Shout to the Lord & American Idol?
I just finished watching the “Idol Gives Back” special of American Idol. Overall a great show and I love the fact that something as popular as American Idol is doing something to make a difference in the world today and help so many people in need.
I was shocked at the end of the show though. They closed with the classic worship song “Shout to the Lord.” I did a double take at first. When they announced the song I was like… “did they just say, Shout to the Lord?” Sure enough. Right off the bat the first thing I noticed is they replaced the opening line of “My Jesus, my savior…” with “My shepheard, my savior.” I guess they were worried about offending some people or something like that. Even though they changed that line, there is definitely no denying the song is about God and I’m more than sure that everyone listening picked up on that.
I guess overall I think its cool that they did the song. (not that they needed my opinion =) But, I guess I am just curious as to the “why” behind the song choice. Crazy that a worship song like that gets prime-time air play on such a popular show. Were some of the producers of the show tonight believers? Is it a ploy to sell a ton of iTunes songs of the most popular worship song ever to all of the christians watching? Anyway, It just struck me as very funny and it got the wheels in my head spinning. Maybe next year they will do “The Time Has Come” by United. =)
I promise this wont turn into an American Idol blog =)
Technorati Tags: American Idol, Shout to the Lord
It’s “My Jesus” not “My shepherd”. What a terrible ending to something that was supposed to do so much good. I am stunned and upset that this song of praise and worship to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was misused. American Idol could have picked any other song. But then again, why am I surprised?
Janice, Grant County, Arkansas
Janice,
DITTO!
Please christians, be amazed that God was given honor on national TV, not that 2 words were changed, get over yourself and be grateful!! God can use anything and I cried when I heard those terrific young singers sing about my Lord!!
ya-we Christians know who the Shepherd is but many believe in a god or gods but not many believe in JESUS. Their version negates the TRUE meaning of the song and the PERSONHOOD…I am not too upset that this song was sung but still…a pagan world promoting songs? hmmmm…but then again, this opens a lot of doors for us to spread the true person in the song….
I’m sure the producers changing the word “Jesus” to “shepherd” was done so as not to offend the Jewish viewers, whom Idol wants to give to the charities also. I’m ok with that. While I’m a little disappointed that they changed the lyric to take “Jesus” out of the song, they didn’t stop Carrie Underwood from recording “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and they didn’t stop Dolly Parton from praising the Lord Jesus with her song “Jesus and Gravity.” All in all, I’m thrilled that Idol is giving exposure to Christians and the Lord Jesus. God can use this in a powerful way!
remember, there are Jews that love God too.
lol, i think Micheal Johns has heard of Darlene Zschech?
It’s really not a big deal that they said “my shepherd” instead of “my Jesus” — Jesus is referred to as the shepherd in Scripture, so what’s the big deal?
I think it’s a shame to nit-pick one tiny, little thing like that when the whole song is obviously about God…
God is not indifferent Swej………everything works together for good,
for those who love the Lord. That does not mean EVERYTHING
is good……….but that ALL THINGS work TOGETHER for good.
Remember…..everything is sacred…..you/we make the difference.
SWEJ,
God allows humans the dignity of free will, the result of which sometimes lead to suffering, this does not mean he is indifferent. Quite the contrary, as you saw the hands and feet of God working tonight in the millions of his children whom he directed to give to help these people. The creator of the universe, who chose to come to our tiny little planet and suffer and die in a humiliating way specifically to take the penalty for our poor choices using free will is anything but indifferent.
SWEJ, compassion comes from God whether or not the compassionate acknowledge that fact. And be glad for what you disparagingly perceive as God’s ‘indifference’ because if He dealt with everyone and everything as He could – bringing righteous justice to pass – YOU would not be on His good side **at this moment** with the attitude you have towards Him! Thankfully, you have the opportunity to change that as long as you are still breathing =)
as far as the show goes, it is not surprising the lyric was changed but the song WAS a pleasant surprise, no matter the intentions behind it. I believe at least 2 of the vocalists were definitely heart and soul into every word too…that would be Brooke and Jason. Hopefully more of them as well!
maybe I was a bit harsh in some things and I apologise for that but I felt you were harsh in blaming God for not fixing everything. glad you have the heart to help others, keep it that way.
I have been a big Idol fan, but now, I think I will boycott the show. If I don’t, what kind of example am I setting for my children? Its not lukewarm, it is wolves in sheeps clothing trying to dilute, devalue,re-direct focus, blasphemy……….Oprah kind of religion. I don’t think some of the contestants even thought about this…….? Its a free country,I know, but “Christ followers” must listen to the Holy Spirit when these events occur and know that this is not Christ Jesus that is beng praised. Its “whatever” God you believe in. I am very disappointed, but not surprised. If I was a Idol contestant and professed myself as a “Christ follower”, believe that Jesus is God and he is the only way to salvation through repentment, commitment, and belief……….I could have never sang the song the way they did.
There has been a ton of Christian influence this year…even the Mariah Carey song right before the end. Overall, I think it is interesting, cool, but mostly weird. If you really want to discuss something – try the Bible readers on Big Brother.
Some Christians just amaze me! A song praising the Lord was sung on national television last night and you are hung up on one word. The message still got through!
Get unstuck off of yourself and see the big picture for what it is. And who cares if they played it so we would download the song. Again, a powerful song was sung at the end of one of the most watched shows on tv and it was a praise song!
Just curious, How was it powerful to you? Who was it praising?
For me, that one word”Jesus” was “the” important word as a “Follower of Christ”. That song was written to focus on “Jesus” I will not let my Lord be diluted or ommited without speaking out. I am not telling you what to believe. You are not accountable to me and I am only accountable to my Lord Jesus. I am glad we can express ourselves freely in our society. But if you want to sing a Jewish song, Muslin song, etc……..it is your constitutional right. But the lyrics…….”My Jesus” “My Savior” “Lord there is none like You” speaks volumes and is not meant to be a “feel good unity” song.
Wow…I am really saddened to hear the anger from both Christians and non-Christians on this blog. At the end of the day, finding all of the negatives in this takes away from the good that could come out of a song like “Shout to the Lord” being played for millions to hear. Jesus once said, “those who aren’t against us are for us.” So, He will most definitely get glory from what happened on AI last night, regardless of the motivation of the producers. And, He most DEFINITELY loves you SWEJ whether you believe that or not…and He will show you that somehow.
The good that came out is that people are talking about it and not accepting what happened last night at face value. This will cause believer to choose and account for what they believe and it will hopefully encourage non-believers to seek out answers. I’m not familiar with your reference from Jesus, can you tell me what book,chapter and verse. thanks
Christine:
Jesus said:
“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5
“But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”
Philippians 1:17-19
They were definitely singing praise to God. They sung it as “My Shepard” (pointed out by others to be another name for Jesus). They also then sang “LORD, there is none like you.” No mistaken that refers to the third person of the Trinity. Those of you that wish to now boycott Idol may want to ask yourself…..why? We (Christians) must send a clear message to the producers and sponsors of Idol that we are happy with the direction of the show and encourage them to push further the envelope of Christian proclamation.
JESUS WAS SUNG TONIGHT!!! OK so what changed their mind to go back to its original lyrics? hmmm..GOD WON -so all of you who think it doesn’t matter whether or not JESUS in the song is obliterated-well it does…
I’m glad they sung Jesus tonight instead, but saying shepherd was still effective. May I remind you that Jesus called Himself the “GOOD SHEPHERD”. There is no pleasing some people. Praise God they had the courage to even put the song in the show. They have completely turned off their non-Christian fans and can please some within Christianity. God has won already, in fact it’s a philosophical category mistake to say God won. Who is God competing with? Saying God won implies that God could have lost. It’s like saying a tree heart bleed. If God can win then He wouldn’t be God.
Many Christian artists have written many Christian songs, even worship songs, that omit the name of Jesus, or Yahweh, or Jehovah. They substitute a generic “You” for His name and assume that capitalizing the letter Y makes it special. I call these kinds of songs “Jesus is my girlfriend” music — taken out of a “Christian” context, they could be any secular love song.
“Shout to the Lord” suffered no such lack of meaning by having the word Jesus switched for Shepherd. In any context, this is a great worship song.
So it is very hypocritical for some in the Christian community to raise a stink over this one-word change. For that matter, if “Shout to the Lord” had originally been written with “shepherd” instead of “Jesus,” wouldn’t it still have been a great song? Wouldn’t we still have been singing it with thankful hearts? Wouldn’t it, in fact, still have proclaimed truth?
I am grateful that whatever is going on inside American Idol, they praised the Lord last night. And rest assured that every singer and producer knew exactly Whose Name they edited out. So how about some humility, y’all.
Cash, cash, cash! Christian people give to charity.
EIG: Who and How am I judging? When one disagrees…….then they are judging. When one agrees or tolerates…….then they are
compromising and cooperative. What if i would say “Your being defensive………why? Would that be fair? Would this empty exchange mean anything? As a christian, I know that I need Christ
Jesus daily, hourly, because I am flawed and a sinner. Being a Christ follower doesn’t mean I have all the answers(none actually without biblical reference), but that He does.. Does this make me weak………no……it strengthens and encourages me and makes me want to do good things for his Kingdom……and part of that is taking a stand for Him. BTW: In this country, we have no clue what it is to experience real persecution.
Question: So why did the put Jesus back in……..Praise God
pgb-here’s my reply to your recent comment: We Christians know who we are singing to or worshipping to when we sing praises…but a pagan world that believe in every religion–and every god-they need to understand that we stand firm in the JESUS who is the GOD of the universe-THE ONLY GOD. Humans cannot make GOD who they want HIM to be. “JESUS” in the song speaks VOLUME-because many may profess to be “shepherds” or even “Christs” but JESUS speaks POWER to the song.
Well… I dunno about you.. but the fact that the AI Eight sang so passionately, and with soooo much Spirt BOTH nights is nothing short of AWESOME! I was blessed both nights, and I wish all the negativity would stop! People HE showed up both nights!! HE was praised both nights!!!
The negative stuff (stiller and AI decision to air that crud) will be forgotten… but I think clips of that song will be around for quite some time.
I just wanna say that I am really thankful to the producers of AI for two amazing nights.
This whole dialogue is kind of sad. It’s actually pretty upsetting that people, Christians, are spending so much time debating whether or not it was a good thing to air a Christian song on TV while there are people starving out there. We’ve missed the whole point. The song was meant to inspire people to serve, not argue. And Christians, of all people, should be uniting to meet the needs of the poor, instead of battling each other with harsh words over song lyrics.
Just thoughts from another person who loves Jesus.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Well said.