Amy Grant And The Pitfall Of Being Liked By The World

The story about Amy Grant and her plans to host a homosexual wedding are a grave warning to believers. Amy Grant achieved both fame and esteem in the world through contemporary Christian music (CCM). Yet she also became spiritually compromised during the process. This is an all too common phenomenon among Christian celebrities.

It can be discouraging to believers to see celebrities they thought shared their faith go down a dark path. And perhaps we are in need of some edification for when we see these events happen.

Although I do not listen to CCM, I am into sports, and the fact that Tim Tebow sounds like Joel Osteen these days is troubling. Or the fact that the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty let their daughter pretend to be a preacher. Celebrity culture is toxic and filled with temptations, but it may have also been the giving into temptations that helped men achieve societal stature in the first place. Amy Grant is not unique, but her pitfall is all to common in the church. Amy Grant wants to be liked by the world. And she got what she wanted.

What did it cost? Everything.

⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵² From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Luke 12:51-53 NASB1995

Jesus comes to create division, a division between good and evil. When evil came to Grant’s household, she refused to stand up for righteousness. And here we are now, with her hosting a gay wedding ceremony.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

John 15:18-23 NASB1995

Jesus makes is clear that the world will not like Christians. Wanting to be liked by the world is a witness contrary to what believers can expect. We should expect the world to hate us, because they hated Christ first. We should remember to please God and not men.