With Arms Wide Open

CCM Magazine

Ever since his ascension to rock star status, it was the question that Scott Stapp could never put to rest. At first he tried the shock approach with overkill responses and a foray into a lifestyle of rock & roll excess. “There was a point,” admitted Stapp, “when my life really was sex, drugs and rock & roll. The last thing I wanted was for someone to think I was in a Christian band. The constant questions about whether Creed was a Christian band only made me more angry and intent on proving otherwise.”

Now, less than four months after the announcement of Creed’s breakup and on the eve of the launch of his solo career, Stapp is more reflective about the endless inquiries regarding the creed of Creed. “It’s ironic when I look back on it now,” he said via phone from his parents’ home in Florida, “because, of all the times we were asked if we were a Christian band, only once did anyone ever ask me if I was a Christian.” For Stapp, that’s really where the controversy was.

An interesting twist on that one incident when Stapp was asked about his personal faith is that it didn’t come from a member of the Christian media; it came from Bill Maher, a self-professed lapsed Catholic and the former host of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect.” “I was really nervous when I went on that show; and when Bill asked me if I was a Christian, it sort of caught me offguard.” And what was Stapp’s response? “I’m not sure.” Says Stapp, “That’s where I was at the time; that was as honest an answer as I could give.”

Stapp continued, “Over the last two years I’ve come full circle, spiritually. Unfortunately, it took a lot of heartache to get to that point; but I’ve always been a little hard-headed. I had to finally get to the place where I wasn’t being influenced by how I was brought up (Stapp’s legalistic, religious upbringing has been well documented.). I had to finally stand alone as a man and see Christ from my own perspective and choose Him for myself. When you grow up in church, especially the kind of church I did, it’s sort of like, ‘Your name is Scott, and your faith is Christianity.’ I didn’t get to choose my faith any more than I did my name; so it was time to come to terms with where I stood, what my commitment would be.”

When reminded that he seemed to be expressing those same sorts of sentiments seven years ago in the lyrics to “My Own Prison,” Stapp responded, “My dad used to always say, ‘It’s a matter of 12 inches. There’s 12 inches between your head and your heart.’ There have been plenty of times when I’ve cried out to God in the past; but it was almost always when I was in a jam, when I wanted to make a deal with God. In my head I knew it was right to call on the Lord in a time of need; but I wasn’t ready to give Him my whole heart, to recommit my entire life to Him.” Stapp continued, “That’s what’s different this time around. I’ve stepped back into the arena of faith, of faith in Christ. I’m not just looking at God as a way out of a jam; I’ve embraced being a Christian as what shapes my values, my worldview, my morals. My commitment to Christ is what establishes my priorities, how I will raise my son, my whole person."

“The important thing for me now is that I want my heart to be renewed, which is what I was trying to express when I wrote the song ‘Relearn Love.’ I saw the movie The Passion of The Christ while I was going through all of this, and it really brought home the idea of how I needed a new heart, that I needed to relearn what it means to love. For me, that’s what salvation is—asking God for your heart to be reborn.” Creed’s 1997 debut, My Own Prison, was followed in 1999 with Human Clay. 2001’s Weathered completed the short—but incredibly popular—Creed catalog, which has registered more than 30 million albums sold to date. The other three original members of Creed have joined with former Mayfield Four frontman Myles Kennedy to form the new band Alter Bridge. Their album, One Day Remains, released Aug. 10, debuted in the top five on the Billboard charts and has earned some critical acclaim as well. So, where does that leave Stapp?

“I’m working on a solo album right now that should be released later this year, but ‘Relearn Love’ is my first single since Creed broke up.” The song, inspired by the Mel Gibson blockbuster, is the first release from a compilation album entitled The Passion of The Christ: Songs, which coincided with the recent release of The Passion DVD on the same day.

According to Stapp, the invitation to make a contribution to the album was confirmation that he was moving in the right direction. “When I was a kid, and even as a young adult, I was always asking God to prove Himself to me. After seeing The Passion it was kind of like God saying to me, ‘I’m here, what further proof do you need?’ I finally got to that place where I looked up to God and said, ‘You can have me; You can have everything I’ve got, if You’ll just take me back.’”

In regard to how his life used to be, Stapp says, “Before, I was always afraid to take that leap of faith because I was afraid of being looked at through an even more intense microscope. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite because I knew there were things in my life, according to the church I was raised in, that weren’t of God. I didn’t want to be a stumbling block to anyone. I knew in my heart that I was a believer and that I loved God, but I was leery of making some sort of public profession because of what, as I understood it at the time, it would entail.” But Stapp is careful to add, “Those were all really only excuses.”

When Stapp arrived at a surrendering point, he started getting back in touch with Rick Berlin, his former pastor. Stapp credits Berlin with being instrumental in helping him make a fresh start in his journey, offering counsel about what is and is not essential as he tries to walk the line between the legalism of his formative years and the grace he has now embraced.

Considering how much conflict he had with the church as a teenager, why did Stapp reach out to a former pastor? “Pastor Rick is really liberated from the old ways,” Stapp responded. He’s really helped me understand how important joy is, how being human and a Christian are not contradictory ideas.”

Becoming reacquainted with Scripture has also played a key role in helping Stapp redefine what it means to be a believer. Stapp says that recently he’s been studying the life of Paul. “I never realized the kind of conflict that Paul had with Peter and James over the issue of the law. Paul was obviously the radical of the three—but not in the sense that he was right and everyone else was wrong. He was the one out in the world coming in contact with people who were pagan and nothing like the rest of the church.” Stapp continued, “Paul wasn’t out trying to get people to conform to a set of rules about how they looked on the outside so they could join some club. He was preaching love and reaching people’s hearts.”

According to Stapp, that’s the biggest difference he sees in the church as he is experiencing it now versus the one he walked away from as an adolescent. He says, “I think there has been a maturing among a lot of Christians. In a lot of ways the church seems to be growing into this place where fear is no longer being used as the main way to get people to give their lives to Christ.”

So, which has changed more: the church or Stapp’s perception of it? “I have to admit,” confessed Stapp, “that a lot of my rebellion was just an excuse to live the way I wanted to. But you can only make excuses for so long. What I’ve learned as an artist is that I can be a Christian human being and have a relationship with God through Christ, but I don’t have to be a full-blown evangelical Christian artist. I’m a three-dimensional human being. Yes, I’ll talk about my faith; and I’m sure that’ll come out in my music because I’ve always had a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve.”

.Tim Adams