HOW IT FEELS WHEN RUSH LIMBAUGH AND FOX NEWS PULL YOUR MUSIC INTO THE CULTURE WARS

Last Thursday, Rush Limbaugh and Chris Stirewalt at Fox News pulled my work into the culture wars. It sucked.

Some years ago, Christian recording artist Rich Mullins gave me a cassette tape of demos, among which was the song Awesome God. We cut the master a few weeks later, in Nashville. Rich was later killed in a crash driving to a concert, but the song lives on in a way few do. It is not an exaggeration to say that one can walk into an evangelical church in Kenya or Brazil or New Zealand, sing the 1st line, and have the congregation immediately pick it up from there. The song is lingua franca to evangelicals, a kind of uniting declaration above the niceties of theology, politics, and geography. Christian artist Michael W. Smith ended his concerts with the song for years, and describes having his hair stand on end with the sound of thousands singing it back to him around world — often in their own languages. As much as any song in popular Christian music, it unites. Which is why seeing it used as a bludgeon by radio talking head Rush Limbaugh is so, so depressing.

The recent mass shootings in San Bernadino and Georgia have put prayer and faith in the crosshairs. People on the left find irony in Republican leaders offering nothing more prayers, condolences, and the religiously-neutral “thoughts” to families of the victims. The firebrand image for this position was brought courtesy of the New York Daily News, which called out Republican leaders as “cowards”.

Meanwhile, some on the right interpret this as nothing less than open war on religion. Want to know where I stand? Sick of them both. Maybe you feel me.

Last week, Fox writer Stirewalt singled out an Obama reference to Awesome God in a piece about declining numbers of voting evangelicals. Stirewalt writes,

“Back when Obama could really deliver from the podium, one of his very best lines was about how ‘we worship an awesome God in the blue states.’ The language was no accident. Awesome God is the name of one of the most popular evangelical worship songs of the last generation.”

Enter Rush Limbaugh, who quoted Stirewalt’s piece extensively, and weighed in with typical cynicism and vitriol. For Limbaugh, just hearing those 2 words together — Awesome God — in Obama’s voice is, by definition, nothing more than a deceitful attempt to mollify Christians, among whom Obama must not count himself. Refusing to believe Obama meant the words at face value, Limbaugh stated on air,

“That’s not what Obama meant when he talked about Awesome God.”

For Limbaugh, Obama was merely lulling real Christians to sleep, until once in power, he sensed his moment to unveil his true agenda: the destruction of Christian values:

“We’re dealing with truly deranged, sick, dangerous people . . .Who have these people on the left become? Well, who have they always been that they are now revealing themselves to be . . . to them everything is political, and everything is about two things: destroying their political opponents and advancing their own political agenda.”

Then comes the predictable list of ugly character assassinations: CNN reporters actively hoped a Planned Parenthood facility was near the San Bernadino shooting; “leftists” actually celebrate — “get excited” is the precise term Limbaugh used — when such tragedies happen, because it gives them a chance to destroy religion and attack civil liberties. And so on. And there, dangling in the middle, is a song of simple worship, getting used for the exact opposite purpose for which it was intended.

So, if you, Mr. Limbaugh, see this: You represent the opposite of everything I, the producer of the song, and Rich Mullins, the late author of it, believe about what it means to be a Christian. Mullins was an unabashed liberal and stood firmly against most of your positions. Further, you do not speak to or for millions of well-intentioned believers who are equally turned off by both sides of this ugly confrontation. Fortunately, the millions who sing Awesome God every week don’t have to meet the standards of what you think they should mean before opening their mouths.

Meanwhile, I ask you, Mr. Limbaugh, a question. Let us suppose that you are correct that President Obama quoted the song as a cynical pander to evangelicals. Is that more cynical than you photoshopping yourself into a crucifixion scene on your own website?

Pot, meet the kettle.

@reedarvin