NBC’s The Voice Omits “Lord,” Garners Disapproval from Young Viewers

Remember when offensive content on television consisted of four-letter words, obscenity and nudity? Well, for cable networks, offensive content now comes in the form of Faith, Hope and Love. Nowhere is this more evident than in the past few episodes of NBC’s The Voice.

NBC’s producers made a conscious effort to omit mentions of God while exalting a profanity-laced performance, accounting for a blatant double standard between profanity and Christianity. What producers did not anticipate was the outcry that emerged came, not from policy analyst at conservative think tanks, but from their own young audience members who refused to let this religious bigotry go unnoticed.

During last week’s elimination episode, The Blaze reported that fans of the hit singing competition were furious over the removal of “Lord,” “dying Savior,” and “songs of heaven” from the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”  Then on Monday night’s episode, contestant Cole Vosbury covered “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oats. This song tells the story of a spoiled woman with lyrics including, “It’s a b**ch girl but it’s gone too far ‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway.”

Admittedly, it is not shocking that NBC omitted references to God from a gospel song. God has been missing from this network for quite a while. Lest we forget that back in 2011 NBC purposefully nixed “under God” from the pledge of allegiance during the U.S. Open golf tournament.

What was shocking and inspiring were the disapproving responses from young Christians who flooded The Voice’s twitter handle.

A student at West Texas A&M University, Abbey Coufal, tweeted, “How dare #TheVoice producers take “Lord” out of a song and replace it with “Oh.” Dumb move NBC. #Smh”

Cody Williams, an 18 year old from Oklahoma tweeted, “#thevoice can’t believe they would sing that gospel song and take what the song is about out of it. It is by and by lord not “oh”shameful!”

Although an official apology was never offered, NBC heard these young voices loud and clear. In last night’s episode, the contestants sang in unison “O Holy Night” and every reference to Christ was intact.

Still, NBC‘s original omission of God reflects a trend that exists in Hollywood which confuses the message of Christianity with messages of hatred.  Words defining sacrificial love and eternal life are seen as offensive and extreme. Meanwhile words intended to hurt and degrade individuals — especially women — are heralded as cool, innocent and even funny and endearing. Christian actress Brook Burns put Hollywood in perspective in a recent Fox News interview stating:

In L.A. if you go to church you’re crazy. That was something I had to learn. It’s a choice. I should be able to believe in what I want to believe in and so should you. It shouldn’t be an area of tension. It’s interesting, a lot of times when you bring it up, it becomes as controversial, if not more, than bringing up politics.

Thank the Lord that conservative young Believers do exist, despite popular culture’s attempt to declare their extinction. They exist even among the throngs of screaming teenagers and young adults voting for their favorite reality show contender. They are starting to take notice of Hollywood’s denigration of their faith.

Please take time this morning to pray for the increasing boldness of young Christians as they speak out against popular culture, remain steadfast, and cast their vote for “the voice” of the Lord (Psalm 29:3-9).