MTV Interview: The Church & American Idol

A while back I wrote a blog called American Idol: Good for TV, Bad for Church which came to the attention of MTV Senior Writer, Gil Kauffman. Gil wanted to know why so many Christians were not only tuning into “Idol” this year, but also performing on the show. He took a couple of quotes from our conversation and put them into his story for MTV.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Just as this season kicked off, freelance writer CJ Casciotta penned an essay for faith site ConversantLife.com titled “American Idol — Good for TV. Bad for Church,” in which he questioned whether the show’s shunning of the “awkward, the socially inept, the ugly, the difficult” during the often cruel early rounds shouldn’t be a call to action for the rest of us to embrace those whose lives are a struggle.

Casciotta’s interest was piqued when he heard “Shout to the Lord” on “Idol” last season, and he suspects that the inclusion was an overt attempt to court Christian viewers. “The people at ‘American Idol’ are not idiots. They realize that there’s this huge percentage of America that watches TV as a family, and a lot of families go to church. … [The viewers] know worship leaders and musicians in church, and why not bring that aspect to the show?” he said.

He suspected that the inclusion of so many people of faith on “Idol” this year is part of a trend Christian music has been undergoing over the past decade, growing out of its cloistered corner and going more mainstream without losing its core values. “People who are Christians have a platform through ‘American Idol’ to write their songs and share their stories, and it doesn’t have to fit in with the traditional Christian or worship genre,” he said.

In fact, Casciotta said, he thinks Christian voters could end up being the deciding factor in this year’s finals. “I would hope for people of faith that they would judge solely by talent,” he said. “But if it came down to it, and the two [finalists] were equally talented and one was Christian, people would vote for that person who shares our faith.”

To read the full article click here.

I also mentioned to Gil when we talked that I believe the church has had it backwards for a few decades now. Instead of creating culture, we instead settle for copying it. Centuries ago it was quite the opposite. The church was the epicenter for culture creators. Everything from music, to art, to architecture was birthed from it. Perhaps one of the reasons so many Christ Followers are auditioning for American Idol is, in a small way, due to this new renaissance of artistic expression erupting from within the church walls and overflowing to the “outside world.” Perhaps, and hopefully, Christians are sensing the freedom to use their unique gifts and talents in and for a culture where every circumstance carries some kind of spiritual significance to it.

I’m interested, what are your thoughts? Do you see this shift happening too? If so, where? Do you agree that this is a good thing? Does anything concern you?

A great video featuring one of my heros, Craig Detweiler, that hits on my point exactly about halfway through: