Bad Brains was: 1) Black (they in fact started out as a ’70s Jazz-Rock Fusion band, until they first heard The Ramones); and 2) openly religious, with straight-up reggae titles like “Jah Calling,” “Leaving Babylon,” and “Jah the Conqueror” appearing as the only moments of calm on their fiery first LP.

That is, in one of Hardcore’s foundational acts, the religious element was as central to their message as their radical politics. The separation of faith from politics in Punk only came after them.

Hence perhaps why so much of Punk and Hardcore still resonates with so many LDS Youth: these genres are forms of religious expression as much as they are political. Even though a whole roster of officially-atheistic bands followed immediately in their wake, the DNA of Hardcore Punk was already encoded with a spiritual sensibility by Bad Brains. (In this, they were closer in spirit to their immediate forebears MC5 then anyone that followed either of them.)

Moreover, both Reggae and the Book of Mormon heavily cite Isaiah, who, recall, was a prophet also heavily concerned with how God Himself will imminently come to rain down justice and revolutionize the world; in both cases, they sing farewell to Babylon. In this regard, the wonder isn’t that so many LDS Youth are into Punk and Hardcore, but that even more of them aren’t.