Amy Grant
The queen-bee of Christian rock is Amy Grant. Amy's song, "Baby, Baby", was unprecedented in Gospel Music history topping the chart as the number-one spot on Billboard magazine. Is the secular world "turning on" to Jesus? Not hardly. . . People magazine (July 15, 1991 p.71) says of Amy's video Baby, Baby , "There's saintly Amy cuddling some hunky guy, crooning "Baby, Baby" into his ear and looking pretty SLEEK AND SINFUL. . ." After all, Amy confesses, "I'm trying to look SEXY to sell a record . . ." (Rolling Stone, June 6, 1985 p. 10)
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:22, "Flee also youthful lusts:", but Amy says, "Petting happens . . . As a teenager, when I gave part of me to someone, I knew I was just going to flirt, HAVE A LITTLE FUN, . . ."(Bob Millard, Amy Grant, (New York, 1986),p. 30)
Amy says in Ladies Home Journal (December, 1985, p. 100), "I have a healthy sense of right and wrong, but sometimes, for example, using foul, exclamation-point words among friends can be good for a laugh."
Amy says, "Why isolate yourself? Your life isolates you enough. I'm isolated when I walk into a room and somebody says, She's a Christian and NOBODY OFFERS ME A JOINT and all the coke (cocaine) disappears. . ." (Bob Millard, Amy Grant, (New York, 1986), p. 169) Husband Gary Chapman confessed in People magazine (July 15, 1991 p. 72), of a six-year cocaine and marijuana addiction! Amy also says, "I remember years ago the first time I smelled anybody smoking a joint at a concert, I WAS THRILLED . . . it meant to me that obviously this person is not affected by the church peer pressure."(Bob Millard, Amy Grant, (New York, 1986),p. 30)
On Amy's video, That's What Love Is For , Amy is dressed in a red robe, (used in witchcraft rituals) flashing on the palms of her hands, a six-pointed-star A HEXAGRAM! Sean Sellars, a fomer satanist on death row, for sacrificing 3 people to Satan, says in his book Web of Darkness (p.51), the hexagram "is said by some to be the most powerful and evil sign in satanism and of all the occult world. The hexagram is used mainly in witchcraft to summon demons from the underworld. The word hex which means to place a curse on someone, originated from this sign." And the primary point of contact in the transmission of spirits is the hand!
One of the most widespread and best known satanic signs is the I1 Cornuto, also known as the "satanic salute" and the "horned hand". It is made by, making a fist and extending the first (index) and last (pinkie) finger. For example . The satanic salute is displayed by satanists to acknowledge their allegiance to Satan. Anton LaVey, displays it on the back cover of The Satanic Bible. The satanic salute is popular in rock music. And on the Michael W. Smith, In Concert (Reunion Records, 1985) video tape Amy Grant clearly flashes the "satanic salute"! And it is NOT the sign language for "I love you", where the thumb is openly extended! Amy delibertely flashes the "satanic salute" at least two separate times on the video, displaying it for several seconds!
Is Amy Grant a satanist? Absolutely NOT!
But there is a definite spirit invoked in rock music, secular or Christian and it's NOT the Holy Spirit! And many times, people involved in rock music get "caught up in this unholy spirit"!
During a 1993 Ophrah Winfrey interview, Michael Jackson, explained the reason for some of his fithly sexual gestures during his concerts:
"It happens subliminally. IT'S THE MUSIC THAT COMPELS ME TO DO IT. You don't think about it, it just happens. I'M SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM."
(The Evening Star, Feb. 11, 1993, p. A10)
It's NOT the lyrics! It's the MUSIC!
How can the Holy Spirit of the Bible use fleshly music!
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these ARE CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Galatians 5:17
Amy's album, House of Love includes the environmental-mother-earth song, Big Yellow Taxi, by new-age-priestess Joni Mitchell. Time magazine, (December, 16, 1974, p.63) tells of Joni Mitchells intimate relationship with a muse (a demon spirit) named Art. Joni says, "I feel like I'm married to this guy named Art, I'm responsible to my Art above all else." Some of the words to Big Yellow Taxi, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot". How different from the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 23:43, "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Of course, what's the Bible and Jesus got to do with "CHRISTian" rock?
