ARE WE A PEOPLE AT HALF TIME? - Leadership Network

Scott: Maybe the whole struggle
and the whole search and the
whole desire to ask questions
and find the truth is what makes
us Christians.
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally
Doug: There are Christian singers
who sing whole albums and don’t
say a thing about God in them and
they are sponsored by Christian
radio stations and Christian
festivals, and then there are you
guys, sponsored by whomever
you’re sponsored by and you’re
singing about God in about every
third song, it seems like. So what
do you say to people when they
say, ‘Are you a Christian band’
scott: I say we’re not. The first
thing is the other three guys in my
band, you know, they don’t believe
the same way I do. I write all the
lyrics so they’re just kind of
thrown into these beliefs. They got
in the band to be rock stars in the
classic sense of the word. And
now, all of a sudden, they’re hit
with all this stuff that they didn’t
ask for. And this responsibility, you
know, if they want to drink beers
or whatever, I’m like, ‘Would you
please pour that in a cup before we
go to autograph sessions’ Not a
clear cup. I just don’t want you to
influence some little kid who came
to the show at 12 years old and
who is a Christian kid and thinks
we’re a Christian band. I don’t
want to be a stumbling block for
him. Whether we are or not, now
all of a sudden they have a
responsibility and they didn’t ask
for it. They wanted the partying of
being a rock star. And so it’s kind
of thrust on them because of the
lyrics and it’s put a lot of responsibility
on three other guys who
totally didn’t ask for it and they
just wanted to be like any other
typical rock star.
This album specifically was that
whole break-away thing for me
from the Church, and just kind of
setting off and dealing with the
anger. I was very angry. I was very
bitter.
Doug: In “What’s This Life For”–
when you use the swear word in
there–was that intentional to make
a statement
scott: That’s a quote. A friend of
mine had committed suicide. In
his suicide letter he wrote, ‘Now
who’s settled the God damn
score,’ and then blew his head off.
I wrote that line because that song
was inspired by that whole
(L-R) Doug Pagitt, manager of Leadership Network’s Young Leader Networks; Scott Stapp,
of Creed and Chris Seay, pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.
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situation and in a situation Mark
went through.
By putting that line in there, that
song was all about trying to reach
out. Like this is what I would have
said to him if I could have talked
to him an hour before or a day
before. And I’ve gotten a lot of
criticism for that but I don’t care
because a lot of people don’t know
why I did what I did. I was very
opposed to them making an edit
on that because I wasn’t damning
God. I wasn’t saying that in anger
at God. And I can understand the
respect factor. We have to respect
people and this is a word that
even people who don’t believe in
God feel is like one of the worst
expressions that you can make. I
just really felt that it was important
and necessary to be there because
I wasn’t trying to reach people
who had their lives together with
that song. I wasn’t trying to reach
Christians. Another thing is you’ve
got to think about who you’re
trying to reach. And the people
that I’m trying to reach, they’ll
understand that and that might
make them go, whoa. And they’ll
hear that and they’ll identify with
that anger. They’ll identify with
that feeling and it’ll make them
listen. There’s an answer right
after ‘But we all live under the
reign of one king.’ This one guy
came up to me and he said, ‘I
turned your album on and I had
just finished writing my suicide
letter and I was sitting on my bed
with a gun and I was going to
blow my head off and I got to
‘What’s This Life For’ and I just
started crying. Thank you.’
I don’t want to be this band or
this writer that people don’t
understand. I want people to
understand what we’re doing. I
think a lot of people say it is really
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Note: Lyrics from the song My Own Prison from the album by the same name