American Idol “Shouts to the Lord”
Ok, I admit - the wife and I love to watch American Idol. I was in my home office tonight studying for class tomorrow and as tonight’s American Idol episode was ending I heard the contestants singing “Shout to the Lord”. I had to get up and go in the den to watch this one! But….
Update - A few hours after I wrote this post I’ve since been told that they changed the words and left out Jesus and replaced it with Shepherd. (I didn’t catch that in my state of awe as I was watching them perform this song.) What a shame! At least they didn’t bleep out Dolly Parton’s song and make her change the lyrics for the show the previous week.
My prayer was that the millions of young people who watch this show have been noticing not only tonight’s performance of such a great song (albeit changed but hoping they will run to iTunes to buy the song and here it fully) but also the stellar performance by country great Dolly Parton in her song “Jesus & Gravity”. While I’m not usually a fan of contemporary Christian music and don’t agree with everything she sings in her song, I must say that it’s so refreshing to hear the name of Jesus praised on television instead of used as a four letter filth-word. Dolly’s attitude is also one of joy and historically she has been bold in proclaiming Christ. Her performance of “He’s Alive” (I believe on the Country Music Awards in 1989) is astounding.
I was listening to Todd Friel on “Way of the Master Radio” yesterday and he was also talking about Dolly Parton’s performance on Americal Idol. He was comparing it to the performance by the country group singing “This Little Light of Mine.”
So what are your thoughts on the latest use of Christian songs on American Idol? What about how they changed the lyrics? I rarely blog on stuff like this but their singing this popular Christian song last night struck a chord with me - just not sure what that chord sounds like.
Here are the lyrics to Shout to the Lord by Darlene Zschech…
My Jesus, My Savior
Lord there is none like You
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My Comfort, My Shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship YouShout to the Lord, all the earth
Let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name
I sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Forever I’ll love you, forever I’ll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in
YOU!My Jesus, My Savior
Lord there is none like You
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My Comfort, My Shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship YouShout to the Lord, all the earth
Let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name
I sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Forever I’ll love you, forever I’ll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in
YOU!let the earth sing
i declare your great name
all of my life i will
with all of my breath
i will praise you
lift it up, life it upnothing compares to you
i shout your praise
nothing compares to you
Nothing compares to the promise I have in YOU!

The problem is they took JESUS out of the song.
Now the song can be sung about any Lord.
Made me sick to my stomach as I know Darlene wrote that song to praise Jesus Christ.
It’s “My Jesus” not “My shepherd”. What a terrible ending to something that was supposed to do so much good. I am stunned and upset that this song of praise and worship to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was misused. American Idol could have picked any other song. But then again, why am I surprized?
Janice, Grant County, Arkansas
First, I love this song and was glad (but surprised) to here the idol finalists sing it. However, although I might be wrong (I was paying perfect attention), but I think they changed the words slightly and, did in fact, leave out the name of Jesus. If I’m wrong, please correct me, but I think instead of singing “My Jesus, My Savior” they said something like “my Shepherd, my Savior”. If that is a fact, then that was slightly disappointing because without actually using the name of Jesus, they could have been singing it to any “lord”.
I think it is ironic that a “Praise the Lord” song was sung after an entire show about how unfairly and needlessly innocent people are suffering and dying!
Why praise God for this!?
Some God!
I would have chosen a song praising human compassion to overcome God’s indifference!
Unfortunately, they didn’t start the song with “My Jesus.” They sang instead, “My Shepherd, My savior, Lord there is none like you.” All the other words were the same as Darlene wrote the song. I’m wondering why the name of Jesus was left out.
Unfortunately, they didn’t start the song the way Darlene Zcheck wrote it. Instead of singing, “My Jesus, My savior,” they sang, “My Shepherd, My Savior” I’m wondering why they left the name of Jesus out.
While I can agree with you it is possible that people will go to the stores and hopefully buy this beautiful song, I am still upset that they decided to take Jesus out of the equation. Without Jesus it is just another song that they sing. There is no praising God when it is not the God of the Bible. It is almost like the way many churches practice evangelism. They hand out free gifts to people in the hope that those same people will then ask them about their faith. They won’t mention the name of Jesus UNLESS someone asks them first. What ever happened to being BOLD for Christ? What ever happened to fulfilling the Great Commission. GO INTO ALL THE WORLD PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE! The gospel message is about Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!
When I look at how much time people spend watching TV and compare that to how much time they spend talking to people about the things of God, it really does show what they value MOST in life!
I heard the song in the distance as my roommate was watching idol, so I turned on my TV — it was moving, for sure (although I didn’t notice the word change).
I was thinking, can this be for real?
And then immediately after the song ended, they had a little ending clip of the guy showing up at the empty theater and complaining about the joke, and he kept saying, f*** Seacrest. And then I remembered that the song was just a song, and television was just as blasphemous as it ever was.
There were so many Jesus moments during America idol last night… they showed people praying… people wearing the cross… symbols of Jesus including the crucifix in Africa… and despite changing the words, they gave glorious praise to Christ in the final moments. The Lord is Our Shepherd. We should be excited that Christ was so visibly part of this event and not complaining that “we would have done it differently”.
“There is no praising God when it is not the God of the Bible.”
WHAT?? Did I read that right???
People of other religions believe in God too, you know, and their conception of God is JUST AS VALID as the Christian one.
Please don’t be a bigot and say that YOUR idea of God is the ONLY valid one - despite what Jesus says about “I am the way” blah blah…
…Jesus also says “Give up all your posessions and follow me”. Have you done that???
Why not??????
On Christian radio they are talking about the subject that the name of Jesus was left out and brought up this verse that made alot of sense… Paul write in Philippians 1:15-18 “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am chains. BUT WHAT DOES IT MATTER? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” I think we all need to be rejoicing as Christians that this song was even sung on TV.
Let me just say that I struggle big time with the title “American IDOL”. The bible clearly, without question states that we are to have NO NO NO other idols but worship the Lord only. OK, with that out of the way, this show is in no way shape or form a “Christian” program. How can we put our standards on programing that has no Biblical foundation? It doesn’t surprize me one bit that they took the name of Jesus out of the song because the evil one hates that name and what it stands for and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. So, no surprize here…this is the world and it’s ways.
I heard about the controversy today and went to watch the video on Youtube. They very clearly say Jesus at the beginning of the song. Is this an urban legend? Or is there more than one version that aired or was recorded for Youtube?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6WOzF9ZGA7A
The story becomes much more interesting to me if they sang it one way and dubbed over it, or if someone has actually launched an urban legend campaign defaming Idol for picking such an awesome worship song.
Ok, nevermind, I see now that they did two different versions of the song. That seems really odd that they redid it. I never watch Idol, is it common for them to re-preform songs?
Hi Kevin, what probably happened is they did not have permission to change the words in the song and the artist got on to them. For a secular show like American Idol to perform this song two nights in a row would be a rarity - so most likely they were called on changing the lyrics.
There has been a ton of discussion across the net on this song being performed on American Idol - the comments are across the board - some upset and some rejoicing over it. Bottom line - Christians need to live their lives with boldness for Christ in all they do! While it was a great surprise to hear this song performed for millions of young people on this popular secular tv show, it’s not something we can expect as a regular thing on television today. Even “christian” television such as TBN is packed with heresy and blasphemy. We need to let our light shine in the world - all of the world. Not just on Sunday mornings! Amen! (Sorry for the sermon!)