Kevin D. Hendricks

Worship American Idol

American Idol had it’s big ‘give back’ special last night (or so I’m told—I don’t watch it) and it ended with a group sing of “Shout to the Lord,” a well known worship song written by Darlene Zschech. What? Christian worship music on American Idol? You can watch it here or buy the single from iTunes (Full disclosure: I get a cut of purchases made from that link, which adds an extra level of oddity to this post).

Some people think this is kind of cool. And I can see that. Our soulless American culture embracing a little bit of Christianity. Maybe something will rub off. It’s a good conversation starter.

But it also makes me a little queasy.

It’s unnerving for me to see a bunch of people sing a worship song with choreographed dance moves, lights, a video montage, smoke and confetti. No matter how mega your church may be, I hope that’s not the worship experience. Cuz that’s a concert experience.

But it’s not really worship when it’s sung by non-Christians for a non-worship TV event (I’m assuming here—perhaps some of the singers were Christians). Seeing a worship song de-contextualized like that and used for some kind of “Yeah humanity!” thing is just weird. Especially when the song isn’t exactly subtle (”Shout to the Lord, all the Earth let us sing / Power and majesty, praise to the King…”).

Worship is supposed to be a sacred thing. You’re not supposed to approach it lightly. In the Old Testament book of Amos chapter 5 verses 21-23, God doesn’t look too favorably at offerings or sacrifice or worship that’s done inappropriately (if you read the rest of the chapter, God says he’s exiling the Jewish people because of their sins and offenses. Their offerings/sacrifices/worship became offensive to God when they neglected justice, the poor, etc.). The application? God doesn’t like hypocrisy. Coincidentally, Anne Jackson has a timely post today on the hypocrisy of worship.

So singing “Let every breath, all that I am / Never cease to worship You,” when you don’t believe it is hypocritical. If they know it’s about worshiping God and they don’t believe in worshiping God, why would they sing it? I guess sometimes you like a song whether or not you agree with what it’s saying, but what this song is saying is on a different level than most pop music.

I don’t know much about the theology of worship and whether or not non-Christians can worship (I would guess not). And I don’t know much about the benefits of exposing non-Christians to worship (though most church services seem to be designed around that). But it’s one thing to observe worship and another thing to experience it. Non-Christians performing worship for [primarily] non-Christians in a non-worship setting rubs me the wrong way (there’s enough non’s in that sentence to convince me this is the farthest thing from worship [and is 'performing worship and oxymoron?]).

I don’t know. I don’t really have an answer here. Smarter people than me can give you that. I’m just saying it’s a bit bizarre. It’s kind of like seeing ‘In God We Trust’ on our currency for me. It doesn’t matter to me because I know it’s a hollow statement.