Skillet’s John Cooper Encourages Believers To ‘Celebrate Freedom In Christ No Matter What’
By Movieguide® Contributor
In January, the acclaimed Christian rock group Skillet released their 11th album, “Dominion.”
The album skyrocketed to the top of the iTunes charts in just one month, landing at the No. 1 spot. In a recent interview with the Christian Post, frontman John Cooper spoke about the inspirations behind the music.
“The reason that [“Dominion”] is so meaningful to me is that we’re living in a time that the government is trying to act like God, and that has become an idolatrous, statist philosophy,” he explained. “When the government is trying to be, ‘We’re the god, we’re the father, we’re going to tell you what is righteous. In fact, Christians, we’re going to shut you up because we know what’s righteous, and you Christians are wicked.’ Now, that is an absolute, idolatrous government.”
“I’ve been a Christian musician now for 25 years,” Cooper continued. “A lot of people said, ‘John, why have you become so outspoken in the last few years?’ I’ve always been quite outspoken about my faith in shows, but something has changed in culture that has made it all the sudden where I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s now or never.'”
Cooper noted that non-Christians aren’t shy about sharing their beliefs and encouraged Christians to be more outspoken about their faith.
“They’ll tell you what they think about everything, and they’re not shy about it at all. Why should we be shy about what we believe?” he said. “It’s the truth. We celebrate freedom in Christ no matter what happens. And if the worst ever happens, then we celebrate Jesus Christ in the gulag, and the Holy Spirit will do an incredible work, I believe, just like He did in the New Testament.”
“You cannot stop the move of the Holy Spirit, and you cannot stop the Gospel of the Kingdom from invading people who do not expect it because they see it,” Cooper continued. “So we celebrate that freedom in Christ, even if the extreme worst happens. And I don’t think that’s going to happen, by the way, I’m just saying, no matter what happens, the Gospel cannot be quenched.”
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“This album is very rebellious,” Cooper said. “I mean the lyrics on the record are very anti-establishment. I don’t know if we’ve ever written lyrics this anti-establishment. Standing up for what you believe in, calling for the revolution.”
“I don’t mean rebellion in the way the world might mean it,” he continued. “So the world might mean rebellion like rebelling against God or something like that. It’s actually quite the opposite.”
“The state does not have the right under God to come out of their sphere and come into my sphere of authority that God gives me over my family. There’s a sphere of authority the church also has, so the state can’t come into the church and start telling the church what it’s allowed to say about theology and things like that. That’s what I mean when I talk about rebellion and anti-establishment.”
Cooper’s comments about faith and free speech also extend to an ongoing saga between podcaster Joe Rogan and the audio streaming platform Spotify.
While many called for Spotify to ban Joe Rogan from the platform over his view that the government should not mandate COVID vaccines, Cooper questioned why no one wants to address the immoral content on the music and podcast platform.
“Honest question: for all of the musicians, activists, and others who want Spotify to act against ‘dangerous misinformation’, when are you going to call out all the artists who claim that sexual liberation brings freedom and joy?” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “That is a lie. For proof, see skyrocketing rates of suicide, suicidal ideation, depression, declining marriage, declining birth rates, divorce, abortion, depression, crime, prostitution, pornography, sex trafficking.”
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