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More on Idol and Shout to the Lord

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With all the attention my previous post on American Idol has gotten I've decided to dedicate myself to full-time blogging about the show—all from a Christian worldview of course. I'm viewing this as a form of missionary work. I'm playing with some possible titles for the new focus of my blog. What do you think of "I Don't Worship Idol (But I do build the schedule of my week around it)", or maybe "Jesus First, Idol Second"? I'd love to hear your ideas. Of course quitting my job will be difficult, but I've already lined up monthly support from my friends Mike, Kenneth, Grant, Brian and Dave. Boys, thanks for your heart for the show and for helping to make this ministry possible.

Just in case you missed it, everything in the paragraph above is a joke. I'm afraid that my brand of humor doesn't always connect with people. For example...

One blogger seemed to think I was serious about American Idol doing a Hillsong theme. Oh, dear! No, that was totally tongue-in-cheek.

And then columnist Michael Glitz at the Huffington Post linked to my post and characterized me as an "annoyed evangelical Christian." Dude, what a mischaracterization! I wasn't annoyed, I was intrigued. Now I'm annoyed with you (grin).

Actually I found Glitz's column interesting. He's Catholic but was very unhappy about the Shout to the Lord incident for various reasons. Here's his take:

THE "JESUS" CONTROVERSY -- Confession: I fast-forwarded through Idol Gives Back because life is too short to watch telethons. I caught the kids singing "Seasons of Love" from Rent but apparently missed another finale where they sang "Shout To The Lord," an evangelical Christian tune written by Darlene Zschech and covered by Ruben Studdard. The first line of the wildly popular tune is "My Jesus, my Savior." On the telethon show, the lyrics were changed from "My Jesus" to "My Shepherd."


That's their first big mistake. If you're going to sing a gospel tune, sing it. Why change that word? Just a week earlier, at least two songs by Dolly Parton were performed that mentioned Jesus. Not surprisingly, some evangelical Christians were annoyed, debating among themselves whether it was better than nothing to hear the song with the word "Jesus" dropped and so on.

Bizarrely, they began tonight's show with all the kids singing "Shout To The Lord" AGAIN, this time reinstating the proper words "My Jesus, my Savior." Big mistake number two and in fact it really compounded the mistake they made the night before by making the song a group performance.

Thursday night was the first time I heard them perform this tune and as a practicing Catholic I was stunned, annoyed, upset for the performers and angry that this show had stumbled in such a stupid way.

Don't get me wrong: during Dolly week I suggested that some day they have a theme week devoted to songs of faith/gospel, which is practically what Inspirational Week is anyway. I love gospel music and have dozens of CDs ranging from classics by Mahalia Jackson to the soundtrack to the terrific documentary Say Amen, Somebody to the great Marion Williams and more recent artists. (Not to mention religious music from around the world and many other faiths.) I'm happy to hear individual singers perform gospel tunes, even if they do come from a more evangelical wing of Christianity than I adhere to. And of course with the kids free to choose whatever song they want, songs of faith could be anything from the spiritual "Didn't It Rain" to Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" to Jackson Browne's "The Rebel Jesus" to XTC's acerbic "Dear God." But asking all the kids to do a group sing on a born-again evangelical Christian number is wong for many reasons.

1. It's unfair to the performers who want to win- Pressuring them to sing an evangelical number is wrong. Who wants to be revealed as the Idol who refused to sing a song about Jesus? Think that might hurt their chances with Middle America? They should never have been put in that position.

2. It's unfair to the performers of conscience -- I'm a Catholic and that's a tune we would never sing in Church, though none of its lyrics are of the sort that conflict with my faith. (Though many evangelical tunes, in fact, do and entire trends in Christian music are embraced by liberal evangelicals, rejected by conservative evangelicals and vice versa.) But what about the Idols who aren't Christian? Maybe some of them are Buddhist or agnostic or Jewish or Muslim or god forbid, atheist.

3. It's offensive to the viewers -- I'm a Catholic and I was offended. I don't turn on Idol to be converted or evangelized to by the show -- and that's exactly what a group sing-along is. It's a statement by the show, not individual kids. America is the most religiously diverse country in the world (and I live in Queens, New York -- the most religiously and ethnically diverse corner of the world). That's something to celebrate and it also means respecting other faiths and people of no faith. You don't do that by hijacking Idol to make all the kids sing about Jesus. Even if each and every one of them is born again and dying to sing the praises of the Lord, you don't alienate the viewers like me -- and most Americans are not evangelicals -- who don't identity with that particular strand of Christianity.

