An Interview with Scott Stapp
Wednesday September 12, 2007
I know, I’m 3 years late, but I just now found this interesting interview with Creed’s lead singer. One snippit that caught my eye was this:
So, are you now a “Christian artist,” or an artist who happens to be a Christian?
Stapp: I’m an artist who’s a Christian, because I don’t write music to be evangelical. Now, if that happens, it happens. My dad’s a dentist, and he’s a Christian. Now, does he put in Christian fillings? No, that’s just part of his three-dimensional life. Now, there are people that are Christian artists, because they have a purpose to be evangelical for Christ. I don’t feel I’ve been called to that yet. Now, that could change. There’s no telling what kind of call God will put on my life.
I can definitely identify with that. Now don’t get me wrong… I don’t honestly know the first thing about Scott Stapp as a person, and after having googled for a few minutes, I’m not honestly sure what to make of him. But being that he is human, he falls into the same category that we all do, which is “by nature, screwed up”…. Glass houses and throwing stones and what-not…. I do like his comment about his dad being a dentist and a Christian even though he doesn’t use “Christian fillings”. He’s right, of course: we’re all three-dimensional, and what we are goes much deeper than what we do. I’m going to go right out, though, and start looking for some Christian C++ code…. =;)
“Now, does he put in Christian fillings?”
What a terrible analogy. There’s no such thing as a Christian filling. Christian songs however do exist. Also, fillings convey no meaning or ideas. Songs do (or at least can).
Is it even possibly to have a non-evangelical Christian song?
Hey another Christian opensource developer! w00t!
I have struggled with this same concept as well. My passion and my skillset is definitely all-things computers. It’s both my hobby and my job. My struggle is how can I use these gifts to further God’s kingdom? I suppose prayer would be the correct course of action, eh?
But it’s true, just because I breathe, eat, and sleep technology doesn’t mean that that’s WHO I am. It’s WHAT I do.
Now if software developers were rockstars (oh wait, kde developers are … or at least should be rockstars) we’d all suffer the same scrutiny from the public. We assume that because such a person is in the public eye it’s their responsibility to preach out with a strong Christian message, all the time. I do believe that every Christian should try to live a life like Christ’s and that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can spread the Word, even if it’s just through our life’s example.
Not every Christian is called to be a missionary but every one should be a witness. So if the guy from Creed isn’t called to be a “Christian artist” then that’s fine, but I think then he shouldn’t go out and write a song that puts stumbling blocks in other’s lives.
#include // provides std::cout
int main()
{
std::cout
How would you classify Cliff Richard?
Teknon… I’ve never heard of Cliff Richard, sorry.
Tim… I think the point (at least as it piqued my interest) was that people make a big deal some times about a Christian’s choice of living if it doesn’t directly involve churchey stuff (bad way of phrasing it, probably)…. My thought was that our focus should be more on chasing after God in whatever way it is that God made us to naturally flow. For me, right now, that means that I’m a geek and hacker at heart and by nature, and I can be true to who God made me to be, honor him through it, and not feel ashamed about it. One of my favorite quotes which kind of says this another way is from the Chariots of Fire movie, where the lead character said this:
Cheers! =:)
Hey Mike!! =:)
Good to see ya! =:) I totally identify with what you’re saying!! I think that’s why this little blurb jumped out at me like it did. I struggle with the same thing too, btw. I look at all the amazing things that the men of the New Testament did and went through and then look at what I do in the course of a few months and can’t help but wonder whether God is disappointed. And that’s when it’s helpful to be reminded that even in the apostle Paul’s journey on earth, there were times when even he had to deal with the mundane details of life and make tents for a living.
I think one of the important lessons is that we can’t give up. We have to keep getting back up again and trying again. We have to keep setting our lives in the right direction.
Oh, and as far as Scott Stapp goes… I really don’t know a thing about him, other than the 2 minutes’ worth of Googling. And yeah, I totally agree with you about the song thing.