The Negative World

Bill Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins opens up about his Christian faith in a recent podcast episode. Ian M. Giatti covers the subject for The Christian Post.

“If you talk about God, you know, you might as well throw your career down the hole,” he said. “And I made the decision that I was going to talk about God honestly, at least God in my life or believing in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And if it was going to hurt me, I didn’t care. Because if you don’t really understand me … if I can’t be willing to be honest with who I am, well, what am I asking a fan to believe in?”

Corgan often pitches himself as a misunderstood misfit and an outsider, despite being the mastermind behind one of the biggest rock acts of the last few decades and selling a massive amount of records commensurate with that designation. He isn’t, however, wrong about the commercial implications of admitting Christian faith in rock music. We live in a negative world, and that’s especially true in most of the mainstream entertainment industries.¹ In the negative world, broadcasting that you are a Christian has mostly detrimental effects on your career.

I’ve been reading Jane Eyre and the difference in that world and the one I live in with regards to the pervasiveness of religion is striking. In the novel, religious waters are the ones everyone swims in. The implications of this are taken for granted. In contemporary America, the same beliefs and behaviors that are common in 19th century England may seem eccentric or unusual.

1. With some notable exceptions, such as country music. ↩︎