Theatre of Death

At the end of this month, on the 27th Alice Cooper’s “Theatre of Death” concert will perform in Fresno at the William Saroyan Theatre.   “Satanic” is what first come many people’s minds when they hear the name Alice Cooper.  He is so devilishly Satanic that his upcoming performance in Finland was canceled by the owner of the arena where he was to perform because of Cooper’s alleged “un-Christian” viewpoints and the dark nature of his shows.

Alice Cooper (born Vince Furnier) may surprise many people by his own admission that he’s a practicing Baptist.  Recently he received an honorary doctorate degree from Grand Canyon University (formerly a private Southern Baptist College) that he supported for many years.  I even heard that he and his wife of more than 20 years, Sheryl, attend a small Baptist church and they even teach Sunday School.

In the interview that followed his canceled tour in Finland as quoted in the Examiner.com, Cooper responded,  “As a Christian, I don’t declare myself as a ‘Christian rock star.’ I’m a rock performer who’s a Christian. Alice Cooper is the guy who wants to entertain the audience – it happens that he’s a Christian. Alice (the character I play on stage) began life as a villain and he remains one. There’s a villain and a hero in every Shakespeare play,” he said.“Alice is no more dangerous than a villain in a cartoon or a Disney film. We have fun with him. He snarls and wears make up. He’s punished for his crime and he comes back on the stage in white top and tails. We put on a good show. I’ve always put limits on Alice because I believe there’s a certain amount of Alice that’s a gentleman. He’d slit your throat, but he’d never swear at you. And there’s always a punchline; he may kill you, but he’ll slip on a banana peel. I get right-wing Christians down on me and I always ask them the question: ‘If I was doing Macbeth, would it be OK?’ And they always say that’s Shakespeare so of course. I say that’s about four times more violent than anything I do on stage.”

Although I myself am not a heavy-metal fan, and in writing this thought-provoking post I am not advocating his music neither am I condemning it.  One thing for sure, he is not on my playlist.  However, I’d like to note some interesting points that I could think of about his music and Alice Cooper the man.Unlike some “Christian Rock” bands like DC Talk, JAMBand, etc. that try to redeem and baptize the culture by prefixing their music genre with the word “Christian”, Alice does not try do do so.  He sees no need to intermingle the two kingdoms- the kingdom of men and the kingdom of God- together.  My view is more aligned with his.  I believe that the two cities will expand together.  The  former, or the city of men, will expand through culture, science, and society.  The latter, of the City of God, will expand through the ministry of the Chruch and the preaching of the Gospel.  There is nothing sinister about Christians who like heavy-metal music!  We do not need to “baptize” the culture because by doing so we will soon have everything “christian” (i.e. Christian Rock band, Christian motorcyclist, Christian athletes, etc) but the true and real Christian church, Christian Culture, and ultimately Christian Gospel.

Watch his “Brutal Planet” performance and you will be surprised how Biblical it is.  And click here fore more reviews of his albums.

 

Besides being an iconic shock rocker, Alice Cooper is also an avid golfer, an author,  a restaurateur, and the founder and president of the “Solid Rock Foundation“, a Christian non-profit that helps inner-city kids stay out of gangs and drugs.  He’s also a family man and the father of three grown-up children.

As a side note I also found this interview with Alice Cooper.  When asked, “Is it true that you have a friendship with R.C. Sproul?”  (Dr. R.C. Sproul is the noted Reformed theologian, author, and lecturer.  He is the chairman of Ligonier Ministry)

Alice Cooper responded, “Oh yeah. RC is one of my heroes. When I first became a Christian, I went to a few of the retreats, and I just love to hear him talk. I loved his books. His books were really good, because they were written so that I could understand them, and they were practical. I understand practical Christianity. I love to read things that I can apply to my life.”