‘[This year's 'Idol'] shows that a Christian singer can have artistic integrity,’ says ‘Gospel Soundcheck’ columnist.
Every week, tens of millions of Americans tune in religiously to “American Idol” to watch the trials and tribulations of their favorite singers.
This season, though, a large number of those faithful viewers have more than a casual pop-culture interest in the show: They’re Christians who are also watching because more than half of this year’s crop of finalists — including Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver, Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre, Matt Giraud and Lil Rounds — either have a strong affiliation with the church or are worship leaders in their communities.
“I think that Christians probably watch the show all the time but maybe don’t admit it. But this gives them someone to root for in this cast who is not just talented but also follows their faith, and people want to get behind contestants who align with their views,” said Joanne Brokaw, who writes the Gospel Soundcheck” column for the spirituality Web site BeliefNet.com. “Christian music has always had this cheesy label attached to it, and this shows that a Christian singer can have artistic integrity and they are people who can really sing.”
Brokaw, a freelance writer who contributes to a number of Christian media outlets, began live-blogging “Idol” this year for BeliefNet, and she said the show’s inclusion of such worship leaders as front-runner Gokey and Texas roughneck Sarver piqued her interest early on. “I think someone like Danny Gokey allows mainstream audiences to see that Christian music is not scary,” she said. “He’s not preachy. And the story of how he lost his wife is so heartbreaking, but you can see there is a joy in his performance that speaks to people. He doesn’t have to talk about God for people to see that he’s a Christian and see past the stereotype.”
According to Brokaw’s research, at least six of the remaining top 11 contenders have ties to the church. Among them are Gokey, who she said ran two services in two different cities every Sunday for Faith Builders International until his wife’s death; worship leaders Sarver and Allen; gospel-quartet member and churchgoer MacIntrye; Giraud, who has released two Christian CDs; and Rounds, who has said she “grew up in church.”
At press time, a spokesperson for “Idol” had not responded to requests for comment for this story.
When Jordin Sparks won the competition two years ago, Brokaw said Christians took notice because of her strong faith and her background in gospel and Christian music. She followed in the footsteps of other avowed Christians Chris Daughtry, who has gained a strong following thanks to his spiritually inclined lyrics, and first-season singer RJ Helton, who represented early on in the show’s run but reportedly quit singing inspirational music after coming out as a gay man.
The show also built what Brokaw thought was an overt bridge to its Christian audience last season when the top eight sang the evangelical Christian tune “Shout to the Lord” during the charity fundraiser “Idol Gives Back”; the song was covered by season-two winner Ruben Studdard on his 2004 gospel album, I Need an Angel.
“Even if contestants don’t come out and say it, we can all spot someone [who is Christian]. The more that there are contestants that we can connect with — who we can say, ‘That person is like me’ — the more it will probably help drive viewership this year,” Brokaw said, pointing to a moment on Tuesday’s performance show when the judges praised Allen for helping other contestants work on their songs, which Brokaw said brought a knowing nod from Christians who know of his church background.
Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver, Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre, Matt Giraud or Lil Rounds should win and produce some great christian music.
this really makes me soo made. I think alot, not all but alot, of Christians are hypocritical!its like who says you gotta believe in Jesus or I can’t vote for you! Christians are supposed to love and accept all and forgive although they judge ppl who are gay, abortion, gay marriage, men are better than women apparently …ect. I absolutely hate ppl who are like that.First of all, i respect all Christians, but I think Science has more than proved what the truth is as far as how we got here. I 100% believe in science, plus why does it matter, oh he’s gay now, he cannot sing gospel or inspirational music..LOVE IS LOVE! period. LOVE ALL RESPECT ALL, it doesn’t matter to me what you believe in witches, or prophets, or whatever, if I’m watching a show to vote for a great entertainer, it doesn’t matter to me!
I completely agree with Michelle. I grew up Catholic, but have since become disillusioned with organized religion in general. I still hold basic Christian beliefs, but don’t go to church b/c I personally don’t get anything out of it. I think a lot of is horrendously hypocritical. I know plenty of “Christians” who are not very nice people, and “non-Christians” who are fantastic human beings (of course, this works both ways, though). Just because I don’t go to church, am I a bad person? I mean, if it works for you personally, I don’t have a problem with it. It just doesn’t work for me. I would never vote or not vote for someone based on religious beliefs. It just doesn’t enter the equation for me.
