STRYPER: THE NEWEST TESTAMENT YET!

STRYPER: THE NEWEST TESTAMENT YET!

by J. Kordosh

And a crowd did gather outside a great hall in El Paso, but not to hear of Stryper, but to rebuke them mightily with picket and bullhorn. For, yea, they were believers and sore afraid of Stryper. And so it happened that one of Stryper's moneyhandlers spake unto the crowd, "Be not afraid of this sound, for it shall not harm you, no, not the least among you. In fact, the show�s on us, come on in for free. � Or something like that. But their ears were like stone and they heard him not, and not one did enter unto that hall.

—Kordoshians, 13:1-19

Surely you�ve heard of Stryper by now, even if you�ve never bought a Stryper record and, in fact, wouldn�t buy a Stryper record until there was a reliable report of hoarfrost in Heck.

You�re not alone.

Stryper have done a swell job of generating publicity and controversy. The heavy metal quartet from L.A.— consisting of Oz Fox, Tim Gaines and brothers Michael and Robert Sweet—are diehard Christians, human bumblebees who praise the Lord in a many-decibled fashion. Their novelty value is pretty high: such well-known musical journals as Time, Playboy, Hustler and Christianity Today have taken notice of the phenomenon. As for controversy, a lot of evangelical Christians—Jimmy Swaggart is one—think that Stryper, like all rockers, are doing the debbil�s work. �Our shows are more protested than Motley Crue�s,� says drummer Robert Sweet.

And, of course, a lot of people simply think they�re a joke. �Because it�s based on so many hedged bets, Christian rock is bound to be lame,� wrote Dave Marsh in Rock & Roll Confidential. (Then again, the polemic Marsh described Bono Vox as �Christlike� in his Sun City book, so a skillful theologian he probably isn�t.) Despite their track record—Soldiers Under Command cracked the Billboard Top 100 and has, according to Sweet, sold 300,000 copies—people laugh at what might be called their decidedly unsubtle message.

�You know something?� asks Sweet. �I expect people to laugh, especially at Jesus. Especially. Because when people don�t have Jesus and they�re living a lifestyle totally opposite to what Jesus talks about and are having total success, I don�t blame them.�

Sweet�s a pretty reasonable guy that way: as far as blaming musicians for society's ills, he�d probably cast about the 991st stone. On the Beatles and Charles Manson: �The Beatles weren�t encouraging anything, I feel. But they had some wacko case who interpreted it that way. I feel the Beatles were innocent.� On the Night Stalker and AC/DC: �I�m not pinning anything on AC/DC. because I know when the guys wrote the song they had no intention of some wacko going out and killing somebody.� On the notion that the next mass murderer might be into Burl Ives: �And what if he likes Stryper?� What if, indeed.

But Sweet exudes a quiet confidence that Stryper�s on the right path no matter what jibes come their way. �What if we were to say, �Hey, other rock bands, they�re wimps, because they sing about the little god�? And I could say that about people, but I don�t, because I know that God gave them talent. And there�s a lot of great musicians out there I admire— they�re not Christians, but I respect them

because they�re great musicians and great songwriters.�

The guy�s no dummy.

To Sacramento they came, tor their sound was needed in the

kingdom of California, which is near the sea. And a man who had been sickly hailed them, and he was not a Samaritan, but was like a Samaritan. There did he dispose of the unclean things, which were heroin and syringes, also did he hug them as brothers. And he who had been sickly said this: � Tm glad you guys are singing about what you sing about. Because of that, I�m able to stop this.� And Stryper�s hearts were gladdened, nor was Keith Richards available for comment.

—Kordoshians, 20:1-14.

So is Stryper a band or a ministry? �It has to be both,� says the imperturbable Sweet. �It�s got to be 1000 percent rock �n� roll and 1000 percent—uh—the serious reason for what we�re doing.�

Yes, that darned serious reason. �Sin�s fun, man. Drinking is great. It�s fun. But this is what sin is: it�s always as bright as morning in the beginning and it�s always as dark as night in the end.� Being from Southern California probably gives one a working knowledge of sin. Sweet gives a bit of personal background in way of explaining how his band came to be:

�Here�s how it was...I was a Christian at 15, yet at 16 I was playing at high schools and at backyard parties in rock �n� roll bands. And at 20 I kind of had the attitude, �Well, look, God really is there, but I�m having a good time, I dig this. I�m really having fun so—maybe at 40— maybe I�ll talk to people about you.� But, at 23, I realized that I was quickly going downhill and I was quickly going nowhere. And something spoke to me, like: �You know why this has been happening? God�s dealing with you. You should do what�s right.��

All of this culminated in Stryper. �Nonbelieving members exited the fold,� according to their publicists; the band became Enigma�s (an indie who helped birth both Ratt and Motley Crue) biggest act ever—and nowadays, Michael and Robert�s mom manages the muchdiscussed act. (Wimp City, perhaps, but Robert is quick to ask: �Does Sharon Osbourne manage Ozzy? And does Wendy Dio manage Dio?�)

Which leaves two questions: one aesthetic, the other commercial. Is Stryper�s message (in fact, their very existence) so cotton candy Christian explicit that it turns people off?

�I see a lot of people out there who are very explicit, saying �sex and drugs�—it�s a well-known thing. But Jesus is also well

known—he�s been around for 2.000 years. We feel that to hide it—now don�t get me wrong, we don�t want to ever force it or overdo it—is wrong. On the record, two songs mention the name of Jesus. Two out of 10. That's not overdoing it. But one thing we do is tell people where we�re

coming from; that�s what flips people out. I�m starting to find out it�s not turning people off—it�s maybe turning a handful of people off—but the audiences keep getting bigger. The record keeps selling.�

And where do they go from here? Can�t a major label spread the word faster?

�There are a lot of people out there who are very interested right now. Our contract is almost finished with Enigma—but we�ve always had good relations with Enigma and I�m not one who�s going to move just because of a large amount of money. I�m not really sure what�s going to happen, but I do know this: things are going to continue to get bigger and bigger. Not because we�re so great or we�re so hot, but because we serve somebody who�s quite big. And he�s everywhere at the same time and he has the ability to pull off big things.�

...and on the next day, they went into rotation on MTV. And it was very good...

—Kordoshians, 24:5 0