Chris, it was never meant to be an argument. Merely reporting on an incident that caused me great grief. It seems everyone has missed the one word….“if” in my original statement. I am even more dismayed that Christians are willing to ignore that which is wrong.
A few years back, I met a prominent SG artist coming off his bus reaking of alcohol. It created in me an opinion - not of what it meant to be a Gospel artist, but of the difficulty we all have with sin and freedom of choice.
I work closely with both Southern Gospel and Contemporary Christian artists - even the “beastly” Christian rockers mentioned in the original post. There is not one who could easily cast the proverbial ‘first stone’.
There is no “God approved” Gospel sound. Just as Jesus’ message and parables varied from village to village, yet retained the absolute Truth, so must our message in music be adapted to the villagers we’re trying to reach.
Screw your head on straight and stop trying to build one up by tearing another down!
I do not believe in singling anyone out, nor do I believe in naming names.
But you did, when you singled out your group and Avalon as non participants, leaving the fan and potential promoter/pastor to wonder who is? . Did you not?
Isn’t this placing a dark cloud for every artist (except for you two) to fight through?
When a Christian is confronted with a report of sin in another ministry, they need to go to the brothers and sisters against whom the report is made and ask them to respond to the accusation(s). If the bus driver had confronted me, I would ask him to go with me to confront those he was accusing. If he was relunctant, I would ask him to go with me to my pastor who would take the complaint and go with me to confront those accused of sin. If they didn’t listen to us, we would go to their church elders and ask them to intervene. All Christian groups need to accountable, and at a minimum, they should find men of good report who will oversee their ministry. If the bus driver refused, I would dismiss his complaint.
I never once used the word “beastly” and do not know where you got that idea.
Mr. Harris -
I know you never used the word ‘beastly’. You simply described beastly behavior as you posted a comment that categorized every Christian Rock Band - except Avalon - as blatant and open sinners while on the road.
Sharing such a naive generalization doesn’t suggest much wisdom for “...all your 59 years”, nor does my rail against your comment for all my 50.
This entire debate could have been avoided if the administrators would have deleted the post,as they
have done in the past, when someone attempted to gossip and cast doubt or tear down another groups
ministry. In my view, the ball was dropped here.
Ben is not naive nor mean spirited. I worked with him for a while and I was always (and still am) impressed by his kind spirit, thoughtfulness and absolute professionalism. He will tell you what is on his mind, and I admire that. Sometimes when truth is spoken, it shakes things up a bit.
This entire debate could have been avoided if the administrators would have deleted the post,as they
have done in the past, when someone attempted to gossip and cast doubt or tear down another groups
ministry. In my view, the ball was dropped here.
This is a discussion board, that means it’s a place where people are allowed to discuss topics (hopefully in a Christian way), however I can delete your post if you wish…......
Well since this caused a tempest in a teapot, after many phone calls and dead end streets, I now know the driver’s name, who he works for, and have discovered who the driver was speaking of. It seems when he was talking about “all of them” he was referring to all of those within this particular group. Remember when I asked him “Who was doing this”, his reply was “All of them”. Which makes perfect sense in the context he was thinking of. I have now sent a letter to the group and asked them to respond. Since I do not know their pastor(s) it seems like it is the only thing I could do. Now, do not ask me to devulge the name of the group, for I will not do so under any circumstance. So many took this so out of context that I am totally baffled, especially by the accusations. MY entire intent was to bring to the attention of those within our Christian industry that people are watching us, not everything we do is hidden from view. It seems many will defend all immoral actions if it rubs against the grain of their own bias.
Now you are insulting my intelligence. You indeed categorically accused an entire genre of being false and sinful based on the comment’s of a stranger. Do you have any idea of this man’s credibility? Could he just be mad at them? You now have even confronted these people, amazing! Wonder what the guy that shot the Pastor in Illinois would have said of Christians? Are you really just trying to tell us that your group doesn’t watch porn and drink? Why did you feel that necessary? Any Christian knows such behavior is bad and sinful. Just as gossip, meddling, lying, and pride. What exactly did you expect the response to be? I think it is safe to say that reasonable people are tired of such shallow rhetoric.
Now you are insulting my intelligence. You indeed categorically accused an entire genre of being false and sinful based on the comment’s of a stranger. Do you have any idea of this man’s credibility? Could he just be mad at them? You now have even confronted these people, amazing! Wonder what the guy that shot the Pastor in Illinois would have said of Christians? Are you really just trying to tell us that your group doesn’t watch porn and drink? Why did you feel that necessary? Any Christian knows such behavior is bad and sinful. Just as gossip, meddling, lying, and pride. What exactly did you expect the response to be? I think it is safe to say that reasonable people are tired of such shallow rhetoric.
Dear remmah,
You said that any Christian knows such behavior is bad. I’m afraid that in our seeker driven, cheap gospel preaching churches today that many have no idea of sin. We are so busy preaching self-esteem messages instead of using God’s law to show the sinner that he or she has violated God’s law and is hopeless without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Also, I think it is great that this group is being confronted. If they are guilt of such behavior, now their sin has been exposed and they have an opportunity to repent and be restored. If they refuse to do so then they never had any true saving faith anyway. If this report is false, then they have a chance to set the record straight and the one giving false testimony can be confronted.
“Dear Lord, grant us repentance so that we might experience true revival in our land. Change hearts and give us humility and a desire for pleasing you.”
What with the lower lip a-quiverin’ and the openly weeping, this would be a great story just before the altar call or a chance to buy ALL 3 CDs for one low price during a country church gig.
Ok this is just driving me nuts. first i don’t know Ben H. personally, but he and I have exchanged Emails and messages more than a few times, in the past few years. my contact with Ben started from a post some time back when i told a story of how one of the “big” Christian rock groups got it’s start. in my garage and on my front lawn (till the neighbor’s has their say that is) these were just high school kids learning their craft, very painfully i’ll add. my son was the first person to play drums, and then the bass guitar. my son choose not to live for the Lord shortly there after and soon was emeshed in a world of drugs, booze ect. Mr. Harris picked up on my pain and sent me a message, to which i replied in private, sorry this is longer than i’d planned. upon getting my reply Ben told me that not only He and His wife, but the entire group of Southern Sound put my son on their prayer list. and prayed for him durring their devoltional times on the tour bus, He didn’t have to do that, but willingly stood in the gap for my family. and from time to time Emailed me to let me know that they were still standing in the gap for me and mine.
like i say this was back a few, but because of that time i learned something about a gospel singer/group I’ll never forget. Reading Bens post i didn’t see anything other than a man with compasion hurting because of the tour bus drivers report wondering if “all gospel groups fit in this mold” those of you who miss understood Ben’s, post just don’t understand Ben. Ben is a man of tender heart towards the Lord, and filled with love for gospel music. thank you Ben for sharring and carring.
mike b.