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Tatiana is a Christian…
It’s probably true, that if there are equally talented contestants, I will vote for the one who share the same religion with me. But I don’t think I would have contestants whom I equally like. So, it’s likely won’t happen.
If there are contestants whom I think equally talented, I will based my judgement on their looks first before their religion. =p
I am a non-Christian and would hope that viewers are open-minded enough to vote for the best SINGER, not the most religious one. There is certainly a place for Christian rock, and some former Idol singers are pursuing that, like Chris Sligh. And then you have Archuleta, who is a Mormon but sings popular music. I hope someone like Adam doesn’t lose because he is not (as far as I know) a church goer.
I am a Christian. But I don’t vote for whether somebody is a Christian. I vote for who I think is the best. Kris and Megan are my favorites as of now because I like their styles of music.
I’m a Christian. If you are going to vote for someone to win because of religion that is the reason why most Christians are fundamentalists. Sexuality and religion have nothing to do with whether someone is a better singer/performer. If I chose someone because of their religion then I might as well choose someone because of their sexuality to hell with their singing. Stupid huh. Even if their singing/performance are equal you will always choose your favorite. I choose Adam not because of his sexuality because he is a star with the X Factor. Christians will most likely go for the safe choice because they think their morals are better when they are the most judgmental and morally corrupt group of people.
I’m an atheist. And I don’t care what religion someone is who is on AI. However, to say that only the christian contestants are “religious” is a bit disconcerting. I believe Adam is Jewish and Anoop is Hindu, we have no clue if the are “religious”.
I’d also like to add. On a Christian forum I’m on most are for Adam.
I am a Christian and it does not really affect by voting unless they are like Marylin Manson and are evil. But the reason I don’t like Adam is because he is AWFUL. I can make Alligator wrestling more musical. I don’t know what Michelle is talking about how we hate gays when we just think it is a sinful lifestyle. And I think men and women are equal and abortion is the murder of children because the mother is irresponsible. And Science does not prove evolution, in fact every scientist was a Christian until Darwin who eventually admitted he was wrong.
Applesauce,I live in the south, its a very huge thing if you are not baptist, so if you were to say you were gay or something down here, most likely you would not be treated fairly, and lot of people down in my area who are Christians are judgmental towards those controversial topics I wrote. It’s a smaller town and ppl tend to be very close minded and conservative. I agree some Christians may be accepting and open minded, but not many that I’ve met. And, I actually believe in the big bang theory.
here’s a few scientists that were nonchristians;
Fred Hoyle was an atheist
astrophysicist George Greensteen
Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist)
I never said all Christians are that, just alot that I know, but all Christians are not perfect either, (BTK killer claimed to be one) I do not judge people on what they believe, it just does not matter to me. As long as you are not a pycho killer lol or whatever then it shouldn’t matter because everyone should be entitled to do or believe whatever they desire.
Michelle I am completely opened minded and recently finished my collegiate career where I spent copious ammounts of time studying philosophy and physics at an extremely liberal college. I agree that there have been and currently are large amounts of athiestic thinkers in our society and throughout history but while earlier on you stated that you believed in the big bang I just thought that I might point out to you that Einstein was a beliver (for the most part) in intelligent design(he was jewish by the way) but not for the reason that he was brought up on that way of life but because he believed that he could date the begining of earth’s time through this method:
if you agree that science is correct then you must believe that the universe is ever expanding…Einstein was able to gage that expansion and taking the rate of expansion of the universe and plugging it into a formula he found that he could only go back so far before the only amount he could go further back was to divide by zero and as a scientist he knew that he could not divide by zero and after consulting with many of his other collegues he concluded that the only way that the universe was compiled was by intelligent design… as another physicist said the odds of a “Big Bang” occuring and throwing together a cohesive design that has sustained life for thousands of years, that was exactly the right distance from the sun to where if it had moved on degree in either direction the earth would no longer be able to sustain life, would not even be as good as if one were to take and fill the grand canyon full of black marbles and put one red marble in and then an individual blindfolded pulling out the red ball even 1 out of 1,000,000 times.”
