In many ways, the controversy surrounding “The Joe Rogan Experience” is part of a larger debate in America over the role of tech companies and social media platforms should or shouldn’t have in censoring speech that may be considered harmful or untrue. To some, muting misinformation should be among the highest priorities for social media giants like Meta, Google, and Spotify. Others view such a prospect as a dangerous threat to free speech.
Skillet’s John Cooper entered the conversation about misinformation on Monday with a tweeted picture of himself and his wife alongside the hashtag #marriagemonday.
“For those who want Spotify to act re ‘dangerous misinformation,’ are you going after artists who claim that sexual liberation brings freedom? That is a lie,” Cooper said. Cooper then pointed out societal rises in suicide and depression, as well as “declining marriage/birth, divorce, abortion, crime, prostitution, pornography, sex trafficking.”
Cooper, whose band has previously announced they will not play shows at venues requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, is a vocal opponent of “woke” ideology and Critical Race Theory, pastors who emphasize being “relevant,” and the oversexualization of the music industry and American culture writ large.
During an evangelistic message at a recent Winter Jam concert, Cooper told concertgoers, “You watch the news—you’re being lied to. You listen to all these celebrities—you’re being lied to. Politicians—lied to. University professors—lied to.”
“This world right now is being run by a secular elite people,” Cooper went on to say. “Celebrities tell you how to find happiness by being your truest authentic self and encourage you to ‘divorce yourself from the limitations of Christianity [and] divorce yourself from the chains of the Bible.’ What they really want is a sexual revolution so you can finally be free and you can turn your back on Jesus and all the stuff that He demands.”
Arguing that many people who advocate for such a mentality are often riddled with mental health issues and addictions, Cooper said, “The problem is, they believe that Jesus will take your freedom away. What they don’t understand is that they are already slaves to sin. What they don’t understand is that true freedom is found in Jesus Christ who came so that He can set you free from sin and death!”
While many other prominent Christian leaders would agree with Cooper that the good news of Jesus sets people free from the lies of the culture, some disagree that the consensus among medical experts regarding best practices in light of the global pandemic are among those falsehoods. For example, former director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, who is also an evangelical Christian, has called COVID-19 vaccines “an answer to prayer.”
“And yet there’s still a great deal of resistance, so unfortunate mixing of scientific information with conspiracies and sometimes politics, and it’s not a good mix,” Collins said.
Nevertheless, Christians remain divided on what constitutes reliable scientific information and which claims fall to the realm of conspiracy theories and politics, as well as how to respond to pandemic related misinformation.
