No, "Jesus is my boyfriend" lyrics are those that are sung to Jesus as if he was the singer's human lover. Note that in the lyrics provided above for the song "Communion", I don't think Jesus or God is mentioned even once. It's implied that the song is sung to Jesus, but they could just as well be lyrics about someone's human love interest. When a song is directed to Jesus with smoochy, sugary, lovey-dovey language and terms of endearment that could easily be construed as a love song to or about a human being, that's a song with "Jesus is my boyfriend" lyrics.

The musical style is a separate consideration, although "Jesus is my boyfriend" lyrics are often paired with soft-rock love ballad melodies and accompaniment.

Oy! If I ever need to go on a diet, I'll come here for the appetite suppressant.

This is one reason why 50 percent of Catholics don't believe in the real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Jesus Is My Friend by Sonseed

DARN YOU Tom... now it's stuck in my head for days.

Here's a catchy tune that could be mistaken for a top-40 number from years ago, if one didn't know that the intended context is Jesus at His Ascension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySe0xK2MLsI

For those who don't have RVW's preface in front of them....

When discussing the mystical espousals of Jesus one doesn’t use terms like “boyfriend” or even “husband”. The term “spouse” is strictly used. Jesus is the Spouse of souls. Consecrated Virgins are espoused to Christ by the Bishop.

So, I disagree with the premise of this thread, and think that we're closer to being in opposition to tradition than standing up for it with this line of thinking.

As far as I can tell the criteria posted above would identify "Set Me As A Seal" by Matt Maher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMUehTuoTCs) (live version with no studio effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy_TGOeESrw) as a "Jesus Is My Boyfriend" song:

Chorus
Set me as a seal on your heart
Set me as a seal on your soul
For strong as death is love
Unyielding as the grave
Nothing will quench its flame
Nothing will quench its flame

Verse 1
Kiss me my love
That your name be on my lips
You intoxicate my being
With the fragrance
Of your presence
How beautiful you are my darling
Show me your face
Let me hear your voice
Sweet as the dew in the early morn
Like a lily among the thorns

Verse 2
I looked for you
The one my heart loves
I looked for you but did not find You
Searched through the night
Until I rested in your sight
Now I will never let you go
'Cause you have stolen my heart
With one glance of your eyes
You lips so sweet adorned with honey
My hands they drip with myrrh

© 2003 spiritandsong.com

So, proof that Matt Maher writes completely inappropriate lyrics? Some criteria listed above would certainly label this inappropriate as God is never directly mentioned by name and it could be accurately sung as a song between human lovers.

Well, I did some research on this song, and as far as I can tell basically every word of this song is directly out of the Song of Songs. Specifically, it's Song of Songs 1:1-3, 2:2, 2:14, 3:1-4, 4:9-11, 5:5, 8:6-7.

Hence, I don't think it accurately reflects Scripture or Tradition to set up such a criteria for music, nor to set up criteria such as:

I was hit with an example, posted today, of how that love is supposed to sound: not at all sexualized.

My understanding of Scripture and Tradition is that God uses the love between a man and a woman as a metaphor for the love that God has for us. That being said, there are good and bad ways of utilizing this metaphor. The rub is that discerning what is a good and bad use of this metaphor is a more difficult task than making a blanket rule against using the metaphor.

In my view, "Communion" by Maveric City Music is being criticized for the wrong reasons. "Set Me As A Seal" and "Communion" cover vaguely similar subject matter, but I expect that at least nearly everyone here will agree that "Set Me As A Seal" is a better song. "Set Me As A Seal" is a song that I play with my choir. "Communion" has some deficiencies that would make me thing twice before programming it, although I like the song on the whole.

"Communion" is lyrically disorganized and sloppy. Looking at the lyrics leaves me with the feeling that not that much effort was put into constructing them. [Sidebar - Stephanie Gretzinger may be doing this intentionally to go to for a style that sounds simple and spontaneous, which may be fine for private devotion but makes for poor corporate worship - a lot of her songs are written this way].

"Communion" also plays fast and loose with the line about making emotional statements on behalf of the audience that not everyone might genuinely be feeling. Some specific examples of this:

Lead me back to the moment I saw Your face

And it was oh so simple
It was easy to love
And no space between us
It was easy to trust

It seems to me that these lyrics attempt to recall the memory of a spiritual experience that not necessarily everyone has had. Another example would be:

It feels so good to know You are my friend

I furthermore find the above lyric to be overly colloquial.

On the other hand, there's a bit of an art to being prophetic in worship lyrics and leading people into a place where the lyrics can be genuinely expressed by everyone. "Set Me As A Seal" has the lyric

You intoxicate my being
With the fragrance
Of your presence

and, this is from Song of Songs 1:1-3.

In fact, How Great Thou Art does something similar.

Verse 1
O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds
Thy hands have made
I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy pow'r thru'out
The universe displayed

Chorus
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art

Verse 2
When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
And hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze

Verse 3
And when I think
That God His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die
I scarce can take it in
That on the cross
My burden gladly bearing
He bled and died
To take away my sin

Verse 4
When Christ shall come
With shout of acclamation
And take me home
What joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim
My God how great Thou art

Stuart Wesley Keene Hine
© Copyright 1949 and 1953 Stuart Hine Trust CIO Stuart K. Hine Trust (Administration: USA All rights by Capitol CMG Publishing, except print rights for USA, North, Central and South America administered by Hope Publishing. All other non USA Americas rights by the Stuart Hine Trust. Rest of World – Integritymusic.com.)

I'd be curious if anyone for intellectual consistency would propose banning "How Great Thou Art" for making emotional statements on behalf of the audience. My guess is no, and I think that the reality is that there is an art to doing this tastefully, subtly, and respectfully. "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" is successful in this endeavor and thus no one objects to it. "Communion" by Maverick City Music is less successful in doing this and thus more likely to produce objections.

I think that it's important that emotion in worship flow from a place of guenuine conviction of the truths of our faith. "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" and "Set Me As A Seal" start with truths about God and then connect them to our emotions. A further problem that "Communion" has is that parts of it seem to be raw emotion disconnected from the narrative of the song. For example, I find the lyric "Feels so good to know You are my friend" to be a lyrical non-sequitor.

While the lyrics of "Communion" do not meet the highest possible standards for composition, I give the authors significant credit for drawing a nice painting of God drawing us back into the Garden of Eden and restoring us to the level of communion that God had with Adam and Eve. There's also a possible further interpretation of Jesus as the Gardener seen by Mary Magdelene at His ressurection.

In fact, the extended metaphor about the Garden of Eden in this song makes it only possible to interpret this song as being about God. Hence, I do not understand the "Jesus is my boyfriend" criticism as directed at this song.

I wouldn’t put How Great Thou Art on a list of Catholic liturgical hymns.

It’s good to note that the sexualized imagery of Song of Songs has historically made many Christians uncomfortable. Not every word of scripture was used as a liturgical text (propriety?).

I think the overall informality of the P&W genre is what garners the term “Jesus is my boyfriend.” The musical and textual style encourage us to relate to God ONLY on an emotional and intimate level, not corporately not covenent-ally not philosophically. And this is not a comment of specific lyrics of specific songs, but on the effect of the style of the genre.
Chant fosters a detached contemplation. Imitative or contrapuntal movement fosters rational analysis. But it seems to me that P&W music is only meant to arouse passionate emotional feelings.

This is really interesting, and I thank jclangfo for his constructive comments about how we decide whether a song is appropriate or not.

For those who only sing the antiphons from the Graduale or the Roman Missal, it's moot.

For those who only sing out of a hymnal from a Catholic publisher, it's still relevant because the publisher is supposed to have excluded songs that are inappropriate for Mass but we all know that's not the case.

For those who regularly cull songs from a mix of varied sources, including non-Catholic music, it becomes a very large consideration.

What are the standards for choosing music for Catholic liturgical worship? Yes, yes, there are the musical, liturgical and pastoral judgments. But there's no algorithm for evaluating music's appropriateness; the decision is more a practical art than a deduction.

The USCCB's doctrine committee's statement last year about doctrinal integrity in hymns was a start, but the question of appropriate public, liturgical expressions in songs goes beyond mere doctrinal integrity.

It is noteworthy that the Song of Songs is not proclaimed at Mass in the Novus Ordo except on the weekday of December 21 (optional, at that) and as an option for a first reading in a wedding liturgy.

The hymn you quote is not "Holy God, we praise thy name", but "How great thou art"

Typo corrected.

Further, the lyrics of the song "Set me as a seal", apart from the refrain, which is based on the Canticle of Canticles, doesn't even qualify as "religious":

The entirety of the lyrics to this song, including both verses, are taken from the Song of Songs. Here are the relevant passages:

Song of Songs 1:2-3A
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine.
Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.

Song of Songs 2:2
Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the young women

Song of Songs 2:14
My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.

Song of Songs 3:1-4
My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.

Song of Songs 4:9-11
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
more than any spice!
Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
milk and honey are under your tongue.
The fragrance of your garments
is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Song of Songs 5:5
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
more than any spice!
Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
milk and honey are under your tongue.
The fragrance of your garments
is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Song of Songs 8:6-7
Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy[a] unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

For those who only sing out of a hymnal from a Catholic publisher, it's still relevant because the publisher is supposed to have excluded songs that are inappropriate for Mass but we all know that's not the case.

Bhahahahaha

I would wager that MUCH of the music is inappropriate... not just some 'getaways'.

I have been told that mainstream Judaism is also cautious about the Song of Songs, and that in Orthodox Judaism quotations or extracts may not be read, only the complete text.