T-Wax reports:
Last night, at the end of the American Idol charity special “Idol Gives Back,” the Top 8 Finalists closed the show by singing “Shout to the Lord.”What are we to make of this?
Why did they change “my Jesus” to “my Shepherd” at the beginning of the song, especially when other artists had no qualms about singing songs that explicitly mentioned Jesus?
Has “Shout to the Lord” arrived in the collective consciousness of our civil religion, much like “Amazing Grace” and other well-known hymns?
Are there Christians behind the scenes of American Idol who are promoting Christian songs?
What does it say to see Christians singing this song together with a Mormon as one of the contestants?
Let the discussion begin!
10 comments:
Hmmmm.
I'd say the last thing that a Christian should do about all those people singing that song, is complain. God draws all men unto Himself and the road that leads to Him is longer for some than it is for others. The worst think you can do to a soul reaching for Him is to slap his hand every time he reaches because he/she isn't able to keep up with us. Rather, we should work beside them, like a gentle an kind teacher, and show them, through love, who the Truth is and how He Loves perfectly and without condition.
The world has grown weary of hyper-critical self-righteous pompous stuck-up judgemental Christians. The Samaritan story is just as poignant as it was when it was told 2000 years ago. However, the smack in the face is less felt since we are not Jews and we don't think of Samaritan as filthy sinners, unfit for the temple.
Substitute the "Good Samaritan" with the "the Good Morman" or the "Good Seeker" and then you've got the proper impact. If it pisses you off, then the words of Jesus have hit the mark they were meant to hit.
No one ever comes to Christ staring down the barrel of a Christian's accusatory index finger.
Take this all with a grain of salt, but I'm am definitely not that stoked about this.
I wonder if Darlene Zschech gave them permission to take Jesus out of her song. That would be a tough decision to make, because you have to way the fact that many people will be seeking out the original song and hearing the name of Jesus.
Dude...I can't believe that I spelled "weigh" as "way." I am so fired.
I think at first, I was a little miffed. In a 'how dare they just use Jesus when it's convenient for them' kind of way. But then I thought of Paul saying to the Philippians, 'What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.'
So, I guess I rejoice with Paul : )
Seth,
Do you think it is God-glorifying to have non-Christians singing a song that was, as written, orginally about God (the one, true God, incarnated in Jesus Christ), but which now, stripped of its Christian content, could be applied to a generic, false "god"?Jesus says clearly that if you don't honor Him, you also don't honor the Father who sent Him-- which means that you don't love Him, but rather, hate Him (John 5:23). Stripping this song of Christian content is an act of *hating* Christ-- no more, no less.
Concerning your statement about souls "reaching out" for God, where the Bible really portray non-Christians as even being in a position of neutrality towards Him, much less, *seeking* after Him? Jesus Himself claims there is no neutrality when it comes to God (one is either for Him or against Him, as shown by one's attitude toward Christ), and Paul explicitly states that no one actually seeks after God (Matthew 12:30 and Romans 3:9-11, respectively). One either knows the true God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, or one hates this true God. I realize that this sounds harsh, but it is simply Jesus's and Paul's testimony in Scripture about non-Christians. They are not neutral in relation to God, and they are not seeking after Him, *until* He first seeks them.
In that light, why should it not bother us when a Christian song is stripped of Christian content, and then willingly sung by people who may even hate the true God? Yes, we are to love non-Christians, because God graciously set His love upon us when we were His enemies. We didn't deserve His love, but He showed it to us anyway. We should love others in the same way, including non-Christians. However, it should also upset us when God is dishonored, because He is worthy of all honor and praise. To take Christ out of a Christian song dishonors Christ and the Father who sent Him.
It's not a matter of Christians being "self-righteous," because our righteousness is from Christ, not ourselves, and we didn't come to have this righteousness because we are "better" than anyone else. It is all of God's grace and mercy-- and when God is dishonored, as He was on American Idol, it hurts and upsets those who love Him.
I would have to mostly second christopher lake. Not so much just because of the "Shepherd" vs. "Jesus" switch, per se, but more because of the fact that if it was comfortable for a Mormon to sing this, then which "lord", if any are they singing too? Furthermore, coming from a show with the word "Idol" as the second word in its title, being sung by a bunch of idol wanna-bees, I'll bet those words hit a glass ceiling about 3 inches above their heads.
When they sang "mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your Name" I thought "Your Name... which we won't specifically mention on tv in case it offends somebody."
"Are there Christians behind the scenes of American Idol who are promoting Christian songs?
What does it say to see Christians singing this song together with a Mormon as one of the contestants?"
Perhaps they just saw it as a nice arrangement, nice opportunity to show off a large swath of vocal talent. The strip "Jesus", and suddenly it's a secular gospel song. Not gospel "good news"...but gospel "money-making music genre".
The following night they sang the song again and used all of the original words.
The following night they sang the same song and they used all of the original lyrics. Just thought you all would want to know.
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