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Last night, my husband and I along with millions of others watched American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" program. After a lot of pomp from celebrities and heart-wrenching videos of impoverished peoples, the finale song began. I about died when I heard Ryan Secreast utter, "Now singing "Shout to the Lord," once again, your American Idols..."
My jaw hit the floor as I stood there incredulously, missing the first few words of the song. I was in disbelief that on such a huge show as that night, they were singing a praise song?!
Leave it to my husband to ask, "Did they actually say 'My Jesus, my Savior...?'" Well, we rewound it and they didn't. It was replaced with "My Shepherd, my Savior..." Jesus is called the "Good Shepherd" dozens of times in Scripture. (John 10:11, 14-16, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd").
I definitely would have preferred that they leave Jesus' name in the song, but at least they were singing "Shout to the Lord!"
There is no sweeter name than Jesus, and no such controversial name as His either. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity wrote,
"I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse."
So what do you think about "Shout to the Lord" being censored? Was all meaning of the song lost because "Jesus" was omitted, or do you think the overall message could still be accurately perceived?
Am I Overusing Bible Commentaries?
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4 comments:
I personally do not feel the meaning to have been lost if those who were singing the song were truly holding God and His Son in their hearts and seeking to bring glory to Him. If they were not, it really wouldn't have mattered which name they had used as their intention wouldn't have been to glorify God anyway. On the same line of thinking, we use the Sacred Names in our household, when praying, doing family worship, or Bible study, rather than "Jesus," "Lord," and so on, but I do not think for one instance that Christians who do not use the Scared Names are worshiping a false god, but are seeking to worship YHWH just as we are.
I'm not sure if you saw the repeat performance on the next night or not but they actually did sing Jesus. Here is the link - you can see it... http://youtube.com/watch?v=i6G0U8Vg6nY
Thanks Chelsey for the link. Hmm, why do you suppose they switched it up one night later??? Very interesting....
WOW! I didn't stick around to see the end of that show, but WOW. I'm actually a little offended, because I know some of those people didn't believe a word they said, and two of them are Mormons (Brooke and David A.). Oy.
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