In 2017, the rock music community lost one of its greatest singers, Chester Bennington, to suicide. Since that time until this year, Chester’s band, Linkin Park, was said to be on hiatus, rather than just break up completely. Finally, less than a week ago, we learned that the band had finally hired a new lead singer, Emily Armstrong.
WHO???
I’d never heard of her, at all. And it seems her sudden appearance was a shock to many others too, but not for the reasons you’d think were obvious.
So she was a Scientologist. Does that mean she should be condemned for her past? I am an ex-Baha’i and I would think it unfair for me to be condemned for being a Baha’i if I joined a famous rock band. I’d want to be known for what I am NOW, a Unitarian Universalist. Likewise, Armstrong should be known for what she is NOW. I mean, has she made any statements defending the Church of Scientology lately?
As for her singing for Linkin Park:
She does well enough to satisfy me, but she may not win over hardcore fans who still miss Chester Bennington. But the band Linkin Park will live on, just as AD/DC did after losing Bon Scott and Metallica did after losing bassist Cliff Burton and both bands became even more successful later. So let’s watch and see what happens.
OK, were you as shocked as I was? Here’s the original version of that song to restore your proper brain functions.
How desperate are Christians to mimic popular culture to try to reach out to the youth of the present age to win new converts to their religion? Well, if you are familiar with Batman and other superheros, how about the Christian version of one?
And looooooong before that, there was the “Heaven’s metal” band Stryper, which I heard so much about back when I was myself a Christian in the 1980s.
The basic premise of all these “Christian” things above is “if we give our youth versions of popular culture that meet OUR standards, they won’t be corrupted by the satanic stuff out there.”
More to the point of why the efforts to mimic popular culture is failing, even some Christians themselves can see the nonsense for what it is.
But those who know better are not in control of the Christian churches, or “Christian” media outlets. So they are alienated.
Amy Grant, one of the most powerful Christian singers, faced a crisis of faith when she found herself divorcing fellow Christian artist Gary Chapman. Their both being Christian wasn’t enough to make their marriage work, because Chapman had a toxic personality.
Chapman married Amy Grant on June 19, 1982. Grant filed for divorce from Chapman in March 1999, citing “irreconcilable differences”, and the divorce was finalized in June 1999.[16]
Chapman married Jennifer Pittman in July 2000. Chapman and Pittman divorced in 2007.[1]
On December 22, 2008, Chapman married Cassie Piersol.[1][17] The couple began a project called A Hymn a Week in 2010 to honor the musical heritage left to Chapman by his parents.[3] Chapman has stated that both his parents, who were small-town pastors for their entire lives, had a strong influence in his life and they “implanted the hymns into [his] heart”.
This is what happens when you are not firmly connected with REALITY.
On March 10, 2000, Grant married country singer-songwriter Vince Gill, who had been previously married to country singer Janis Oliver of Sweethearts of the Rodeo.[51] Grant and Gill have one daughter together, Corrina Grant Gill, born March 12, 2001.[52]
In the November 1999 CCM Magazine, Grant explained why she left Chapman and married Gill:
I didn’t get a divorce because ‘I had a great marriage and then along came Vince Gill.’ Gary and I had a rocky road from day one. I think what was so hard—and this is (what) one of our counselors said—sometimes an innocent party can come into a situation, and they’re like a big spotlight. What they do is reveal, by comparison, the painful dynamics that are already in existence.[53]
Christians everywhere need to understand that their religion does not save anyone. Having a healthy personality can save people! I myself only learned that after going into and then out of ANOTHER dogmatic God-centered religion.
After I left the Baha’i Faith, I realized that religion simply has nothing whatsoever to do with one’s character; if people have screwed up personalities, religion actually can make them worse by making them think that believing certain dogmas and following certain rituals will save them and make them great people before God and their fellow humans. I know from my own experience with myself and others that this is simply a lie.
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