Pout to the Lord
A few days ago a reader asked my opinion on the recent controversy surrounding American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" program, specifically the big ending when the finalists sang the popular worship song "Shout to the Lord" amidst showers of confetti and sometimes-on-key emoting. The kerfluffle stems from the show's decision to replace "My Jesus, my Savior" with "My Shepherd, my Savior" in the first line of the song. Christians predictably reacted with outrage and Idol used the correct lyrics in its reprise of the song the next night.
I actually haven't watched AI in years, so I didn't hear about this until it hit the blogosphere the next day. After watching the videos and reading the news blurbs, my overall take is the Christians bellyaching about the word choice are missing the broader point. Yes, it is ironic a show called American Idol removed Jesus, the one permissible "idol," from the show. But replacing Jesus' name makes the song more palatable to a much broader demographic, and American Idol is in the business of making money, not promoting Christianity. Given the total God focus of the song, I'm surprised they used it at all. So instead of focusing on the cut of one word, can't we remember all the other great lyrics that remained in?
We modify "secular" culture to fit Christian ends all the time. (I especially enjoy the John 3:16 poker chips with the reminder, "Don't gamble with eternity.") So they did it back. So it involved really ugly white outfits and a lot of confetti. People still heard words like Savior, and wanted more--that performance was downloaded more than any other that night.
I doubt the elimination of Jesus' name from the song will keep anyone searching for Truth from finding Him; after all, He is a shepherd, constantly looking for his lost sheep and drawing them back home. Rather than feeling annoyed about Idol's slight change, let's celebrate the possibilities they created for our shepherd, our savior to reach more people.
posted by Jen @ 4:51 PM
10 Comments:
AMEN, SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When the self-appointed "culturally elite" deliberately stifle/scilence Christological content, it is not a harmless accident! If Jesus is not the Lord referred to in the song, then it could be Caesar, Krishna or "he who must not be named" of Potter fame! Jesus MUST always be above culture and never subsumed beneath it! PTL msg
I loved the title to your post, "Pout to the Lord." You're right. I never expected the show to promote such a spiritual song in the first place (although many contestants choose spiritual songs from time to time). It was good to hear it, despite the change in one word in the lyrics. I would have liked to have heard Jesus' name, but it was better than I would have ever expected anyway.
Let the song keep its original lyrics and content. Don't dub any other word and compromise the name of "Jesus." What is next- replacing the word "Jesus" with "shepherd" in the Bible.
To jump from producers tinkering with lyrics in Hollywood to Christians rewriting the Bible--that's kind of a leap, don't you think?
It's a huge leap....and let's be honest, isn't this kind of reaction why a so many people dismiss christians as religious extremists. Instead of the story being about the song being watched by millions of people, we (some) are up in arms that they replaced Jesus with Shepherd. Minus some of the "pitchy" moments, I was moved and totally astounded that they even considered performing the song. Maybe we would have been happier if the left God out of it all together and sang "We are the World". Kudos to Idol for raising so much money to help those Christ has called US to reach...we were too busy being angry at you for a lyric change to get up off the couch and take out our wallets.
Thanks Jen for addressing this. I'm always curious to know what your spin is on different events.
-Jill
One of the wise sayings I heard growing up: "Don't expect regenerate behavior from unregenerate people." Jason, Marcia, and Kaitlin have a very valid point; this kind of over-reaction gives Christ-followers a bad name as Bible-thumping extremists.
Thanks guys. I am an atheist. Your comments verified that you can't stand up for biblical truth. Compromise begins the process of unbelief.
We're not compromising our beliefs--we're just not expecting the producers of American Idol to share them. Thanks for writing and reading, Tim.
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