Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch recently shared how he handles religious people who have attacked him for rejoining the secular Grammy Award-winning band after becoming a Christian.
Welch accepted Christ in 2005 and left Korn to focus on his relationship with Jesus. He released a solo Christian album and started the Christian band Love and Death. In 2013, Welch rejoined Korn and frequently evangelizes and prays with fans at the band’s shows.
Last month, Welch joked with the hosts of the “Mighty Pursuit” podcast that he wants to “choke” religious people. “But I would never choke them,” he said. “I just remember that they’re wounded souls and there’s something that’s not healed—there’s pride that hasn’t been humbled.”
“I don’t want to carry around bitterness,” he added, explaining that when religious people attack him online, he used to quickly retaliate and get his friends and fans to go after them.
Welch said that retaliating is “toxic too and that’s not the Lord’s way.” Now he tells himself that they’re “broken or wounded” and just don’t know what they are really doing.
That doesn’t mean that the 53-year-old Welch shies away from rebuking them from time to time.
“I scripturally show them how Jesus dealt with them too, and he had a harsh word for them,” Welch said. “It’s really kind of scary what position they’re in. It seems to me they’re worse off than, you know, drug addicts or prostitutes because they’re claiming to represent God and they are really misrepresenting God.”
He continued, “I pity them” because they are blind “if you think you’re doing good and God’s proud of you, but they’re acting exactly like the people that Jesus” was describing in Matthew 23.
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Instead of anger, Welch said that he tries to keep “sadness” as the main emotion towards them because when he first got saved, he acted the same way.
