Recently I had the privilege of attending Winter Jam. The following day at work, my co-worker who covered for me inquired about my absence. I went on to tell him that I went to a Christian concert. He asked who was playing there, and I said some Christian rock bands which included the headliners, the Newsboys and Kutless.
He is currently an unbeliever, so I wasn’t that surprised when he said he never heard of them before. Then I mentioned that RED had also performed there. Well, he had heard of them, and, in fact, was even a fan of them. My coworker even remarked that they were pretty good and had some great songs. It even surprised him that they were a Christian band.
He then thought aloud about “that other Christian rock band…” that he knew of but couldn’t think of. I tried to fill in his blank by offering up the names Skillet and Thousand Foot Krutch, Christian artists who have had some mainstream success. He then responded “Thousand Foot Krutch… I didn’t know they were a Christian band.”
This conversation disturbed me because he never once thought about RED and TFK’s lyrics and how it made them different from other rock bands. So I’m wondering if I should be enthusiastic that Christian rock artists have successfully infiltrated mainstream rock or if I should be troubled that my unbelieving co-worker had no idea that there is something different about those artists?
— Nathaniel Schexnayder