“Shout to the Lord” and American Idol
Alright, I admit it… I’m hooked on American Idol and have been since its inception. Shout to the Lord, a contemporary Christian worship song was performed by the current Idol contestants on the “Idol Gives Back” show and then the following night on the Idol results show this past week. I, like many others, was quite surprised to hear this song being performed. Initially, my response was, “Wow! How awesome that American Idol is performing a worship song!”. The quickly following, much more ambivalent response was, “Look at these performers, not all of whom are Christians, singing a worship song filled with beautiful words of praise and adoration to a God who means little to them.”
It appears I was not the only conflicted individual watcing the show. Some have praised the show for the performance, others have criticized the performance of a Christian praise song by non-Christians on a secular show. Josh Harris provides some commentary, opinion, and inside scoop on the performance of the song here. Among the comments are these provided by Beverly, a Christian inside Fox network:
I work on one of the “sister shows” of American Idol…so picture an office, with all of the producers, crew, etc. gathered in watching the live feed at our CBS offices, then this song comes on…an office filled with a few Christians….atheists and agnostic Jews. You could hear a pin drop….it was awesome…..the power that came through….nothing had to be said…no debates….just people being touched more than they realized…producers, writers…crew that had never darkened a church door in their lives, or their only experience with Christians was a negative one. You don’t always see the workings of us Christians that are behind the scenes…you don’t know how much prayer went into getting a song with that message on a, let us not forget, a SECULAR show. So, from someone behind the scenes, the best thing you can do is write to the producer of Am. Idol and simply state how much you appreciate the diversity they showed in having an very inspirational song in their program. Period. No criticizing. This will go farther than you realize. Also, pray, pray, pray for us Christians that have chosen Hollywood as our vocation, career and our mission field.
Here is a Youtube video of the song as presented on the Idol Gives Back Show (in which, by the way, another word was substituted for “Jesus.” “Jesus” was restored for the following performance.)