Why Christian Artists Don't Want to Be Called "Christian"

In this episode, we'll share some honest thoughts on a recent debate sparked by rapper Andy Mineo regarding the implications of the 'Christian artist' label and whether it helps - or limits - your authenticity and creative expression.

Hear the complete episode on the "Mature Me" Podcast with Rich Wilkerson, Jr. where this clip was shared here. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Is it right for a Christian artist to stop calling themselves a Christian artist just in order to be more authentic?

[00:00:02] This is a question I’ve heard whispered in green rooms, debated online, and wrestled with by so many creators who love Jesus, but who also feel boxed in by a label that was supposed to help them, not define them.

[00:00:21] And now, a hugely influential music artist is stoking the fires of this debate yet again.

[00:00:25] So, we’re going to listen to him explain his position in his own words so you can decide for yourself.

[00:00:32] If you’re new to the show, thank you so much for being here. My name is Alency Paul. I’m the host and founder of God and Gigs.

[00:00:39] And in this episode, we’re going to talk honestly about what that label means, where it helps, where it hurts, and whether letting go of it is actually an act of compromise or an act of clarity.

[00:00:51] I want to explore what authenticity really looks like for Christian creators today, especially in a world where platforms reward branding more than conviction, and where faith feels like a marketing category.

[00:01:01] My hope is that by the end of this conversation, you won’t just have a stronger opinion. You’ll have more peace about how you show up as a creator, how you talk about your faith, and how you steward the calling that God placed on your life.

[00:01:13] And if this episode resonates with you at the end, please share it with another creator who’s navigating the same tension so we can all help each other become the creators that we were created to be.

[00:01:30] What we’re talking about is a viral clip from rapper Andy Mineo on why he no longer wants to be called a Christian artist.

[00:01:43] Now, this is such a hot topic—not just in our community—but it’s a hot topic for pretty much anyone in the Christian community. Not just content creators, but pretty much anyone who is of faith and who believes that we should be shining a light into the world.

[00:02:08] And of course, as God and Gigs is basically a membership, a platform all about connecting your faith with your creativity, it’s impossible for us to ignore this issue.

[00:02:19] It’s impossible for me to go by a clip that talks about whether you should call yourself a Christian artist and not stop and say, “Wait a minute. This is exactly why we exist.”

[00:02:29] Because we are artists—me starting with myself—who believe in God, love Jesus, but don’t necessarily create Christian art that would be labeled as such.

[00:02:43] And basically this was why our entire platform was created. It was because we needed to help people navigate never sacrificing their values, never sacrificing their faith, and creating in the mainstream arts and entertainment space—

[00:02:59] But never also feeling like they were limited by that fact of, “Well, I’m a Christian artist, so what does that mean in terms of what I create?”

[00:03:12] Do I need to tell everybody I’m a Christian artist before I start? Is this some kind of mandate on us?

[00:03:18] Here is Andy Mineo talking with Pastor Rich Wilkerson about why he does not want to be called a Christian artist. So, let’s listen in and let’s talk about this as we hear this clip.

[00:03:33] ANDY: I’ve actually tried to shed the label “Christian artist,” and I think a lot of people are upset about that because they think for somehow I am like trying to deny Jesus—and I’m like, “No, I’m not.”

[00:03:45] I’m just trying to not directly connect my monetary value to being a Christian. I want to follow Jesus. I don’t want to monetize Him.

[00:03:52] That’s really what I’m trying to do.

[00:03:54] Like if I’m an artist, right, and I’m making a song and I’m like, “All right—oh, but people think I’m this thing, so let me just insert some uninspired information about Jesus in here so I can quell their expectation.”

[00:04:05] I’m like, “Now I’m not being a good artist, and I’m also not even being honest.”

[00:04:09] So if you ever hear me talk about Jesus in my music, it’s ’cause I actually am having a sincere moment. This is the weirdness of that intersection. Do you get what I’m saying?

[00:04:19] PASTOR RICH: Of course. I think you’re saying it really well.