Dropping the "Jesus" from "Shout to the Lord" was a big mistake. Making all the Idol contestants sing it together in the first place was an even bigger one. If any individual Idol wanted to sing it, fine. But a group sing-along? Wrong. What do you think?

Agree? Disagree? And what do ya'll think of this as a future Idol theme: "Cheesy Christian Songs that Might be About a Boyfriend/Girlfriend or Might be About Jesus." Lord knows they'd have a huge catalog to choose from and they wouldn't have to change any words!

[Update: please make sure to read my "Closing Thoughts" on the American Idol/Shout to the Lord saga.]

Posted by on April 11, 2008

Comments (25)

Was it a brand of humor or was it a lapse of humor? =)

I think the only remedy for this is to do a mass Latin sing-along to pull all the offended Catholic viewers back.
What do you think?

Posted by Nicole T. | April 11, 2008 8:49 AM

"lapse of humor!" Ouch!

And I like your idea about the sing-along. Very wise.

Thanks, Nicole.

Posted by Joshua Harris | April 11, 2008 8:56 AM

Thank you, Josh. We'll see whose idea they take first -- Hillsongs or Latin. Culpae poenae par esto (let the punishment fit the crime).

May the best win.

Posted by Nicole T. | April 11, 2008 9:14 AM

This is a money maker, pure and simple. Simon knows what sells and how many Christian watch the show. He said on 60 minutes the other night that he would do almost anything to make money.

Posted by Zach Nielsen | April 11, 2008 9:45 AM

I was THRILLED to see that American Idol sang that song as a group. I watched both videos of it this morning on You Tube to compare. AI kids seemed more uncomfortable in the first version where they took out the name of Jesus. They sang it with grace and conviction last night. Conviction. I do beleive that the producers asked the kids if they objected to the song, and if anyone of them would have said they did, they would have chose something else. Praise the Lord that they sang it in front of 30 million people.

Posted by Tammy | April 11, 2008 11:05 AM

Just go with my favorite title for anything idol related (both the Fox show and in other areas of life):

American Idolatry.

Posted by B. Minich | April 11, 2008 11:38 AM

Thank you Zach for mentioning the money maker aspect. Simon makes more than almost anyone in show business, and knows how to capitalize.
I haven't heard anyone mention that Wednesday night actually did not end with "Shout to the Lord", but with Ben Stiller shouting expletives in reaction to Seacrest. I think this shows the true mindset of Idol and I do not see where God was honered in that. God is given glory when truth is preached like grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ ALONE.

Posted by jeremy | April 11, 2008 2:00 PM

I don't know, maybe I'm just foolish or easily excited but I too was excited to see the song sang. I screamed to my husband- "their singing shout to the Lord"! I don't watch the elimination and didn't watch all of the show but caught the tail end. Because I do love Jesus when I heard them singing my immediate reaction was to sing and praise God. I don't do this when they sing Dolly so was happy. Thanks Josh.
-a sis in TN

Posted by Trill | April 11, 2008 2:26 PM

How about, The American Idol Delusion

Could be a whole book.

Be an AIthiest... that would be: lack of belief in American Idol, it's goodness, or that it has any benefits.

Posted by kerrin | April 11, 2008 6:22 PM

What bothered me the most was seeing a group of people, who are presumably not all Christians, singing songs to Jesus Christ insincerely. Perhaps "insincerely" is too nice a word - if they were not Christians, they were outright lying - perhaps even blaspheming the name of our Lord by speaking words of praise to someone who is not their Saviour.

To me, that was as painful to listen to as someone using the name of the Lord as a curse word.

Posted by carol | April 11, 2008 6:25 PM

Josh,

Yet again you have inspired me with your writings. I have begun to put to words this American Idol Delusion that plagued this world for so long:

The American Idol Delusion

Posted by kerrin | April 11, 2008 8:38 PM

Hey Josh,

Thanks for taking my link in the spirit of positive discussion in which it was meant. My reference to the fact that some evangelical Christains were annoyed included everyone in your community who weighed in on this post, a fair number of whom were annoyed more than "curious" about whether the composer could sue, as you were. Hey I thought that was "annoyed" too to be honest (grin). Others on Huffington have pointed out what carol said that a further reason the group sing-along was inappropriate was the simple fact that not all of them are presumably evangelical Christians and so singing that song without it coming from your heart is at the very least troubling. Thanks for weighing in without hellfire and damnation.

