If you’ve spent any time at all on the internet recently, you have probably run into an article zooming around the web boasting of Natalie Grant’s boldness to stand up for Christ by walking out of the Grammys. Her actions have gained widespread promotion, by Christians, as a statement of disapproval to the lack of tastefulness in the performances held during the award ceremony. I’ll be honest, my first response was, “this is awesome.” How great it is to have a pop-star display their faith publicly and not want to participate in these celebrations. It’s a great thing that she has convictions where many do not in Hollywood. However, I am not sure that we should be so quick to celebrate. After further reflection, here are my reasons why.
Here’s what we need to know – the U.S. is not a Christian country. Â Natalie went to an explicitly secular event. She didn’t go to a religious service. She didn’t attend a function where people claimed to be the religious elite. She went to a celebration filled with people who flaunt sex and idol worship for a living, and they get paid millions for doing it, by US. Ironically, many of the people sharing Natalie’s stand have songs on their iPod by artists that they condemn when they condone Grant’s move. But that’s beside the point. Natalie willingly attended this secular event knowing good and well the content of many of the artists’ songs and lifestyle choices. Consider the implications of this for a moment.
She was among people who openly profess that they have no concern for God. Romans 1 says that this is by their personal suppression of the truth about God. They are sick. They are sin-filled and sin-ruled. They need a doctor. They need a serum, an antidote. This is all public knowledge. This ought to be no surprise to us as believers. We know these people do not hold to the Christian worldview just as we “were once slaves of sin” (Rom 6:17). They don’t hide it from the world and they don’t hide it from us.
Now consider a story. In the sick waiting room of a popular medical practice, a doctor walks in with the antidote. This doctor is not what heals the sick himself, but he is an ambassador for the cure that his patients need, and he willingly and knowingly walked into this waiting room known for having sick people in it. Imagine the response from these sick patients when the doctor walks in, analyzes their situation, has the remedy, and leaves because he cannot stand the visible symptoms of the patients’ illnesses. And imagine that later on, the doctor’s friends find out about this incident and begin boasting about it amongst one another. “Thank God he didn’t touch one of them. How disgusting! How smooth, bold, and cutting it was of him to disapprove of them and celebrate his health in front of them,” they sneer. This is not compassion. This is not love, especially when you consider that this doctor had the very same illness his patients are suffering from! (The emphasis of this illustration is meant to be on the response of the friends. I realize no analogy is perfect.)
This is similar to what happened with Natalie. She walked in knowing good and well what kind of culture we are in. Somehow, taken aback by what she saw, she walked out.
Now I’m not against walking out if you personally can’t handle the content. In fact, I’m not against Natalie Grant’s decision to walk out and I don’t want to question her motives. But I am against Christians celebrating this as some sort of public victory. This isn’t victory. Celebrating this is celebrating the snubbing of our noses at a society who needs the message of the redemption we have! What I mean by snubbing of our noses is the public support of Grant’s decision to leave as if to take some jab at the secular world so they’ll know we disagree with them. I’ve seen so many Christians do this as if they’re surprised that non-Christians behave the way that they do. Of course they’re going to behave as if they’re sick. They ARE sick! And we have the cure and we are the representatives of that cure (2 Corinthians 5:20)! This world does not need Christians who boast of their health over those caught in sin! They need the message of reconciliation that we have. They need the mercy and forgiveness that we ourselves require. That is exactly what I needed when I was still caught in sin, chasing my lusts and living for the pleasures of this world!
This sort of celebratory behavior that condemns the acts of the secular world by expressing disapproval of their behavior at THEIR events is foolish. By expressing disapproval, I mean the public support of Grant’s decision shown by Christians everywhere as if the culture doesn’t know well enough that Christians disagree with them. They didn’t ask for Christian input. We’re taking part in their culture. We shouldn’t be surprised when we see exactly that…their culture. It is no spiritual victory to be foolish enough to take part in their culture (by buying music, watching shows, etc.) and then condemn it by celebrating Grant’s decision to leave the Grammys and then using that as a platform for the condemnation of what took place. Christians lose the battle when they make the decision to go into the culture and aren’t prepared to minister in it. If you don’t have the compassion and mercy to forgive and weep over the sick, then you have two responsibilities:
- Get your heart right. That’s exactly why God still has you here; to be a minister and messenger to a world caught in sin. Don’t be surprised when sinners act like sinners!
- Realize how sick and vile you are before God. Sure, what they do at the Grammys isn’t Christ honoring (and they KNOW that), but our self-righteousness towards their actions is just as wicked and unChristlike! It forgets the fact that you deserve eternal death. It forgets that you deserve eternal rebuke. It forgets that you yourself needed the most perfect and righteous being in existence to die JUST to pay for your mistakes.