[00:04:21] ANDY: So, if I remove that title now, I get to be an artist who is also a Christian. And when you hear me talk about this or that or marriage or life—whatever—it’s all coming from me.

[00:04:30] And that’s why I was saying earlier: being a Christian isn’t my entire personality. It’s a part of who I am.

[00:04:34] Yep. And it informs that, but I’m not going to package it up every single time I do something in order to appease an audience—’cause I’m not a product. I’m a person.

[00:04:44] HOST: All right. Okay. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. All right—so much to unpack here. And once again, I hope that got shared correctly and that you were able to hear Andy talking there.

[00:04:56] So, let’s jump into this discussion and take apart piece by piece what he was sharing.

[00:05:00] And I might have to go back to that clip a little bit just to make sure that I catch each line that he shares, so we can talk about how that impacts you as—again—you’ll hear me use this term: “faith-focused artist,” a “faith-centered artist.”

[00:05:14] Notice I didn’t even use “Christian” in that terminology. And here’s why.

[00:05:19] I feel, number one, we should give Andy a lot of credit for broaching the subject. Right? Here’s the first issue that he brought up.

[00:05:33] And I’m going to go back and listen to it one more time—because I’ve watched it like three or four times—

[00:05:39] But he talks about how the tension is he doesn’t want to simply put Jesus into his music.

[00:05:45] Andy is very connected to the Christian hip-hop movement of the early 2000s—people like Cross Movement and Lecrae and I think the 116 crew.

[00:06:00] These are groups I grew up with and listened to, and I was like, “Oh, thank goodness there’s Christian rap. There’s people who do hip-hop, but I don’t have to feel icky when I listen to it.”

[00:06:10] So I was one of those people who was really thankful for a Christian artist who was presenting unadulterated gospel—only for believers, for people who want to hear words that connect with God. Right?

[00:06:25] And of course, as you guys probably know, I’m also a worship musician. So everything I play in church is explicitly for the church.

[00:06:36] But now, here’s the situation I think we’re getting into: I’m now not just a church musician. And I’m not just a worship musician. I’m also a musician.

[00:06:45] And we are here in God and Gigs where all of you most likely are working outside of a church.

[00:06:51] This is not your only thing—where ministry and Christian work and Christian content is not the only thing you do.

[00:07:01] It may not be anything in terms of you creating Christian content or Christian rap or Christian music or Christian art.

[00:07:08] So let’s talk about that tension he mentioned about packaging Jesus—putting Jesus into a song just to appease a certain crowd.

[00:07:16] In this interview—if you listen to the whole interview, and I did—he said at the beginning that the reason he felt that pressure was because, number one, all of his music sometimes went into very sensitive topics—adult-ish topics that the Bible talks about—but that were not okay for kids.

[00:07:44] So let’s talk about that. I’ve heard this many times on some of these radio programs, right? You’ll see a radio program where they’ll say “positive, good for the whole family.”

[00:07:55] And that’s kind of like a catchphrase, which basically is telling everybody this is a Christian station and we’re not going to play any objectionable content.

[00:08:05] But as Andy says in this episode—if you watch the whole episode, I’ll put a link to it in the show notes—he shares that, which something we all know if you’ve read the Bible at all:

[00:08:14] The Bible carries a lot of sensitive, tough, adult, and really not appropriate-for-children themes.

[00:08:28] So even if you were to use the Christian artist label, that does not mean that everything that you share in a biblical area is “safe for kids.”

[00:08:36] Just look at church. There’s a reason why we have children’s church and we have adults in the other sanctuary—because sometimes the adults are talking about things that children should not be exposed to. And that’s inside a Christian environment.

[00:08:50] So I do feel that he is right when he says if I use the term “Christian artist,” to some people, unfortunately, it now implies that he only deals with certain topics that are safe.

[00:09:06] And for us as artists to respond to an audience and say, “Well, I don’t want you to deal with certain topics because if you call yourself Christian you can’t deal with certain topics”—well now we have a disconnect between what the name “Christian” means.