Posted by Michael Giltz | April 11, 2008 9:00 PM

Josh I think your humor is great and I laugh out loud while reading your stuff all the time... while I'm alone... feeling only slightly foolish. :-)

Thanks for posting... even if not quite everyone gets it all the time.

Posted by megan | April 11, 2008 9:12 PM

I think we basically need to pray. We need to pray for God's true people to have a heart of worship that will worship Him in spirit and in truth at all costs and who will bring Him glory in every area of their lives. We need to pray that we would be that people. We need to pray for those who do not yet know God (such as on American Idol, perhaps) to come to know God and Love Him and become that people. And we need to, lives laid down for the Cause, pray and ask God how we are to bring back the honoring and revering of His Name and the loving offerings of sacrifice and praise from His bride unto Him to our country, its media, its laws, its leaders, its churches, and its people.

It's quite intriguing to analyze what others are doing right or wrong, but in thinking of them at all, let us pray the best for them constantly. And for ourselves and each other and the church at large. Let's have and diligently seek to have the compassion for others and the zeal for God working and evident in our lives that Jesus revealed to us with His Life lived and laid down daily.

There is a problem in America and in the world -- God is not worshipped as He should be -- and if we are not actively fixing it we are the very problem.

Pray. Act. Actually, bring back the passion of Acts. The Power that worked within and through them should be working in us -- ask yourself: Is it?

All the Power the disciples had is available to us. Jesus is the same. The Holy Spirit is as available to us as He was to them. Come on, let's have some courage to trust and serve God as we should and let American entertainment and media and music start to worry about what we are doing and how it will affect them. Should not the Church threaten the world's foundations and standards and not the other way around? Could it be that the problem is not that non-christians are witnessed singing praises to God, but that Christians are not? Do we burst into song at the thought of Him and all that He has done for us? Do we think about Him and keep our eyes strongly fixed on Him and praise Him constantly very much like a young bride would look on her beloved Bridegroom's countenance as if unable to take her eyes off him for a moment. Have we witnessed to the unbelieving world what we hope to see witnessed from their lives and singing of songs? Could we not be the cause of the world's lack of passion and zeal for God and the Honor of His Name? For, when has what we seem to expect or demand honestly been seen in us? Do we fall to our knees in heartfelt surrender to the One True God or do we perform for the people and our insignificant "gods"? Do we worship in a way that can be questioned as a life offered on an altar before the Lord? Or do we worship in a way that can be combined with the world's "pagan" worship of false gods?

Let us pray! Let us change! Let us take this instance to heart as a saddening clue to the fact of how little the praising of God and the wholehearted honoring of His wonderful Name is witnessed in our country. Let us praise and honor Him in a way that cannot be mistaken as adoration of another and that cannot possibly confuse the world about where we stand and Who is enthroned in our hearts. Let our praise and honor of Jesus Christ resonate loud enough, strong enough, and passionate enough that all confusion and all question of false offerings will be drowned out. Let us give Him a gift this day, and every moment of every day, that will make His Heart glad. Let's sing His praises on earth as they are sung in Heaven. Let's be the loving people, the Righteous nation, God longs to see. Let's ask God to purify our hearts and transform us until all this world sees when they look at us is the One we love and all they hear is the utterance of praise and love unto Him.

Yes, let us make a sound of praise to our King that quiets all praise not unto Him and which will cause this world to turn, take notice, look Heavenward, and truly know His Heart and Character and Faithfulness in a way that bows them low before the One who alone deserves bowed heart or bended knee.

In the words of Hudson Taylor, I sum up my cry to you:
"Oh, my beloved friends, do let us be real!"

