Hello Again & Christian Bash Sligh!

OK, it’s been a while. Quite a while as a matter of fact. To the point that friends who have followed my Gutsy Faith blog have resorted to threats in order to get me to start blogging again.

What can I say? Life has been crazy? Things have been busy? Time has been short? I could give you lots of excuses why the long hiatus, but in the end they would be pointless and would not really matter. The point is, I’m back in the saddle and I’ll endeavor to keep up with the blogging, at least on a biweekly basis, if not weekly.

As many of you know, I’m a long-time American Idol fan. Love to tune in weekly and see young talent trying to make it to the big time. Love to watch Simon Cowell be brutally real about their performances. Love to yell “Ah, shut up! Let the man talk,” at the live TV audience from the safety of my living room as they boo and hiss Simon’s all-too-accurate assessment of the contestant’s performance.

If you followed my Idol blog last year, you’ll notice that I haven’t been doing it this year. The two-fold reason why is:

1. If I don’t have time to keep up with my primary Gutsy Faith blog, how do I have time to do my frivolous Idol blog? And…
2. There’s not much to blog about on this year’s season, right? (That is unless you really want me to be heartless about Sanjaya, and even I can’t bring myself to go off on the poor, misguided child. Bless his heart!)
   

But this past week, one of my coworkers sent me the following link about Chris Sligh, who regrettably didn’t make it through another week.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17706687/from/ET/

True, he didn’t have the talent to win this year’s competition. But he has more talent than a number of the contestants still in the running. And quite frankly, I just liked the guy.

If you clicked on the above link and read the story, you know that it’s talking about people who are down on Sligh because they were “disappointed with the direction he has gone musically.” Their reasoning is that, since Sligh is a Christian, should he be singing non-Christian music?

While the article didn’t delve too much into the background details, and really only quoted one person to represent those disappointed that Sligh was not singing Christian songs, the reality is there are probably lots of fundamentalist Christians out there who are hacked that he calls himself a Christian and yet sings secular music.

What bugs me is that the Associated Press found this issue to be newsworthy enough to put it out on the wire. The fact that his Christian status would even be questioned because he’s on a secular show singing non-Christian music is the ultimate absurdity. And Christians are the ones who are making the stink about it. Can someone please explain to these dear brothers and sisters who are on the Chris Sligh warpath that it IS possible to be a Christian and not sing Christian songs. Just because he’s not trying to get a record deal from one of the Nashville Christian record labels doesn’t mean he’s a retched backslider. Ever wonder what the music industry would be like if more Christians took the path that Sligh has chosen? I sure do. I’m betting it would be a lot cleaner, that’s for sure.

My closing opinion: If the Church ever wants to be relevant to this generation, the folks who think Chris Sligh is wrong for what he’s doing should check their dogma on the doorsteps of their local congregation and start praying for a little less piety.

And that’s my two cents worth!