[00:09:20] So I don’t believe that as artists we should hide behind the label of Christian to avoid certain topics—

[00:09:28] And in the same way, we should not allow the term “Christian artist” to keep us from dealing with certain topics.

[00:09:38] And again, this is specifically talking about the way people relate to that term.

[00:09:44] People who are immediately jumping on Andy and other people who have said “I don’t want to be a Christian artist” sometimes assume they’re denying the faith—

[00:09:54] When in fact, it might be closer to what Paul talks about in Corinthians: that when he’s in front of certain people, he does things that other people might judge him for—yet he knows in his heart he’s not disobeying God.

[00:10:24] I’m not throwing shade at anyone who feels “Christian artist” needs to be on your label. But I think there’s a nuance to this that a lot of people miss—

[00:10:32] And that he was trying to bring out that perhaps we need to be considerate of, especially as I mentioned in God and Gigs.

[00:10:39] I want to get into the second thing he says, which was something along the lines of monetizing Jesus.

[00:10:47] ANDY (clip): I don’t want to monetize Him. That’s really what I’m trying to do.

[00:10:51] I want to follow Jesus. I don’t want to monetize Him.

[00:10:55] That’s really what I’m trying to do.

[00:10:56] Like if I’m an artist, right, and I’m making a song and I’m like, “All right—oh, but people think I’m this thing. So, let me just insert some uninspired information about Jesus in here…”

[00:11:06] HOST: Okay, let’s stop there. “Uninspired.” That really caught me when he said that.

[00:11:12] So he was basically saying: if I’m trying to appease an audience to be a Christian artist, then basically all I’m going to do is throw in some Christian-ese to make sure it passes the test.

[00:11:30] Now we’re talking about authenticity as an artist. And I have a back and forth on this because the fact that he said “uninspired” is where I think it got a little bit on the edge of…

[00:11:40] …well, this is kind of an assumption that it’s always a copout to put Christian-ese into a song.

[00:11:55] And I would say this is kind of where I go with people who say Christian art is often inferior.

[00:12:00] He’s right that if you are simply throwing in clichés of any kind—clichés about love, clichés about Christianity, clichés about anything—where it is uninspired, then it’s just bad art, period.

[00:12:16] It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christian or anything else.

[00:12:20] Anytime you’re simply pandering, I think we all recognize it as pandering in art. Hopefully we do.

[00:12:29] I mean, all the pop artists would probably say no they don’t—because they make millions of dollars doing the same thing over and over again—

[00:12:35] But pandering to a certain audience is a problem no matter what you’re doing as an artist.

[00:12:40] Being authentic as an artist means you’re not willing to sacrifice that and just do anything to get along with the people who are looking for a certain kind of music, a certain kind of message.

[00:12:54] Again, I think the problem is that in the Christian world we are often simply saying: based on the words you said and based on your label—do they match?

[00:13:08] And the reason that many of us—including myself—have been careful not to always use “Christian creator” is because there is immediately a distinction of what people expect.

[00:13:19] I would say the same thing for jazz. I would say the same thing for blues. Anything—people get into their head this is what it should sound like.

[00:13:25] If I say I’m a jazz artist, there are many people who would say, “Okay, jazz means you’re playing Louis Armstrong, 40s, 50s, 60s, the standards.”

[00:13:36] Then there’s other people who would hear jazz and say, “Oh, that means you’re playing something like Robert Glasper… you’re playing stuff by Kamasi Washington.”

[00:13:45] They have two different forms of jazz.

[00:13:48] So the label immediately puts something in their head. And I don’t even want to say “jazz” all the time because I don’t want them to assume this is what you’re about to hear.

[00:13:55] And to the point about monetizing Jesus—again, this is where the pandering comes in.

[00:14:02] There is very clearly a Christian music industry. And that’s the scary part: yes, people are paid to minister, to make Christian music—and they’re paid because they’re good at it.

[00:14:16] And they’re paid because there is an industry and a product that is sold and a product that is created.

