Rocking For Christ

Rocking For Christ Dec. 6, 2004 The growing clout of America's 100-million evangelical Christians is being heard loud and clear. Just turn on your radio, and you'll notice that a seismic shift in American culture is taking place.

Before, you could tune into different stations, which offered different music and different messages.

But now, as Correspondent Bob Simon reports on 60 Minutes Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. ET/PT,, evangelical Christian music is flowing into mainstream media -- and changing it. In fact, Christian entertainment now brings in $4 billion a year.

Rappers and rockers are making hits and making money while spreading the gospel to national audiences. Christian groups can be heard on secular radio and seen on "The Tonight Show." Earlier this year, the group Third Day even played at the Republican National Convention.

And rap star Kanye West, who became a part of this evangelical shift in American culture, collected a leading 10 Grammy nominations Tuesday, including album of the year, for his innovative debut, "The College Dropout."

"The fact that there are Christian themes now emerging in rock and that Christians are in rock is just representative of a spiritual desire or a spiritual hunger in our culture," says Cameron Strang, publisher of Relevant Magazine, a religious publication.

But their success doesn't come without criticisms.

West tells Simon why he feels that using the word "Jesus" in songs offends some people as much as using the "N-word" would offend others. This producer-turned-rapper has always been in the secular mainstream, producing hits for stars like Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

He's considered a genius at creating what he calls a "dope-a-- beat," but he tells Simon that most of his record industry friends warned him about making the single, "Jesus Walks."

"People would be like, 'Yo, it's the best song I ever heard, but it'll never make it on radio,'" recalls West. "And it frustrated me, so the second verse I wrote about how they say you can't say Jesus on radio .... The word Jesus was like saying [the "N-word"]... It's gonna offend people for you to say Jesus."

Others are offended because "Jesus Walks" mixes the names of Jesus and God with curse words. But West says he's not concerned about those who are offended for one reason or another because he's trying to reach a very specific audience with his song.

"The minute you use those words in a song, there's a whole evangelical crowd that isn't going to listen to you, right," asks Simon.

"Yeah, but the song is not for them," says West. "It's speaking to the people that I think God is really trying to reach."