Role Models (Part 1)

My all-time favorite Christian singer is Amy Grant.  There, I’m not ashamed to say it.  Part of the reason is she’s a good singer, another reason is I think she’s very pretty, and the most important reason (and the most sentimental) is that she was the first Contemporary Christian Artist I have ever heard.  It’s actually a very funny story about how I first heard her.  I remember it clearly, even though I was about 10 or 11 at the time.  It was for my cousin’s (Cathy) wedding.  I was there at the wedding practice because my sister was the flower girl.  And during the practice, one lady sang a very beautiful song.  However, my mom and I looked at each other, because we thought it was a very odd song to sing at a wedding.  The song was called “I shall die”.  Or at least, that’s what we thought the song was called.  Why are they singing about death at a wedding?  It’s kinda morbid, but I thought, maybe they really really liked the song.  Only later did we find out, the real name of the song was “El Shaddai”.  Hrm… it’s a lot funnier when I tell it.

Later on, at a Christmas party, I was snooping at their house, and I saw a tape (You remember those things?  They’re about the same size of Treos sans antenna and with a long ribbon coiled around 2 loops) of Amy Grant.  I thought she looked pretty (hey, remember my previous post about covers ;)) and I checked the back and to my surprise, “El Shaddai” was there.  Cool!  The very first CD I bought (remember those things before they destroyed your computers?!) was, you guessed it, an Amy Grant CD.  The Collection, to be exact.  It’s also interesting where I bought the CD, which I’ll explain later.  Anyway, soon after that album, she moved into pop, and I could hear her on the radio!  I must have played her “Heart In Motion” CD for at least 100 times.  I’m pretty sure my family got sick of it, because I played it every day at breakfast.  I have a high tolerance for repetition… I can play some things to death and never get tired of hearing it.  Amy Grant is one, Lightning Crashes is another, and Freshman is the third.  So, other than explaining my Amy Grant fetish with you, I actually brought this up for another reason.  When she moved to pop, she lost some Christian fans, who felt that she sold out and/or lost her faith.  I didn’t really care, to me she will always be a singer who is Christian, not the other way around.  But then an even bigger tragedy happened that lost her A LOT of fans.  In 1999, she got divorced from her longtime husband-producer.

Some say she had an affair, after reading countless articles, I’m not sure.  All she really admitted was that she loved Vince Gill for a long time.  But when the news came out, suddenly all the Christian radio stations stopped playing her music.  It was as if “El Shaddai”, “I Have Decided”, and “Thy Word” had never existed.  A year later, she married Vince.  It all but fueled the fires of gossip about whether she had an affair with Vince, when they did a duet together.  She was an outcast, condemned for being human.  I never stopped liking her music.  I still bought all her CDs even the hymns, which are not really my thing.  I still admire her, but most important of all, I forgave her.  I’m sure she didn’t ask for my forgiveness, and mine isn’t the most important.  But from interviews I’ve read, I’m positive that she asked God for forgiveness, and if He, the perfect one who abhors all sin, can forgive her, I can too.

There are many Christian artists and athletes who have been elevated far above their status.  Rather than calling them “idols” (I guess because it reminds Christians too much about the 2nd Commandment), they’re called “Role Models”.  I’m not sure why people feel the need to “idolize” them, as it were.  Many a times, I hear people who are not sports fans, cheer a particular team because they heard they have “team prayers” before a big game.  Or, people will love and watch every movie an actor does just because he praised God in his Oscar acceptance speech.  And just as quickly as people lift up these role models, they are just as quick to drop them when they fall.  It’s as if the role models have failed them, and shattered their expectation of a “good Christian”.  And because of that, they can never be revered again, no matter how apologetic they are.  It’s happened to many athletes and singers, especially singers, although I don’t know why.

Kirk Franklin is another one.  He was one of the foremost godly Christian rapper who blended rap and gospel together in a very energetic and fun manner.  I normally don’t like rap songs, but even I enjoyed his music.  So much so, that I wondered what happened to him.  For several years, I have not heard a single Franklin song.  And then, a friend of mine told me the reason.  Yup, that old Temptation and Fall thing.  Throughout his life, he has always struggled with pornography and a promiscuous lifestyle.  And either the secret leaked out, or he told everyone.  Then in an instant, he’s out.  

Why are people so unforgiving when it comes to their role models?  Is having a role model even a good thing?