BY THEIR OWN WORDS
(They condemn themselves)
“Thou art SNARED with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth” (Prov. 6:2).
AMY GRANT
“I want to play hardball in this business. I want to be on the same level professionally with performers in all areas of music. I love to hear Billy Joel, Kenny Loggins, and the Doobie Brothers. Why not? I aim to bridge the gap between Christian and pop.” (Time Mar/85)
“Grant’s also pragmatic about her career. Regarding her album covers and publicity photos, which portray her as a sexy, attractive young woman. The Christian pop star says,’ I’m trying to look sexy to sell a record. But what is sexy? To me it’s never been taking my shirt off or sticking my tongue out. I feel that a Christian young woman in the eighties is very sexual’…..’When he {Prince} started humping the stage, I got a little embarrassed’, says the twenty-four-year-old Grant, sitting in the bright sunlight near the swimming pool at her Universal City hotel. ‘I quit looking. When he thrust his crotch up into the florescent shower,’she continues in her Southern drawl, ‘I thought if someone wants to do this at home, fine. If I want to do this at home, fine. I don’t want to watch Prince doing it. I didn’t get off watching him create the illusion of masturbating'” (Rolling Stone – June 1985)
STRYPER
“The hair is long and the screams are loud’n’clear. The clothes are tight, earrings dangling from their ears. No matter how we look, we’ll always praise His name. And, if you believe, you’ve got to do
the same.” (Stryper from Loud’n’Clear) “If you had to guess their name, you might think of the Devil’s Disciples or the Beelzebubs. Or perhaps the Killer Bees, which is what the four young men on stage look like in their tight leather-and spandex costumes crisscrossed with garish black and yellow stripes. Piles of makeup, spikey hair, and enough dangling chains to tie up half the elephants in Africa complete the picture of the up-to-date heavy metal rock group. Even the music, the sound of a swarm of angry insects electronically amplified several thousand times, fits the image.” (Time Mar/85)
REZ BAND
“A new album, Between Heaven’N’Hell (their eighth), recently hit the streets, and with it, Rez begins its campaign aimed at winning over the secular mainstream rock audience….Rez has made a number of other moves designed to facilitate their transition to the secular market. They’ve pacted with a New York-based management/marketing firm on a four-month trial basis. They have signed with the venerable Diversified Management Agency (DMA) out of Detroit who will be handling concert bookings. (Other heavy DMA clients include the Scorpions, Quiet Riot, and Autograph.)…In order to do that, Rez is all too aware, they’re going to have to ‘play by certain rules,’ as Herrin puts it. They’ve already stopped the practice of altar calls in concert, and they’re toning down overt references to the Lord. In general, they want to present themselves, first and foremost, as a rock band.” (Contempory Christian Magazine – April 1986).
MICHAEL W. SMITH
“The people coming into the concerts are ready to rock. They come out and want to have a good time. Some people need to get out there and preach to them. Ask them for a decision at the end, but that’s not my calling. The kids I see are just ready to kick it out and have fun.” (CCM June 1986)
STEVE TAYLOR
“I appeared on the Dove Awards last year and I still feel uncomfortable about it. I really don’t belong there because I’m not really part of that Gospel mainstream. Sure, I’m a Christian and that
influences the way I write songs but that’s just being honest, everybody pushes a point of view.” (CCM Feb 1986).
LEON PATILLO
“I’m going to make a stand. I’m going to do something different. I’m going to let the world stand up and say, ‘Wow, man, did you see that guy?’ And it’s going to be a perfect setup. As soon as they’ve got their mouths open or their hearts open and they’re going ‘Wow’, I’m gonna throw Jesus right down their throats.” (CCM Oct. 1985).
MYLON LeFEVRE
“Our music is rock and roll. We don’t even tell anybody it’s contemporary Christian music…We are a rock’n’roll band. We sound like one, we look like one, and at the end of the night we smell like
one….Its a rock’n’roll show that is a ministry. You can’t separate the two. Rock’n’roll is what I do. I put on a good show. I entertain those people, I have a good time with them…….One of the things
Mylon may be referring to is a new album due out soon from CBS. He and the band are going by the name, Look Up. ‘It’s a Christian album, but you really have to know the Word to know it. CBS ain’t gonna know it. Every song on there – every note on there – is played by born- again, Spirit-filled Christians. We had a good time making the record. It’s an anointed record and it’s got a good message, but it’s very shallow. We really avoided certain words and phrases, you know. It’s just about themes.” (CCM Mar 1986)
STRYKEN
“‘A lot of intelligent guys out there are real headbangers. They love metal, but they’ve had enough. They’re tired of hearing every sleazy metal band from Anaheim to Zimbabwe brag about how much they drink, drug, and screw.’ Not exactly churchy language, but then Stryken professes to be a band not for the pulpit but for the streets” (CCM Mar 1987)
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words:…He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings…” (John 14:23-24).
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor 6:17). Christians are a peculiar people and God wants them to live godly, separated, and holy lives in this evil world. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”
(Titus 2:12).
“O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces
harder than a rock; they have refused to return” (Jer 5:3).
“Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth”
(Ezek 7:8,9).
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
“For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his
iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself: And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek 14:7,8).
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* Your choice: OBEY or REBEL *
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(Copy and distribute this tract as needed)
By Alan Yusko and Ed Prior
THE SEED SOWERS, P.O. Box 2513, Stn. F, Scarborough, Ont. M1W 3P2
Canada.
The Seed Sowers Friendly BBS (416) 498-5259 or 498-5962