We don’t need to celebrate Natalie Grant. We need to celebrate Jesus who has compassion on those caught in adultery (John 4); people like me, you, Natalie, and Beyonce. That compassion drove him to love those people, not snub his nose at them. And it’s his love and forgiveness that transforms us; and them. All this to say, if you want to celebrate a Christian who walks into a secular environment and acts surprised at what they see, the shame is really on you. We know this culture’s sick and we should start acting like it. They know we don’t approve of them and this just gives them one more reason to call us out for being hypocrites.
Sines of the Times 
I agree that she went there knowingly but she went because she was nominated… The analogy to the doctor is inaccurate… The doctor was invited into the room because that was his job… Although we are called to save the lost Natalie was not invited to the event to share her faith…and she didn’t bash anyone… what is being share is complimenting the fact that she left and did it with class… If she was offended she had every right to walk out and she wasn’t the only one many walked out just because it was so ridiculous!!!
Rosalind, thank you so much for your time and response. I agree that she had the right to walk out completely and I stated that I was not against her decision to do so. I realized after your comment that I had allowed some of the language in the article to be more against Natalie rather than the Christians celebrating this as if we’d won some important victory in the public square, therefore I changed some of the wording. The article was not meant to be about her actions, but about Christians everywhere who are supporting her as if to say to the culture “take that! We don’t approve” when we know good and well that’s what they want from us; a response. Thanks for your input!
I understand your point and respect your view. This is very well written. Having said that, I have to agree with Rosalind. I neither applaud nor snub Natalie’s decision to walk out. What did impress me, however, was the way she did it. Quietly. No bashing. No condemning. No judgments. She simply left.
I think, in situations such as this, we have to adhere to the prompting of the Holy Spirit inside us. She obviously did that.
Thank you for the article and your views.
Thank you Andrea. I appreciate your input. I agree with you (and Rosalind) that Natalie Grant handled her situation well. The purpose of the article is not to condemn her or Christians who would have done things the way she did (I myself hope that I would handle a situation that way). What I consider “snubbing the culture” are the Christians that are flaunting her actions around social media, not what Natalie did. I see many, not all, but many, Christians pushing the news of her stance all over their news feeds, many of which have atheist and unconverted friends as if to say “look at what someone on OUR side did.” I don’t think Natalie intended to be used that way at all. My point is simply to say to those pushing her actions as a way to spite the culture to stop because it is not a Christlike way of handling what happened. Thank you for taking time to read and reply!
As for Natalie leaving early, well I would have done the same and rebuked Satan and his demons in Jesus name as I was leaving. Pretty sure Natalie was not expecting to see such filth. All those illuminati singers have pledge their allegiance to Satan and if you are not aware of what is really going on behind the screens it will take you by surprise. Hopefully, people who watch those rituals will come to realize what is really going on in the spiritual realm. I would not want to stick around and watch such disgusting behavior and help them bring the rise of the Anti Christ. That is their main goal and they are becoming more and more public about it so people think it is trendy and cool because they are doing it and when the time comes to take the Mark of the Beast that people will follow along with them especially the children. It is written in The Book of Revelation. All we can do as Christian is pray and minister to those lost souls.
If Natalie Grant wasn’t expecting to see such filth, then she needs to better understand this world and culture we are called to be a missionary to. What else could she have expected in going to a worldly event with worldly people doing worldly things (especially considering what we have seen in the awards shows the past few years)?
We as Christians need to be better understanding of the people and society that we are trying to reach for Christ in order to be better missionaries.
Look up Aquelarre, that was the ritual that Katy Perry performed.
I understand what you’re saying. Natalie didn’t leave because she forgot she’s a sinner saved by grace. She left because she was at a devil worship convention. There’s a difference in not wanting to be around somebody because they’re not born again, and not wanting to be in their home because every night at 6:00PM, they all put out ouija boards and conjure the spirit of Baal. We can’t eat at the table of devils and at The Lord’s table.
There’s also a major difference between accepting a person and condoning their sin. Had Natalie stayed and turned her head away, she would have been condoning Katy Perry worshiping satan. She wasn’t walking away from a sick, sinner in need. She was walking away from someone openl worshiping Satan which could have been detrimental to her own spiritual walk with God. “Come out from among them and be ye seperate.” “Bad company corrupts good manners.”
Jesus loved sinners. He was around them, he was not hanging out with them. There is a difference. That “Ceremony” was a hangout. It’s no different than Jack Black praying to the devil at the MTV awards a few years back. Had I been there, I’d have walked out during that prayer. Loving people and showing them grace and mercy does not mean staying in the same room as they perform their debauchery. That would have made her a partaker in the sin of witchcraft.
I tried to be clear in the article that I had written it to address the arrogance of other Christians celebrating it as if it had been some sort of substantial victory, while in reality, our celebration of it simply confirms that we’re a bunch of snobbish, uptight bigots. I’m not against her leaving (as I said in the article), however, I would say that her presence at the event already condoned sin as she was at an event known for exulting in cultural values – sex, greed, and power.