Weblog: Christian Media's Surges and Skirmishes
"Plus: Pat Robertson twice slammed for Liberia ties, and other stories."
Ted Olsen | posted 10/01/2001 12:00AM
Christian music gets even more popular after 9/11
While general music sales are in a terrible slump both in the U.S. and abroad (is there an industry—apart from military technology and antibiotics companies—that is doing well?), Christian music is set to sell more albums than ever this year. Thank the terrorists: Christian and gospel music sales grew more than 20 percent in the three weeks following 9/11. Those sales helped raise third-quarter numbers to a 9 percent overall growth. (Frequent Weblog readers will remember that Bible and Christian book sales figures have also risen dramatically since the terrorist attacks, both in the U.S. and around the world).
Christian music got another boost this week: the American Music Awards announced it will include a "contemporary inspirational" category this year. The show will air on ABC January 9, 2002.
But Christian artists may want to be wary of some kinds of recognition. Weblog received a press release yesterday announcing that pop-punk band Relient K received an exclusive partnership deal with retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. "Hopefully, through this, Relient K will be able to begin making their thumbprint on our culture," says Joey Elwood, president of the band's label, Gotee Records. Only one problem: Abercrombie & Fitch is currently corporate enemy #1 for many conservative Christians. The company's racy catalog has been targeted by Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, National Review, even the National Organization for Women. Illinois Lt. Gov. Corrine Wood and the American Decency Association are at the forefront of boycotts. Gotee should expect a pretty hostile response—and readers can expect some interesting damage control from Gotee.
The sure-to-ensue controversy reminds Weblog of a November 1999 piece in Focus on the Family's Plugged In magazine, which criticized Christian bands for allowing their music to appear on "sexually or occultly driven" television shows like Dawson's Creek, Charmed, and MTV's Undressed. Since then, Christian music has only increased as soundtrack potential: witness Superchick's enthusing on its official site: "A lot of neat things have happened, and in case you haven't gotten the full list, we've had songs in the winter X-Games, MTV's real world, WB's Jack and Jill, commercials for the new ABC show Alias, Legally Blonde (soundtrack too!), the movie Glasshouse and more stuff is underway." Maybe the success of Christian music will allow some popular bands not to see it as a belittlement.
British regulator/watchdog to Christian radio station: Don't attack other religions
The Radio Authority, which is like Britain's version of the FCC (but not completely), is threatening Premier Christian Radio with "substantial sanctions" for breaking broadcasting rules. What did Premier do? One broadcast said the Qur'an and other non-Christian scriptures were "full of superstition and absurdities." On another broadcast, Michael Yusef said, "I don't understand the crazy idea that is dished to the folks in the liberal church that a person can be a good Christian and a practicing homosexual." The Radio Authority took this as a violation of the Program Code, which says, "Theological debate and disagreement may occur within religious programs; however, programs and/or follow-up material must not be used to denigrate or attack the beliefs of other people." The Radio Authority dismissed several other complaints (PDF, see pp. 8-11) against the radio station, most of which were brought by the Mysticism and Occultism Federation. But these were absolutely ridiculous:
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