I don’t buy everything I am told but one thing I try to live by is that I don’t judge because I myself have my own shortcomings I don’t assume that because someone is a christian that they are automatically inclined to judge me. I also don’t believe that one can truly be a christian until they can unconditionaly love humankind with all of their shortcomings gay or not murderer or not abortionist or not. Christians may be hypocrits in many areas but it is because they are humans too and for you to judge them simply because they are imperfect is just as wrong on you because you are implying that you don’t do that either.
Like to correct one thing Michelle wrote: “all Christians are not perfect either”
In reality, NO Christians are perfect, and the ones who are truly judgemental are likely not Christians in reality, that is, in their hearts.
Remember, just because you stand in a garage or driveway… doesn’t mean you’re a car
Blessings from the “ungodly” Northeast…. yes, I’m a Christian.
I appreciate non Christian artists for their talent, but also when they demonstrate integrity and humility. I just found this article interesting since, other than Danny, I had no idea about the background of any of the contestants… interestingly Matt G, and Michael S are 2 of my favs from the start.
I don’t understand how anyone can say they 100% believe in science, especially when they aren’t a scientist. One thing everyone should realize about science is that it is constantly evolving and changing. I would wager that many of our current perceptions from science will probably be erased. I have heard many people express views that Christians just follow their faith blindly, when so many follow scientists with the same blindness! To trust in what someone says, you have to investigate it yourself; beyond high school classes, beyond wikipedia, beyond some blog on the web. If any question is of real importance, it is worth putting in the effort so you are able to answer it yourself.
Michelle–
I was reading through everyones comments, and I am just curious when you said: “As long as you are not a pycho killer lol or whatever then it shouldn’t matter because everyone should be entitled to do or believe whatever they desire.”
Well who what makes it wrong for me to go kill someone or be a “pycho killer” if thats what I believe and desire after? Who deicdes that for *that* to be wrong? Just curious your thoughts and where you draw the line. If I have the desire to take a pot of boiling water and want to dump it on my brothers head because I am mad at him, is that wrong? What makes it wrong? After all, that is what I wanted to do…Let me know, Michelle…thanks.
I somehow stumbled on this article and found it a bit upsetting. As a Jewish person I have become increasingly upset by the idea that being “a good Christian” somehow makes you better than someone who is say a “a good Jew” or “a good Muslim” or “a good Hindu”. . . We should each be ‘assessed’ as the humans we are — how we treat others and our contributions to family, friends, the world — not by the faith we follow (or don’t follow). And when it comes to entertainment, I would home someone’s religious affiliation wouldn’t play any part in who you like/don’t like. To favor a particular artist because you enjoy their personality as well as their singing — fine. But to favor a particular artist because they have the same religious views as you seems rather narrow-minded and even elitist to me. I’ve been put down, dismissed, and worse, because I am not a Christian, sometimes in ways that feels so intolerant and ugly. Please, let’s all try to value one another based on our shared humanity, rather than on our religious beliefs. May the best singer/entertainer win. . .
I am a Christian and a musician. I find AI to be a little too commercial at times and definitely fickle. One night a contestant is told to “make the song yours” or to “be yourself”. The next night, following the judges’ advice, they do just that, and are told that the song is boring, not what they are looking for, etc. Or they are told to take risks, etc., only to be criticized for dressing too wildly. The contestants are encouraged to sing like Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, etc., but are later criticized for being a “wannabe”. The advantage of being a person of Faith, to me, is to know that God does not judge us for having a bad night or wearing the wrong hairstyle or outfit. If we sing or perform to please Him, we will never be a “loser”. I admire the Christians (and ALL contestants) who “take their head out of the sand” and take the risk of being “out there”. The calibre of talent and level of commitment of each of these contestants is awesome!!!
Michelle, RJ choose to leave the gospel music industry oh his own. If you are truly accepting of everyone(esp Christian) then you would accept their life manual (The Bible) which by the way does not contradict the science you 100% believe. If what the Bible declares as sin bothers then don’t be a Christian and taint the name of Christ. We will find out the truth in the end. We have a choice to make.
Just like you would be excited to route for contestants from NOrth Carolina if you were from NOrth Carolina, Christians are entitled to route for those who share their faith. it’s about what you have in common.