Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians - Way of Life Literature

“Q. What’s your biggest influence spiritually now? A. I mean,really the only person I’m influenced by spiritually is Jesus. Idon’t really classify myself as a religious person. ... I’minfluenced by the words, the beautiful, poetic words from theman who was a prodigy, and a genius in human form, and theSon of God at the same time. at is Jesus. I can’t really explainhow much of an influence it has been to me. It’s just touchedme so much, it still does, but at the same time I want to letpeople know that I’m not really a religious person becausethrough my years of going around the world and meeting witha lot of Christians and a lot of religious people. I’ve seen a lot ofpeople jump head in to Christianity for what they thoughtChristianity was, to only end up embittered and angry. ... eirinfluence was maybe, OK, here’s what you gotta do, you gottabe in Church, it’s gotta be on Wednesday night, and you gottado all this, and by the way…you can’t do this. ...“I don’t really have a favorite Bible verse, but the favorite wordsof mine are the one’s that are spoken right from the lips ofJesus. ... And I think it’s the most relevant as far as Christianity.I believe God’s Word is anointed and it is the Word of God, butI know a lot of times I’ve seen people have more of a love affairwith Paul the Apostle than they do with Jesus. I’ve watched alot of people who I viewed as being religious quoting Paulmore than quoting Christ. I think that’s kinda scary. Yeah, it’sall in the inspiration of God, but there is no greater inspirationthan the Son of God. I think some of the words that Paul hadspoken are totally beautiful. It is inspiration. Some of things,the way that he would word things were just so touching. Butthis is also a guy that was a Christian killer. You know, hechopped off the heads of Christians. He was a bad guy. I can’tremember the last time I’ve seen where God had to takesomeone’s sight away to get the point across to him. I don’tknow, I don’t mean that disrespectfully. I look at the Bible asthe inspired Word of God. But I just think sometimes inpeople’s [minds], they become kinda zealous, I wanna sayzealots. In that when you become really religious it’s easy toforget some of the teachings of Christ. I know that soundsmaybe kinda silly” (“e NSO/Robert Sweet Interview,” Jan.10, 2000, http://newsongonline.org/robertsweet.htm).344