It is not a question of promoting Him as one would advertise a politician, and doing it well and wholeheartedly or not so well. It is a question of whether we bring joy to His Heart and honor to His Name, truly. And to answer that we must take into account the condition of our hearts and what our lives reflect. Does it bring joy to His Heart and honor to His Name? Please, pray with me that our hearts would be pure and that we would only reflect Jesus! Anything less is unworthy of Him and the Gift He gave to us -- that we are to witness to this world. Perhaps we have not been given such a great platform to praise Him before the people as we think we would like and would serve Him well because we have not been faithful to praise Him from the little platforms before a few or no one but Him -- the daily instances or trials or mundane chores during which the Audience of One looks on and longs for a word or song that would convey our love for Him. How many times a day and in how many situations to we say with our words or with our actions, "I love You, Jesus!" Do we say it and mean it as often as we would hope a spouse would say it to us? If we would but shine brightly whoever and wherever we are the world (and us, along with them) would not be gazing on flickers of reflections of light and wondering if it is, in fact, light or not.

"But there is a higher thought still than that of rescuing the perishing -- higher still than spreading the knowledge of God; and that is bringing joy to the heart of the Master Himself. Dear friends, when we think of Him whose form was more marred than any man's, who was crowned with the crown of thorns -- when we think of Him in the garden of Gethsemane, where His sweat was, as it were, great drops of Blood; when we think of Him that hung upon the Cross at Calvary, will you not rejoice to bring joy to Him?"
-- Hudson Taylor

Posted by Nicole T. | April 12, 2008 4:02 AM

"What bothered me the most was seeing a group of people, who are presumably not all Christians, singing songs to Jesus Christ insincerely." -caro

What about the thousands of professing Christians who are insincere in their worship week after week after week at their church services? I know I'm guilty of "going through the motions" instead of actually offering the Lord worship through song.

Don't be so quick to judge the Lost. We can't expect the unsaved to behave like the saved, to offer worship like the saved, to understand anything about Christ and what it means to worship. Am I excusing their false worship? No. But I think we Christians need to admit that we are guilty of doing the exact same thing. If you claim that you aren't, then I challenge you to talk to the Lord about your worship in song and see what He reveals to you. I'm sure there have been moments -- maybe one lyric or even one word -- when your thoughts have strayed from being focused solely on Him and you were thinking about the off-key person behind you, or you coughed and wanted a drink of water, or whatever it was that distracted you.

Stop judging the Lost and start loving them.

In the Arab world, where my brother was a missionary, you can't even tell people you are a Christian, because this is what they associate with the word Christian: drugs, greed, illicit sexual practices, indecency, immodesty, drunkenness, hypocrisy, etc.

Why?

Because America is a "Christian nation."

We American Christians have, by and large, failed our Lord when it comes to honoring the title Christian. Having a judgmental attitude toward the Lost is just another reason for the Lost to despise us and Jesus. If we started loving ALL people -- and I mean EVERYONE -- , then maybe we could radically change what the world connotes with the word Christian.

Jesus doesn't run some exclusive country club where you have to qualify for membership. He welcomes anyone who accepts Him as Lord and Savior. He just wants us. And He takes us no matter how dirty we are, because His brand of water washes away the darkest of stains.

Posted by amanda | April 12, 2008 9:56 AM

I'm sorry, but I think the fact that the Catholic writer was offended contradicts his comment about accepting diversity in each persons faith. It's that kind of thinking that is making it wrong to say "Christmas". Regardless of your religious affilliation we should all agree on freedom of religion. Freedom means that we are free to express our faith, not that we censor it. In the same way I would stand behind someone having the freedom to say "Merry Christmas" I would stand behind someone's freedom to say "Happy Hanukah" (I know the spelling is probably wrong).
I imagine that the contestants were consulted before making a decision on the song because its TV and TV is usually always politically correct. I'm sure they don't want a disgruntled former idol causing problems later.
That being said, if they had came out and sang some Jewish or Buhdist song (are there Buhdist songs?) it wouldn't have offended me. On the cotrary, I would have been happy for their freedom of speech and religion even though I don't agree with their beliefs.
As far as why they did the song again with the correct lyrics, we can speculate why, but I'd like to look at is as them making up for their mistake. There is grace in God and I am eternally grateful that when I make a mistake I can confess it and repent for it and He is just to forgive. And in the same way He has forgiven us so are we to forgive others.
As a side note (lyrics aside) I think they did a great job on the song!

God Bless,

Greg

Posted by GPValdez | April 12, 2008 2:35 PM

Did anyone else notice that the song "Shout to the Lord" simply didn't fit with the message or direction of the show? You have to wonder who or what inspired that song choice when there are so many other "songs of faith" that could have been meaningful to both the audience and the singers no matter their background. While it may be nice to hear a worship song on national television, it was a miss by a mile in my thinking.

