Is Mumford & Sons a Christian Band?

Mumford & Sons is attracting huge crowds and selling a lot of records. They are thoroughly compelling, and I think this stems from their passionate exploration of life, love, loss, disappointment, and a number of other concepts fundamental to the human experience.

And here’s the thing. They are framing these explorations with tons of biblical imagery and Christian insight. Many concert-goers describe Mumford’s shows as religious experiences. Comparisons have even been made to church services, only a lot more exciting. Naturally, there is a lot of speculation about whether or not the members of Mumford & Sons are Christians.

Could the band really be engaging with Christian truths so passionately and profoundly if they weren’t, in fact, Christians? The short answer is yes.

Lead singer and songwriter Marcus Mumford has explained that the band has differing views on religion, and he prefers not to call himself a Christian.[1] So that settles it, right? Not exactly.

Marcus Mumford’s parents are church leaders in the UK. He and banjoist Winston Marshall reportedly spent some of their younger years playing in a church worship band.[2] At the very least, we would have to say that Mumford’s fascination with Christian concepts is deeply rooted in his upbringing. Biblical truths may be rejected or set aside, but they are not easily forgotten, and they often resurface with or without an invitation.

I’m not convinced that Marcus Mumford’s reticence to self-identify as a Christian means that he is not in some sense—in the only important sense, really—Christian. Here’s the quote:

“I don’t even call myself a Christian. Spirituality is the word we engage with more. We’re fans of faith, not religion.”[3]

Now, I’m not excited about the recent trend toward disassociating with the Christian name in favor of simply being a follower of Jesus, much less simply being spiritual. But I understand where this tendency is coming from. You see people using the name “Christian” without any authenticity whatsoever, so you want to distance yourself from that crowd and identify yourself more directly with something more sincere.

It’s entirely possible that that’s what Mumford is getting at here.

“I think faith is something beautiful, and something real, and something universal, or it can be…I think faith is something to be celebrated. I have my own personal views, they’re still real to me, and I want to write about them.”[4]

What he is referring to vaguely as “spirituality” and “faith” has a lot of overlap with Christian spirituality and Christian faith. So don’t rule him out.

But it also seems clear that the band is not uniform in matters of faith. So let’s imagine for a moment that Mumford & Sons is really and truly non-Christian in every sense of the term. Would we still be right to get excited about their music?

Absolutely! They are sincerely wrestling with some important questions. Marcus Mumford explains their approach:

“We’re just writing songs that ask questions. Sometimes the best way to go about exploring a question, things we wouldn’t necessarily talk about in conversation, is by writing a song. That’s why it’s quite hard…unpacking your songs. You write them in moments of privacy and…inadequacy. Inarticulation. When you can’t really express how you’re feeling, so you write it down with poetic license and vent as much as you want.”[5]

Band member Ben Lovett explains why it is difficult to dissect a song and pinpoint the one and only one thing it means:

“There’s a reason why people write songs sometimes, because they can’t talk about something. So talking about the song you wrote, it f***s the point of the song that was written to avoid talking about it.”[6]

Songs are indeed very meaningful, but much of that meaningfulness comes through the exploration itself, even when answers are not fully in view, much less neatly packaged.

I love Mumford & Sons for the issues they explore and the way in which they explore them. I get excited about the questions Mumford poses, and I affirm many of the answers, half-answers, and ambiguities that they arrive at long the way. Christian truth is fully in play here, even if it doesn’t come in the form of a pastoral Q&A or a systematic theology textbook.