Amy's latest album, Behind the Eyes goes even further to "exorcise" any Christian influence. Christianity Today (12/8/97), in article entitled, "Where's the Gospel?", writes:
"Amy Grant's latest album has thrown the Contemporary Christian Music industry into a first-rate identity crisis. . . Grant's newest release, Behind the Eyes, comes as no surprise given the course of her career since Unguarded (1985), the first of her albums to be distributed jointly by CCM label Myrrh in the evangelical market and A&M in the mainstream market. Previous "crossover" projects, however, had made at least some mention of God or Jesus. The complete absence of explicitly Christian lyrical content on Behind the Eyes has renewed a debate in the CCM industry about what constitutes Christian music." (Christianity Today, Dec., 8, 1997, "Where's the Gospel?")
CCM has gotten so far off the track, Amy, admitts in Christianity Today, she doesn't even know what Christian music is, "I DON'T KNOW if Behind the Eyes is a Christian record. Being able to label it Christian or non-Christian is not the point for me."
CCM is in such as worldly, compromising, money-making, confusing, mess it's "number-one-star" does NOT even know if her album is Christian! CHRISTian is a disciple of Jesus Christ! If it's not about the Lord Jesus Christ it is NOT CHRISTian! A music buyer for religious stores mentioned in Christianity Today, truthfully says of Behind the Eyes, "It's NOT a Christian album. A Christian album should be clear on the person of Christ, and these lyrics are not."
Christianity Today, makes a keen observation, as it emphasizes that, incrediably, some songs by secular performers are more Christian than CCM's! Christianity Today asks the following enlightening question, in reference to secular, Mary Chapin Carpenter's, "I Am a Town" "If Carpenter can sing, 'I'm a Baptist like my daddy, Jesus knows my name,' why does Grant have to be so discreet about her faith?" Very good quesion. . . Why does CCM have to be so discreet about their faith? Why does a supposedly Christian NOT want to sing about the Lord Jesus Christ?
The German reformer and musician, Martin Luther puts it bluntly - "whoever does NOT want to song and speak of it shows that he does not believe it". According to Luther they're NOT saved!
"We should praise God with both word and music, namely by proclaiming [the Word of God] through music. . .He who believes earnestly cannot be quiet about it. But he must gladly and willingly sing and speak about it so that others may come and hear it. And whoever does NOT want to song and speak of it shows that he does not believe it." (Don Cusic, The Sound of Light, p. 15)
Because of Grant's (and CCM's) obvious UNChristian lyrics, Christianity Today, writes:
"The Christian music industry has been unsure how to categorize Grant's latest offering, so much so, in fact, that the GMA and Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA) initiated a re-evaluation of existing guidelines for GMA Dove Award eligibility and sales chart placement."
Not to dare break their "compromising-wordly-commercial-track-record", GMA, did allow Grant's Behind the Eyes in the Dove Awards and "presto" Behind the Eyes was the 1998 Dove Award's, Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year!
Stan Moser, former head of Word Records (the man responsible for signing Amy Grant) and CEO of Star Song Records, was one of the pioneers and most important executives in CCM. And after 26 years in CCM, in November 1995, walked away from CCM. In an article in Christianity Today, titled "We Have Created a Monster" about CCM, Mr. Moser freely admits:
"But to be candid, I look at the majority of the music I hear today and think it's virtually meaningless." (Christianity Today, "We Have Created a Monster", May 20, 1996 p. 27)
Mr. Moser goes on to make this eye-opening statement:
". . .I would probably be more inclined to call the industry 'commercial Christian music,' rather than 'contemporary Christian music.'" (Christianity Today, "We Have Created a Monster", May 20, 1996 p. 27)
CCM artist, Michael Card, admits that much of CCM - is NOT Christian:
"The lyrics of a good number of the songs don't betray anything specifically Christian - they may have some moral message, but not a lot of the big songs are identifiably Christian. . . 'What happens to the message when we start getting the music to as many people as possible?' There is an essential part of the gospel that's not ever going to sell. The gospel is good news, but it is also bad news: 'You are a sinner, and you are hopeless.' How is a multimillion-dollar record company going to take that? That's a part of the message, too, and if that's taken out - and it frequently is in Christian music - it ceases to be the gospel." (Can't Buy Me Love, Christianity Today, May 20, 1996, p. 25)
Michael Card, makes this alarming statement about CCM:
"The direction and value system are getting worse faster than any of us can imagine." (Can't Buy Me Ministry, Christianity Today, May 20, 1996 (p. 22)
