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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 09:58:25 CST
From:         Russ Neumeier <russn@SSEC.WISC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: A Hindu View of Amy Grant
              at Jan 7, 93 4:33 pm

> Then a friend of mine at work went to an Amy Grant concert in Jackson
> last year; his kid wanted to see her.  On the following Monday I
> asked him how was the concert.  He said the music was great.  I asked
> him if Amy talked about God at all; did she say anything about having
> a relationship with Christ?  "No," he said, "she didn't preach at
> all.  She said something about loving people more, and that was it.
> Even her songs didn't directly talk about God."
>
> I was sad, because my co-worker doesn't know Jesus personally.  He
> just thinks it's all religion, and his lifestyle isn't changed by it.
> There were thousands of people just like him at that concert, and Amy
> didn't even attempt to tell them about Jesus!  All of that talent and
> all of the work that goes into her music; its just wasted effort
> because she has removed the one message that has the power to really
> transform someone's life!
>
I happened to go to the "Lead Me On" tour several years ago. (I actually went
to see MWS open for her but that's besides the point (-:  )  The tour was
sponsored by Tretorn shoes.  In that concert she did mention that she, her
husband Gary, and MWS were Christian and went into a little of what that meant.
No altar call or anything like that, but she did mention Christ and both she
Gary, and MWS sang some explicitly Christian songs.  My point is: I don't
know who was/is sponsoring her tour now, but perhaps the sponsor doesn't
want her to speak about these things.


> The way I see it, if Christ is the most important thing in your life,
> THEN YOU WILL TALK ABOUT HIM!!  You won't spend hours and hours of
> your time creating music and lyrics that don't even acknowledge Him
> as a part of your life.  And when you have the opportunity to be
> heard by MILLIONS of people all around this lost, broken and hurting
> world, you won't waste the time away talking about a pig!
>
I agree with you, but I know I fall far short of what we expect from the
Christian musicians.  I sit in front of my computer for hours and hours
while testing software -- I acknowledge Christ (or try to) while I'm testing;
I want to make sure that when I say a program works that it works.  Becuase
I'm often testing by myself, I am not able to talk about Christ with my
co-workers.  Perhaps, in order to appear on The TOnight Show, she was asked
to not mention such things again -- I don't know.

I dont know what Amy's motives were for talking about what she did on TV, but it
did give her exposure, and once someone is familiar with the current release
by an artist (and they like the artist) they are more likely to hunt down the
older releases by that person.  Besides, she talked about family, pets, and
other down-to-earth things.  Your typical rock-start will only brag about
how good they are, how well their latest release is selling, etc.


> I'm sure that Amy Grant is a very nice Christian person.  She is
> probably very likable, and she doesn't sing about anything bad or
> negative, and I think that she IS a Christian.  I just think that she
> is WASTING an incredible opportunity to offer LIFE to millions of
> people.  Instead, she offers them good, clean fun, and sends them
> along their way towards Hell.  This is not how the great men and
> women of the Bible lived their lives.
>
Here, again, the record label has a lot of control over what the content of
the lyrics on an album are...MWS faced the same thing with Geffen -- he wanted
to release an explicitly Christian song: Geffen said otherwise.
Granted, you may not agree with how Amy is handling life as a pop-star, but
her positive image and songs are definitely a change from the norm.  I hope
and pray that all of the people who like "Heart in Motion" will look for
"Ungarded" and some of her earlier works.


> Scott D. Weberg
>
Russ Neumeier
russn@ssec.wisc.edu
SSEC, UW-Madison
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