Skillet frontman John Cooper recently talked about being criticized for sharing the stage with “horrifically un-Christian” artists at rock festivals. Cooper spoke with blogger and podcaster Alisa Childers and said, “There are people that criticize, and, honestly, I don’t even mind it. It’s never even crossed my mind to bother me, just because I’m, like, ‘Hey, they don’t get it and they don’t need to.’ … So I don’t really mind it.“
Cooper said he believes that “rock and roll and the arts does not belong to the devil. The devil may have used it, he may have twisted it, he may have stolen something — which is what the devil does, of course; he comes in and he tries to do something kind of like what God does, right? But he wants to steal the glory and he twists it and he perverts it. I believe that the arts belong to God. Music belongs to God. It is for his glory. And so when I create art and I go and I play music, I believe that it is taking back something, bringing it back under the subjection to Lord Jesus Christ. It all belongs to him. It is for his glory. That world does not belong to the devil. Not everybody necessarily agrees with that.”
Cooper went on to talk about the friendships and respect he has with rock singers who are atheists. “In terms of the bands, I have great friendships with so many atheist rock and roll singers who have shown me a ton of friendship and a ton of respect,” he said. “I’ve been very respected by people who, some of them are atheists and don’t know that they hate the gospel. Some of them are atheists and they are what I would call ‘angry atheists.’ They know they hate the gospel and they are actively at war. Some of them, they just are atheists and they don’t wanna fight. Even the angry atheists that I’ve met, we get along and they’ve always been respectful to me.”
Skillet released their new album, “Dominion” on Jan. 14 via Atlantic Records.