[00:14:19] I myself benefit from parts of people who are looking for the church, looking for Christian content on a Sunday, and I’m paid for that—creating podcasts and things like that.

[00:14:30] So the war is never just about Christianity. The war is: am I going to be authentic to what God has put in my heart to share, even if it doesn’t make everybody happy and it’s only for certain people?

[00:14:46] And here is where it comes to God and Gigs: I have many times not used the words “Christian creator,” even as I promoted God and Gigs.

[00:14:58] And you might say, “Wait, why is that? It’s clearly—you write about being a church musician. Clearly, you care that people should know God. You put it in your book. You have devotionals. Your work is pretty much explicitly Christian.”

[00:15:15] And I would say: from the perspective of where I come from, yes. But in terms of labeling it, I’ve been very careful—until basically the last two or three months—of even putting the word “Christian creator” in my documentation and in my bylines and so on.

[00:15:31] And the reason I did it—you might call it pandering—is because as I looked at the podcast charts, I realized there aren’t a lot of podcasts anymore that say the word “Christian creator.”

[00:15:39] And maybe somebody is looking for materials like mine, but they won’t find it because I didn’t use the word “Christian” in it—because I wanted people to realize that I’m not just here for Christians. We are here for anyone.

[00:15:55] These principles will help you become the creator that you were created to be. And maybe the word “Christian” scares you away because you think we won’t deal with certain topics.

[00:16:03] You think we won’t deal with mental health. You think we won’t deal with issues in the church. You think we won’t deal with issues outside the church. You think it keeps us in a box.

[00:16:11] That’s why I didn’t want to use the term “Christian creator.” But at the same time, I was leaving out people who would never find our podcast because they were looking for Christians who create.

[00:16:25] And so you see why this label issue—this dilemma of “I don’t want people to think this” or “I don’t want people to think that”—actually limits us in so many ways beyond just what we share in our creative work.

[00:16:38] It’s actually our mindset. We have to be very clear about who we’re trying to reach and why.

[00:16:42] Does the label help you reach the people you’re trying to reach? Then use it.

[00:16:47] If the label keeps you from reaching the people you’re trying to reach—or it keeps you from being authentic in your work—as long as you’re not dismissing your own faith, I don’t see how people can be so upset.

[00:17:01] As I saw somebody commenting on this same clip—and I’ll pull this clip up because I see we have some live viewers—talking about Andy Mineo’s comments about being a Christian artist…

[00:17:12] I’m going to pull this back up. Give me half a second, because I just want to make sure you guys can find it. And again, I will make a link to this in the show notes so that you guys can watch it later.

[00:17:21] So, we’re talking about this clip, and I’m going to go ahead a little bit further from this point. Let’s talk about the last thing that he says.

[00:17:27] He talks about monetizing Jesus. He talks about whether he can be authentic as an artist. And then this last part here—it will go right after the uninspired part.

[00:17:38] ANDY (clip): I can quell their expectation. I’m like, “Now I’m not being a good artist and I’m also not even being honest.”

[00:17:45] So if you ever hear me talk about Jesus in my music, it’s ’cause I actually am having a serious, sincere moment. This is the weirdness of that intersection. Do you get what I’m saying?

[00:17:53] PASTOR RICH: Of course. I think you’re saying it really well.

[00:17:56] ANDY: So, if I remove that title now, like I just get to be an artist who is also a Christian. And when you hear me…

[00:18:01] HOST: Okay, I’m going to stop right there. “I get to be an artist.”

[00:18:05] I think what Andy Mineo is talking about here is clarity in his own life—his own mission. He’s already, to be straight up with you, created so much music which clearly states who he is.

[00:18:23] So for people who say once you take the label off, somehow he’s denying his faith—he would have to take all of his music down. He would have to literally erase all of his music if that was what this meant.

[00:18:35] And there have been deconstructionists. There have been artists who have given up entirely. I’ll give you a great example right now since we’re kind of riffing and sharing our honest feelings.

