1. Is P.O.D. Christian?
"We're Christians 110 percent, without a shadow of a doubt. We're not trying to hide anything...but we make our music for everybody." -Sonny January 2001 CCM
"Others might say, 'Ahhh! P.O.D., the sellouts!' Sell out to what? We never had your support in the first place!" -Sonny
Excerpt from Revolver Nov/Dec 2001: "Much has been made in the media of P.O.D.s Christian faith... it is impossible to discuss songs like 'Christ' [now called 'Portrait'], "The Messenjah" and "Anything Right" without mentioning the band's spiritual beliefs - or more specifically, the hammering that they've taken on both sides of the Christian/secular divide for daring to articulate their love for Jesus Christ in a hard-rock context. 'We get the people who say, 'oh they're Christian rock, dude, don't listen to them,' ' says Sonny. 'And then we get people who say we're not Christian because our beliefs don't match perfectly with theirs.' 'We go around the country and meet all these Christians who expect us to be like them,' adds Wuv. 'And we're not -- we're just people who love God. We're not holier-than-thou. So, with the song 'Christ' it's like, 'here's our picture of Christ.'" "
The lyrics talk about what we've come to know in our faith in Christ," Sonny explains, "and also the hypocrisy we see in a lot of people who call themselves Christians."
"It's a healthy sign that P.O.D. can joke about shoving Christianity down other people's throats; these days, if someone isn't accusing the band of doing just that then they're accusing them of not being Christian enough. 'We're not going out there with a cause' insists Wuv, 'we're going out there to tell our life story-who we love, and what makes us people. That's what we do. But people really wanna make an issue out of it. They always do.' " -Revolver, March/April 2002
The God that P.O.D. worships, as expressed in the band's music, is a loving and benevolent Creator, as opposed to the god of wrath so popular with tele-evangelists, right-wing politicians, and those who represent heaven by firebombing abortion clinics.
"Weve always thrown love into the picture," says Sonny. "Ultimately we believe that God is love, and if we can just get people to grasp the foundation of love, they're gonna make it - you know what Im saying? Theyre gonna be alright" "Can I give you a pretty harsh quote right now?" Marcos asks. "We hate religion dude. Religion sucks man! Its not about ritual for us, it about a personal relationship with God."
Our songs are very passionate about what we believe in, says Bernardo...We talk about Jah, we talk about love, we talk about being better people. How do we do that? We love God, and we try to live that way...We have fun, but we also use the biggest mic we can to tell people our story. And our story is, 'dude, if you hit the dumps, we've got something that might give you some joy.' - Blender Oct/Nov 01
I don't care what Christian groups think of me. I just want to represent who I am: a guy who at one point fell on his face and asked God for direction (says Sonny). We don't fit in with the conservative values of Christian America, Bernardo adds. For us, its all about a relationship we have with God. Its about what God has done for us individually, not what he's done for our church. -SPIN Oct 01
"Yeah, we have spiritual beliefs, but it's an individual thing. We never said anybody has to like us. We've had to work twice as hard to come this far, and we're as bad and heavy as anybody." - Traa to Bass Player, Dec 2003
"Sometimes as hard as I want to be on people that are questioning our faith, I know that deep down inside there's a genuineness to it," Sandoval added. "They go and interview a hundred bands, and its the same old rock n' roll handbook story. We just tend to stand out in this genre of music. All of the people that we're playing with are depressing, they're angry, they're searching, they hate the world or its 'sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.' Then you have P.O.D., and its all about good vibes. I just think we tend to stand out on our own whether we're labeled 'Christian' or not. ... It's God who's blessed us." - Relevant Magazine, Nov/Dec 2003
liveDaily: So much seems to get written about the Christianity angle, but you guys aren't preaching to everybody.
Sonny : We've never denied our faith or anything--that's something that's with us, with or without rock and roll. All of a sudden people were making an issue out of it. If you are genuine and you want to sit down and talk heart-to-heart, and you care, then we could talk about it. I truly love that. But I don't want people to not give the music a chance and go, "Oh, I'm not a Christian," or "I don't believe the same, so I can't listen to it." No, it's rock-and-roll music. We've proven ourselves in the past 12 years, I don't know what else to say.
If anything, it doesn't help. It hinders people from buying the music. You never hear the Beastie Boys as Buddhist hip-hop. They were wild party guys, and all of a sudden they find something that's real and shoot it in there--you never heard, "Oh, now they're Buddhist hip-hop."
We've never used our faith to market anything. I don't know who said there was "rock" and then there's "Christian rock," but I think you should give credit and respect to the people who are singing about what they feel, and not just what everybody wants to hear.
liveDaily: Some quote-unquote "good" Christians even bash you that you actually don't have enough faith. That's pretty harsh.
Sonny: Sometimes, you can't win. You'll never be good enough, or you'll never live up to somebody else's expectations of what your faith is about. It's sad, man. The bottom line, this is me. I'm the man that makes the decisions in my life, and the next man has to do that for himself.
2. Is P.O.D. Rastafarian?
No, They are Christians... "...It's not Rastafarianism, its being around so many different cultures & styles, for example...we grew up
in south S.D. where there are many different nationalities & religions also heavy drug use & etc... so our
perspective about life & God is seeing it first hand
.We've seen God change our parents' lives & our
friends' so there is nothing that can take that away & its as if our up bringing has given us a foundation
in what we believe cause we seen it first hand!"
GW: Did reggae music influence your approach to presenting a spiritual message through music?
Sonny: I think it definitely had a lot to do with it. For me, reggae music was always peaceful. So I think,
growing up, reggae music always kept me a peacemaker. I never listened to "kill your mother" and pimp
and ho" type of music. Like today, a lot of that kind is out there for kids to listen to. And they imitate a lot
of what they hear. But back then I'd listen to a lot of reggae music, and it was 95% scripture-based.
Just stories from the Bible about God watching out for you. So I always had a good mentality that kind
of sunk in. When I started making music, it was just an expression of that.
GW: Can you reconcile Christianity with Rastafarianism?
Sonny: With Rasta, a lot of it is scripture-based. People walk around singing Bob Marley lyrics, but they
don't even know he got that from Psalms or Proverbs or something. The Rastas just kind of twist scripture
their own way. But as far as morality, it's the same. And they believe in Jesus Christ just like we do.
But they believe that the Second Coming of Christ was Haile Selassie. They believe the Second Coming
already happened. So there's differences. (*shrugs*) They smoke a lot of herb, you know? It's a spiritual thing.
-GuitarWorld, Nov 2001
Checkout.com: How do you compromise the gentle side of your spirituality and the aggressiveness of your music?
Sonny: Our faith is what drives us to be even crazier. That's what motivates us. When we get on stage, it's
so personal that we've been given that opportunity to praise God on stage. Even if the crowds don't get into it,
that's 30 minutes on stage between God and us. And it pushes us even more. At the same time, our message
isn't about complaining or whining or you do this, you do that. It's about love. It's all about positivity. There
is a balance in there, we take what God's done with us and we use that on stage.
"I think Rasta and Christianity have come very close together except, you know, obviously the different beliefs of the second coming of Christ and who Christ was," Sandoval explains. "You listen to Marley's tracks and a lot of old-school reggae music, and 95 percent of that is straight scripture. They're telling old Bible hymns and stories about Moses and Noah and Elijah. And now I realize that whenever I've had fights or troubles, I've always looked for peace first. And it's because of a lot of the reggae that I'm listening to is about choosing to accept peace and love rather than hate. So I figured why not incorporate more of that style in our music." - MTV.com 2003