Posted by Gary | April 12, 2008 8:52 PM

I think it's just great that His name was being praised in front of all these audiences. Doesn't matter if it's another money making scheme or another way to get more viewers, but it's the fact that people heard this powerful song, and was sang in the correct way on thursday. Moreover, people are now downloading the song, the correct version, and it is reaching to millions of other people who never would have listened or even download a Christian song if it wasn't for American Idol. I believe God uses everything and I believe he used the show to get his message about his love across. And it's incredible. It is reaching not only just in the US but internationally because this is one of the show that is being watched all across Asia as well. It's good.
About the lyrics, I don't think it's good to change it. And it doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or not, whether it is a Christian song or not, when you want to sing a song from a certain artist, you sing the song, by changing the song around is disrespectful to the artist and to the work of the artist as well. So, if they are going to sing any other Christian songs in the future, I believe they will know to stick to the lyrics.

Posted by Karen | April 13, 2008 2:14 PM

erm, for me i was more than happy
to see idols can sing that song.

for me i do not object if they sing a conservative christian song.
as long as it glorified the name of the Lord, case is close. =P

i also don't care about their motivation at all.
as i mentioned above, as long as the name of the Lord is glorified, it is good =D

at least they have glorified the name of the Lord and brought gospel to million of people who watched the show which is i never did before and i think probably Glitz never did before.

Posted by gondol | April 14, 2008 1:56 AM

Before jumping to conclusions, maybe someone should ask the question, "Did any of the idol contestants complain about singing the song?".I doubt that they did in this world of Political correctness. Everybody is always afraid that someone might be offended when it comes to the name of Jesus, but the same people don't mind jamming Mohammed, Budah,or any other false religions down anybody else throat. If you didn't like it , just get over it. You probably won't here it again for a long time.

Posted by Ed | April 14, 2008 4:43 PM

its wonderful to see them singing that song. It touches my heart. they are great

Posted by bekie | April 16, 2008 2:20 AM

Personally I question your faith man, no offense. But if you really knew your heavenly father well. You would know that he likes his name "Jesus" mentioned wherever he can get it. Whether it's in a movie or on tv. Who cares about all these silly technicalities!!!!!
Let's all be like Jesus and Mary who kept things very simple. "Iam the way the truth,and the light. No body gets to the father ,but by me." -Jesus. You see how simple that statement is??? That's all it takes. I pray that you get to know your heavenly father better,and stop being a STUMBLING BLOCK for other people with your negativity. I'm sure SATAN is cracking up at your blog. Because he was hurt by the performance like you were,and now your helping him get over it. Just speaking honestly man,I pray that you will find the truth and keep your negative comments to yourself, please and thank you. Don't bash the work that my heavenly father is doing to reach the world!!!! That's all I'm saying. Take care and God Bless.

Posted by God's Son | April 16, 2008 12:46 PM

I think that it's interesting that people who are offended with anything Christian feel like they are being converted or evangelized. Don't you think that listening to songs that promote sex, drugs, etc. are also trying to convert. No one seems to be crying out for those to be stopped. I was encouraged that more styles of music get exposure on the show because there is a lot of good music out there.

Posted by Mary Ann | April 16, 2008 3:39 PM

I think that it's interesting that people who are offended with anything Christian feel like they are being converted or evangelized. Don't you think that listening to songs that promote sex, drugs, etc. are also trying to convert. No one seems to be crying out for those to be stopped. I was encouraged that more styles of music get exposure on the show because there is a lot of good music out there.

Posted by Mary Ann | April 16, 2008 3:40 PM

There is no question that lyric changes cannot be made without prior permission from the song copyright owner or administrator. The only reason I can imagine that American Idol featured the song again on Thursday night (with correct lyrics) was due to a requirement stated in the settlement between American Idol producers and the owners of the song regarding copyright infringement. Our company, CCA (www.churchca.com), works with Christian clients (like Saddleback Church, Willow Creek, Free Chapel, Fellowship Grapevine, etc.) to help them be fully copyright compliant, and we often get requests to change lyrics. We advise our clients that they must obtain permission first, and usually copyright owners will deny lyric changes. This is a great example of why it's always best to request and obtain permission first.

Posted by Susan Fontaine Godwin | April 16, 2008 10:45 PM

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