One thing that I despise is this portrayal of atheists, without evidence, as being “outraged” over every little thing. The latest example I’ve encountered is from TellMeNow.com:
In the song, Underwood sings about baptism and “being washed in blood,” which refers to the blood of Christ. The whole message of the song is that we humans are lost without God.
Atheists are outraged that such a hit-maker as Underwood would dare to sing about Christianity, but Carrie doesn’t seem to care.
and the Conservative Tribune (right-click and copy the link and paste it into a new tab):
You can almost hear the atheists throwing temper tantrums every time this song comes across the radio…
With the current state of pop culture being radically opposed to religion, especially Christianity, and traditional values, its refreshing and uplifting to see someone as popular as Carrie Underwood take a bold stand on her convictions and refuse to be silenced by atheist bullies.
Okay who has been trying to silence Carrie Underwood? And again:
Atheists have a new target in their sights and it’s country music star Carrie Underwood, who recently released a new song expressing her Christian faith and values.
Ugh.
Question: how many country songs invoke God or Jesus? If your answer is not “a lot”, then you really need to pay attention.
Carrie Underwood has invoked Jesus, God and Christianity before. Numerous, numerous times. Her famous song “Jesus Take the Wheel” ring any bells? And in the last stanza of “Don’t Forget to Remember Me”, she describes herself praying. The song “Temporary Home” also invokes God in describing an old man facing death. The song “Crazy Dreams” ends with “Thank God even crazy dreams come true”. “Wheel of the World” invokes God, as does “Mama’s Song”, “Change”, “Good in Goodbye”, and the very openly named “Thank God for Hometowns”. And the song “Who Are You” could be interpreted to be talking about Jesus as well.
I don’t recall atheists being portrayed as “throwing temper tantrums” or becoming “outraged” with those songs.
Kenny Chesney’s song “Down the Road” has these lyrics, yet I wasn’t offended by the song: “Her momma wants to know/Is he washed in the blood or just in the water.” No atheist outrage there. The song has a somewhat catchy melody, in that it is really only catchy for a while in my opinion. Kind of like Adele’s songs, actually.
So where is all this atheist outrage over, well, the entirety of country music?
This dishonest portrayal of atheists by Christians isn’t anything new, and this is just one more example.
Christians, rather than just saying we are outraged, out of an assumption that we will become outraged or offended, how about waiting till someone actually does state offense at the song. And even then, unless that offense can be shown to be commonplace, don’t publish an article saying that “atheists” are outraged, portraying all atheists as outraged over this.
And with regard to country music and Christianity, Brad Paisley summed it up nicely in his song “This is Country Music”:
You’re not supposed to say the word “cancer” in a song.
And tellin’ folks Jesus is the answer can rub ’em wrong.
It ain’t hip to sing about tractors, trucks, little towns, and mama, yeah that might be true.
But this is country music and we do
Christianity is all over country music. If you aren’t aware of that, you need to find some country music to listen to. Even Taylor Swift has invoked God in her songs, namely in her song “Our Song”: “And when I got home … ‘fore I said amen/Asking God if he could play it again”.
Christians, get over yourselves and stop lying about us. After all, kind of hard to claim the moral high ground when doing the very immoral act of lying through your teeth. What do you think God or Jesus would have to say about that?