(Ir)religiosity

theology | philosophy | culture

American Idol Shouts to the Lord

with 11 comments

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I hate American Idol. I hate the show. I hate the concept and I hate the ethos. I don’t even like recognizing it with a post, but, then this happened last night. Just plain weird. It irks me. What do you think?

Written by Blake Huggins

April 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

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  • http://www.jakebouma.com Jake Bouma

    I caught wind of this yesterday, but hadn’t seen it. Apparently you can say “Lord” but not “Jesus”… huh.

  • http://mudpuppy.wordpress.com Mud Puppy

    I blogged about it here, and left comments over here.

  • http://www.mindfulmission.com dave

    strange. really strange.

    i actually DO watch the show, but didn’t watch it last night.

    but seriously… this is the strangest strong choice of american idol history.

    i don’t get it.

  • http://blog.hackingchristianity.net Jeremy

    It irks me too. On the GBOD’s Ruach mailing list for church leaders and musicians, we talked about the defining line between worship and performance.

    One comment that was made was this: “Whoever is leading the
    worship also has to be worshiping.”

    So, this was a performance of a worship song, not worship itself.
    - It was written as a worship song.
    - It is supposed to be performed as a worship song.
    - But it is only worship if the worship leader IS worshipping too. And I guarantee the Idol contestants were not worshipping.

    So, it was a performance of a worship song, and if individuals were able to worship during the song, great.

    But it’s the performance aspect of a worship song that irks me a bit.

  • http://mudpuppy.wordpress.com Mud Puppy

    ps. Why aren’t we linking to each other? I’ve just fixed my end… :)

  • http://www.blakehuggins.com blake

    @mud puppy. done! :)

  • http://www.blakehuggins.com blake

    @jeremy. i ‘ve got a good mind to blacklist your comment after that twitter stunt yesterday. :)

    you’re right on. that worship/performance thing has really bothered me over the last few year, so much so that i have a pretty negative view of the “contemporary praise and worship” thing. it just seems really individualistic, shallow and even superficial. i know that’s a gross generalization, but i guess it’s just a personal thing. the sad part is, i think that i continue to lead a “contemporary worship” service on a weekly basis.

  • http://blog.hackingchristianity.net Jeremy

    @blake. Glad you are a man of grace and not going to ban me. In compensation, here’s a video for you (no, really, it is amazing)

    I call most P&W songs “sex with Jesus” songs. Bet you’ll never sing “In the secret” the same way again!

  • http://www.blakehuggins.com blake

    @jeremy. well just know that unlike god, my grace is very limited. that’s just how i roll.

    yeah, i “retired” that song a long time ago. “i want to know you more.” seriously. are you kidding me? geez.

  • http://blog.hackingchristianity.net Jeremy!

    One more thought on this: ETR has a blog post up on “Are Worship Leaders Performers?” Check it out.

  • http://churchethos.wordpress.com ChurchETHOS

    what's with the swaying and fake sincerity?