Idol: Shout to the Lord? Wow! April 12, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, Powerful Passages, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City, Music That Moves, Culture and Faith , trackbackFor the millions that watched this week, the American Idol Gives Back show ended surprisingly with the globally popular worship song “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech.
I’m sure you’ve seen all the blog uproar over this issue. Evangelicals on a blog raised the roof with the producer’s decision to downplay its “Jesus” message by replacing the word “Jesus” with the word “Shepherd” in the first line, contending that the deletion of Jesus eliminated it from being a Christian song in its entirety. (The next night, they sang the song again — this time with the original wording.)I didn’t think too much of it when I first heard it, assuming that, as usual, the entertainment powers had cut it out — I was more surprised that Hillsong would allow it (they didn’t).
But I came across this excellent post by Josh Harris, that has several comments from entertainment insiders who are Christians and the impact this small song has on all the Hollywood types — -check it out. It changed my perspective on the matter, prompted me to pray for all those hard-working brothers and sisters in Hollywood and really challenged me about integrating my faith into the culture I am in.
Hey all you “culture and faith” folks out there, what do you think? Is this a step for Hollywood or a debacle for Christian songs? Please comment and let’s engage on this topic.
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God works in mysterious ways.
Weds night i was talking on the phone with my friend in PA about the world today and how theres such an urgency in me to show God’s love and help them find Jesus and i was telling her how sad it made me feel that so many don’t want to really here it, its like there’s a brick wall. i told her how saddened i am and how i often grieve inside over it.
she was reminding me that all i can do is my best and just keep showing His love and leave the rest to Him. while we were talking i stepped into the living room and they were singing a praise and worship song. i told her to turn to AI and listen. i thought WOW, it was awesome. then the next day i looked for the video on the web and i found a site called idolstalker. the first comment was good but then people started to criticize. i was so saddened. iv left many comments so far, and it has been pretty interesting. iv learned a lot from some of those people and about some of those people. (i haven’t told them this story yet though.)
what some of them need to realize is that God works in mysterious ways, His ways our not our ways His thoughts are higher then our thoughts. He not only uses Christians (some grouchy and critical) but also sinners to do His will.
see i was worried about reaching more people and BAM Weds and Thurs night He did, and still is from that one song. i have total faith that the Lord is at work right now touching lives through that performance
God bless Julie V
What people don’t seem to realize is that they also sang it at the BEGINNING of the show - the full version, including the word JESUS. The crazy thing is that they changed it for the finale of the show… How many people must have called the network during that 45 minutes to complain??? And how is it that Jesus is a more offensive word on American TV than Bi**h or S**t? It’s insane.
BUT, consider the fact that they sang it at all… The producers of American Idol actually made all of the contestants get up and sing about God (and Jesus). And not just at any time, but on Idol Gives Back. I think connecting giving back to Jesus, on national TV, is a GOOD thing…
ah, wait. just re-read your post. didn’t realize it was 2 different nights.
but, still!!