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The debate has raged for nearly two years. Is rock singer Bob Dylan—who reportedly became a Christian in 1979—still a Christian? Has he returned to Judaism, the religion of his childhood? Or is he simply a seeker of truth who doesn't fully commit himself to any one religion?

Dylan might put an end to such speculation during this summer's 1984 Olympic Games. He has been asked to participate in an Olympics evangelistic outreach. The singer has not given a firm answer. But according to Paul Emond, a former pastor who is a friend of Dylan, the singer is considering the invitation. As entertainment chairman for the Olympics Outreach Working Committee, Emond asked Dylan to be a part of the mass evangelistic effort.

"He had a thousand opportunities to say, 'Look, Paul, that's just not my bag anymore. Don't you get the hint?'," Emond says. "That's not where he's coming from at all."

Emond says he helped lead Dylan to Christ in 1979, the year Dylan's songs took a decidedly Christian turn. The album he released later that year, Slow Train Coming, contained a clear Christian message—as did his 1980 and 1981 releases.

The Christian proclamations were significant because of Dylan's reputation as a musical prophet to the sixties generation. He burst into stardom during the mid-1960s with songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and "Mr. Tambourine Man." Many of his songs were critical of American society and U.S. government policy. The singer's music helped shape the world view of American youth entering a period of public protests against the Vietnam War.

Because his fans were unaccustomed to hearing him praise God, Dylan's statements of faith in 1979 immediately came under fire. After Slow Train Coming was released, Rolling Stone magazine said the album's biblical references were nothing more than a continuation of Dylan's familiar use of religious imagery. In 1982, New York magazine quoted an unnamed source who said Dylan had never forsaken Judaism for Christianity. Time and Newsweek last year published a photograph of Dylan—wearing a yarmulke, prayer shawl, and phylacteries—at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall. (The rock singer was in Israel for his son's bar mitzvah.)

Emond says Dylan is regularly misrepresented in the media. For example, he says it is wrong to conclude that Dylan's participation in a bar mitzvah means he is embracing Judaism. According to Emond, Dylan's bar mitzvah appearance merely underscores the singer's understanding of the proper relationship between Old Testament faith and New Testament faith.

"I don't think he ever left his Jewish roots," Emond says. "I think he was one of those fortunate ones who realized that Judaism and Christianity can work very well together, because Christ is just Yeshua ha'Meshiah [Jesus the Messiah]. And so he doesn't have any problems about putting on a yarmulke and going to a bar mitzvah, because he can respect that. And the] recognizes that maybe those people themselves will recognize who Yeshua ha'Meshiah is one of these days."

Others interpret Dylan's ties with Judaism differently. His meetings last year with Hasidic Jews caused some to wonder if he was returning to Judaism.

"He's been going in and out of a lot of things, trying to find himself," says Rabbi Kasriel Kastel, of the Brooklyn Lubavitch center. "And we've just been making ourselves available." The Lubavitch movement tries to renew the commitment of inactive Jews through education. Dylan studied with Lubavitch members while he was in New York to record his latest album, Infidels.

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May (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45