[00:18:46] Michael Gungor—who used to work with Israel and he was at our church a couple times and performed—he was a massive influence in the church world.

[00:19:00] I still have many of his worship songs in my playlist—soaking music when I just want to listen.

[00:19:06] Now, he basically left Christianity—or at least Orthodox Christianity. I think he went to more of a universalist kind of view.

[00:19:24] Did I suddenly stop listening to his music? No. There was still truth in it. When he wrote that song, God used it to reach people—to reach me—to speak of His goodness.

[00:19:39] And if I’m not going to throw out Gungor’s music at the end of the day because he decided to leave the faith, then why would I throw out Andy Mineo’s faith because he decides to change his label to make sure he can be authentic as an artist?

[00:19:59] Again, God and Gigs is for creators, period. It just so happens that most of us are Christians who believe certain things and want to share our values and stay with our values.

[00:20:13] And I have been adding the label to help us find more people like that. And I keep adding “Christian” back in because podcast SEO says, “Hey, people type in two or three keywords…”

[00:20:24] If they type in “creator,” they’re going to find seven zillion podcasts. If they type in “Christian creator,” they will only find maybe 50.

[00:20:33] And that was my understanding: okay, in this case, the label does help me reach people.

[00:20:38] But I would be very, very sad if somebody saw the “Christian creator” label and said, “Well, you know, I guess he doesn’t want anybody that doesn’t do church music or worship music.”

[00:20:50] “I guess if I’m not doing a TikTok that has 100% Christian art or Christian themes, I guess God and Gigs can’t help me.”

[00:21:01] That’s the fear. The fear is not being rejected or denying my faith—the fear is being missed and people misconstruing what that label means because of what they think it means.

[00:21:10] And so I think, again, artists—this is literally where we live. Creators in the God community: 99% of us do not specifically create Christian content all the time. We are Christians working in the world but not of the world.

[00:21:26] And (example) being here is a great example of that—where she’s never apologetic about her faith, but she doesn’t have to lead with it because it’s who she is.

[00:21:47] And for 99% of the believers who are feeling this tension, sometimes I feel like we are pushing ourselves too hard. Don’t be so concerned about the label. Be more concerned about who you are and what you’re called to create.

[00:22:01] And then, as was said: does the label add clarity? Then add it. If it adds clarity to your mission and helps other people be clear about what you are sharing, then perhaps a label is effective.

[00:22:18] But if it’s just to be an artist—God made you a person first. He didn’t make you an artist first. And He certainly didn’t make you a Christian artist first.

[00:22:29] Unless you are in ministry—and like me, again, I tow this line carefully—I am in ministry, I do serve in worship, I do work in the church world, and yet I am more than that.

[00:22:39] There’s one thing he said at the end of this podcast where it kind of sounded like he was dissing, but he’s like, “It’s not my whole personality.”

[00:22:46] Now, being a Christian encompasses everything I am, but it certainly doesn’t work as a label if you talk about me and my love of certain things. People do not understand all the time how “do all to the glory of God” applies to everything.

[00:23:13] Does that make sense? If “Christian artist” doesn’t explain what I do well… the label might not help.

[00:23:20] And I would be straight up with you: let’s look at the disciples. The word “Christian” was not even applied to the disciples. It was a relatively new word. It only appears once in the entire Bible.

[00:23:35] So however the label makes our culture feel, it is much more important that you are authentic—who you are and your beliefs—versus what you call yourself.

[00:23:41] And the Bible says they shall be known by their fruits. What you create, how you create it, and how you interact with people is the first and most important indication of who you serve—not what you call yourself.

[00:23:54] So all kudos out to Andy Mineo and all of us as creators. Let’s lead by our fruits, not worry so much about the label we place on ourselves—or that other people place on our creative life.

[00:24:10] I love this: “Just be who you are.” Love it. This is exactly what we’re talking about. So glad I brought this up. This was a great topic to discuss.

[00:24:19] And I would love for us to continue it inside the God and Gigs membership.