Missing the point

I'll try to keep this short, I've been posting a lot this week and don't want to wear out my readers.

I was browsing headlines yesterday and ran across an article that discussed some concern being expressed about American Idol contestant Chris Sligh straying from his Christian roots.

Chris Sligh is the contestant with the "curly mop" - if you watch the show you know who I'm talking about. In one of the early weeks of the show he sang "We All Want To Be Loved" (recorded by DC Talk), which I recognized at the time as a Christian tune - though the lyrics aren't so overtly Christian as to make those who aren't interested in that type of music uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I kind of figured at that point he was a Christian, but didn't look into it. And for the record, that was the only time I've actually seen a contestant on that show sing a Christian song and Simon not tell them that it was too "indulgent" for him (I think that's Simon code for don't bring your faith in here, but I could be wrong, I've heard him use that phrase in other situations).

Since then American Idol has started determining the theme of the music the contestants sing - and so far they haven't had "Contemporary Christian Night". The beef that the article is getting at is some public comments made by a spokesman at Bob Jones University (I'll leave that alone) - where Chris spent part of his college years - that they (the University) think he has sold out by singing secular music.

Contrast that with the comments others in the article make about Chris' faith coming through in his music and in his life in general. From what I can tell, there's no real indication that Chris has left his faith behind, the good folks at Bob Jones just seem to be missing the point. I'm not sure it would go over terribly well for Chris to just pick a random FFH song each week regardless of what the theme was.

While there are a lot of problems with a lot of secular music out there, the simple fact that Chris is singing things not recorded on a Christian label doesn't mean he's ditched his relationship with Christ. From what I've seen, the secular songs he has chosen have been very, very tasteful. I hope that he continues to make good choices and doesn't allow anyone to pressure him to sing things that are vulgar or in opposition to the beliefs he professes. I do think it's unfortuneate that he's getting negative publicity from people that should be cheering him on.

Sometimes fellow Christians rub me the wrong way when they decide to be so narrow that they start creating Christian bunkers and silos. You're either in or out and if you're out you're not coming in. Wait guys, I think Jesus said in the world, not of it and something about go make disciples, so hunkering down and shutting ourselves off from everything outside the walls of the church is not going to work. I'm all for Christian music, but we need Christians in all walks of life and that includes the secular music world (as well as in Hollywood, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and every other place or industry we'd like to write off as inherently of the devil).

[Stepping off my soapbox now.]