Posted on 06/17/2014 1:40:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tim Lambesis, lead singer and founder of Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying, recently confessed that he and other members of his band had become atheists but kept claiming to be Christians so they could keep making money selling records to Christians.
In a wide-ranging interview with Alternative Press shortly before he was sentenced to six years in prison last month for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife, Meggan Murphy Lambesis, the singer addressed a claim he made last year in a YouTube video about his spiritual allegiance after fans started saying he had become a Satanist.
"A month before your arrest, you posted a YouTube video addressing fans who felt your new side project, Pyrithion, was 'satanic.' I remember watching the video at the time and noticing you never gave the easy answer: 'Of course not. I'm a Christian!' You knew people thought of you as a Christian. Weren't you lying by omission?" asked AP's West Coast editor, Ryan J. Downey, of the singer in the interview.
Lambesis responded: "Yes. If you say, 'This is what I believe, you can count on this. If you believe the same things, I'm on your team.' A lot of Christian parents said, 'Yes, you can buy this As I Lay Dying CD, because they're a Christian band.' They don't even think to actually check the lyrics. So when you change your views, you kind of owe it to the fans to be honest."
He explained that he was afraid of revealing his true thoughts about God because he was afraid it would affect the record sales of his band; so he simply chose to just say, "I'm not a Satanist" as a cover.
"As far as the [YouTube] video I did explaining Pyrithion's lyrics … I was trying to put out a fire. I was afraid it would affect As I Lay Dying sales, which would affect my overall income. I was trying to put out the fire by saying the easiest thing, 'I'm not a satanist!'" he explained.
"Truthfully, I was an atheist. The 'strategy' I had at the time was cowardly. Two of the songs on that record were about coming to grips with the idea that life has no purpose, no meaning. These were negative themes I wasn't 'allowed' to deal with in As I Lay Dying songs. I thought making As I Lay Dying darker would be bad for my career. That was my thinking," he said.
Lambesis noted that the majority of "Christian bands" he encountered while he was on tour had taken similar positions – where they were simply working to collect a check.
"We toured with more 'Christian bands' who actually aren't Christians than bands that are. In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands," he said.
He also explained that he wasn't the first member of As I Lay Dying to give up on Christianity.
"I actually wasn't the first guy in As I Lay Dying to stop being a Christian. In fact, I think I was the third. The two who remained kind of stopped talking about it, and then I'm pretty sure they dropped it, too," he said.
"We talked about whether to keep taking money from the 'Christian market.' We had this bizarrely 'noble' thing, like, 'Well, we're not passing along any bad ideas. We're just singing about real life stuff. Those kids need to hear about real life, because they live in a bubble,'" he added.
He said after a while, the double life had become awkward.
"I remember one Christian festival where an interviewer wanted one of the guys [in the band] to share his testimony, and he just froze up and let one of the guys who was still a Christian at the time answer the question. We laughed about it afterward, but we were only laughing because it was so awkward," said Lambesis.
"When kids would want to pray with us after shows, I'd be like, 'Um, go ahead and pray!' I would just let them pray. I'd say 'Amen.' If praying while I have my hand on their shoulder makes them feel better, I didn't want to take that away from them. When they would specifically ask me to pray for something, I'd say, 'I don't really like to pray out loud, but I'll take that with me to the bus," said the singer.
Lambesis was arrested on May 7, 2013, in Oceanside, California, for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife and subsequently sentenced to six years in prison on May 16, 2014.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Huh, I’m not the only one then?
Similarly, I am saddened that so many songs now make the person the focal point of the music. Such as: I am so sad and weary, woe is me, but somehow I must march on and make it through life... make it through life... make it through life...
Sheesh.
Heaping up gratuitous condemnations seems to be great sport on the FR Religion Forum. I see whole threads dedicated to it ...
I think some of these songs are fine to listen to out of church but as far as worship goes, they are terribly lacking.
An apt word spoken is like... well you look it up. Well chosen music will act as a reflective backdrop to whatever the sermon is going to be that day. How “deep” it is, may not be the most important feature.
>> repeating the same lyrics over and over again like some Tibetan chant
You’re referring to “7-11” worship music: 7 words, repeated 11 times.
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. I don’t care for it myself. I’m a traditional hymn guy.
This Catholic dude agrees with you (and me) too:
No, it’s not.
There’s room to chide people to be sincere about what they’re doing (this Lambesis chap wasn’t), but there is a happy balance too. You don’t have to imply that total deviltry is going on somewhere that this is not clearly the case. As Jesus says, don’t judge by appearances, but make a just judgment.
Were you there?
You and Ann have something in common - righteous rage over "false" Christians through a laundry list of failures, none of which including the word "love."
"Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Matthew 22:37-40
Which is interesting, because that was a word Jesus was particularly interested in. So if you're going to damn someone for not following Jesus' teachings, I figured that word - love - might be somewhere in your list of assessment issues. But I don't see it anywhere. I wonder what that means? Let's ask Jesus, shall we?
"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
- Matthew 7:5
As a metal fan I can applaud Dave for how he lives his life and plays his music even if I don’t share his faith.
Yes ... tell that to the regular contributors to the FR Religion Forum.
Were you?
I go to any church I want and I'm Christian. Some play the organ and some play the guitar. They didn't play organs at the churches founded by Paul. The OT explicitly names instruments that should be played such as the timbrel (a drum) and harp (a stringed instrument). Kinda sounds like super-fun rock-band church, eh?
At least I don't go a church where a man wearing a dress sodomizes boys while the congregation mumbles prayers to dead people like the heathen do.
Heaping up gratuitous condemnations is a very good way to insulate yourself from the truly spiritual, to miss much of the grace of Christ.
...’cept in this particular case, he’s 100% correct...
Ping to #54.
For example.
Yuck!!!!!!!
“I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist”. Great book.
As far as using Christianity to peddle goods, he ain’t the first, and he won’t be the last.
“People who go to Super-Fun Rock-Band Church aren’t really Christian, anyway.”
The Bible of course makes no mention of required instruments to be used; and there is no song list included either.
Music is used to praise and worship God. There is no requirement to only use hymns from the time period of 1850 -1950 from red hymnals.
I find it humorous when people somehow think a guitar is somehow not allowed to make music in a church!
The story in this article suggests however that these guys were imposters however.
Ping to #54.
For example.
...not a good example of the religion forum...most of the Romaphobes comments are much harsher than #54...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.