Kevin McCullough of WYLL

Date: 25 Apr 2003 10:12:17 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.artists.amy-grant
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http://www.rfmnews.com/nm/publish/news_24.html
RFM NEWS GUEST COMMENTARY
by WYLL Radio's Kevin McCullough
Chicago, Illinois
www.RFMNEWS.com
email-address-deleted
Paradoxical behavior sometimes tolerated by people of faith and
conservatives
"And let me be really clear here. By sleeping with someone who is not
your husband and, in fact, when that person you are sleeping with is
actually someone else's husband, YOU are jeopardizing the health and
stability of not one, but two families."
- Kevin McCullough -
"Amy Grant & Vince Gill" by WYLL Radio's Kevin McCullough
In Chicago this weekend, Amy Grant & Vince Gill were raking in dollars
from conservatives and people of faith!
"Oh just go listen to her, Kevin, give her chance," came the
considerable urging of my friends.
So, Saturday night, there I am, finding myself winding the back roads
of Rosemont, Illinois, trying to get to "the event" for the
weekend...Amy Grant and Vince Gill live in concert. Arriving, just on
time, getting to my seat, which was about 18 rows back of center
stage, I had just enough time left to say "Hi" to a few friends
sitting nearby. One of whom could not resist.
"Kev! Surprised to see you here!"
"Well, hey, the opening act looks good and we'll see what happens,"
was about the only response I could muster up.
Okay, a little history for you.
Amy Grant has been doing "Christian" music for over eighteen years.
Throughout her early days, I became a fan and faithfully bought every
record/tape/cd she made. At a previous station where I worked,
coworkers regularly tried to "stump" me by seeing if I knew a vague
line of lyric from one of her albums. I was seldom stumped. As a young
man, wanting to put positive messages into my brain, I found Christian
music to be the kind of reinforcement I needed to make my choices.
Amy's music was positive, fun and upbeat. She literally "began" an
entire genre of commercially successful music, and many Christian
musicians since owe their commercial success to the lady that really
did make it popular.
Amy Grant enjoyed a parallel stream of success in pop music as well.
Some of her songs, centering more around the idea of positive
relationships, were added to pop radio's playlists and soon Amy stood
on a platform amongst Christian recording artists that was truly head
and shoulders above all others.
Many conservative-minded people were the ones buying Christian music,
Grant's included. And as the eighties gave way to the nineties,
conservatives and people of faith made Christian music the fastest
growing music in terms of sales increases and in new radio formats
hitting the dial. The term "CCM" (Contemporary Christian Music) became
a more regularly known term and the groups in CCM (Michael W. Smith,
D.C. Talk, Jars Of Clay) became stars.
Through it all, no one benefited more than the lady who was already
sitting atop the heap.
In the nineties, there were troubles for Grant as well. Her longtime
marriage to the man who wrote her very first number one song, Gary
Chapman, was shaky. Her independence, wealth and lack of
accountability did not really create for her any need to try and
salvage the marriage. The marriage was dissolved and Christian music's
number one star, and someone who had avoided the ugly headlines that
two other troubled Christian music artists, Sandi Patti and Michael
English, had lived through, seemed to be at peace with herself and the
world around her.
But, over time, the truth was known.
Amy soon married country crooner Vince Gill. Amy and Vince, as far
back as the early days of the nineties, had become friends, but as her
own music betrayed her. The two were soon "deeply in love."
I remember being a music director at a radio station when her single
came out titled, "It Takes A Little Time." Having been tipped off as
to the "close friendship" that Amy and Vince were experiencing, having
seen her credit him on the CD's credits--with no mention of her
husband, and after listening to the lyrics of that song, which should
never have been released to Christian stations, made it all too clear.
Amy Grant was experiencing a marriage that was dying. And it was
dying, in part, because of her refusal to give up an illicit
relationship, a relationship strictly forbidden by the faith that she
had proclaimed from the stage for so many years.
And let me be really clear here. By sleeping with someone who is not
your husband and, in fact, when that person you are sleeping with is
actually someone else's husband, YOU are jeopardizing the health and
stability of not one, but two families.
In her own song, "Love Will Find a Way," Grant wrote the lyrics for a
woman responding to a letter concerning marital infidelity.
As Amy came out on the stage at the concert Saturday night here in
suburban Chicago, she did lots of her old songs. Sometimes, I would
catch myself reliving moments and places in my life based on what song
she was singing.
She did the song "It Takes A Little Time," and like a knife through my
heart, I was back in my old office, holding that CD for the first time
and with some fairly horrific feelings inside.
People of faith, and conservatives in particular, were outraged when a
nation's President would let an ogling intern give him unspoken
pleasures. People of faith criticized Hillary for allowing his
philandering to continue. People of faith were further outraged when
that President lied to cover it up.
People of faith and, yes, even conservatives, were some of the 49
people lined up outside the Mishawaka, Indiana, police station as
Madelyne Toogood was brought in for beating her four year old daughter
Martha. She was caught when the beating was filmed on a security video
tape. In one interview, a lady waiting for the car carrying Toogood to
arrive said, "I just want to give her a piece of my mind for treating
her kid like that."
People of faith sometimes wonder why an outside world looks at them as
though they are hypocritical. Well, let's remove the "wondering" from
the scenario. Others look at people of faith as hypocrites because
while President Clinton is booed for engaging in illicit and immoral
behavior (as he should be), people of faith were, by the thousands,
filling seats in suburban Chicago Saturday night, applauding Amy as
she raved about what a "good" man Vince Gill was. People of faith are
seen as double minded when we condemn Madelyne Toogood for slapping
her kid around in the car--and then say nothing when the children of
one marriage must now be split between three or more homes.
People of faith get pummeled because we have yet to step up to the
plate.
Or, then again, have we?
I left the Grant concert early to avoid any more of Ms. Grant's glib
comments about her formerly adulterous husband who is now a "good"
man.
I got home just in time to see Miss Illinois Erika Harold be named
Miss America 2003 on national TV. Throughout her pageant life, Erika
Harold has been an unashamed Christian who encourages young people to
live moral lives. Erika, through her own example, encourages kids to
abstain from sexual activity until marriage and, once married, to live
monogamously for life (note to Ms. Grant).
Erika Harold genuinely lives out of her faith. The new Miss America
says she hopes to run for office someday. I hope she does.
In my opinion, it is time to replace high profile personalities who
have an obligation to live morally. And that goes for politicians, as
well as singers.
And did I mention that Miss America sings, too?