So apparently there's been a lot of hype over this MTV American Idol & Christianity story...so much that MTV posted a follow up article. Here's a clip:

Over at MJsBigBlog.com, one of the leading "Idol" fan sites, the discussion about the story was fierce, with nearly 150 responses. Commenter Tess said she was "appalled and offended" by the article. Tess had particular scorn for a comment from writer CJ Casciotta, who was quoted in the story as saying he thought some Christian viewers might go with their faith if presented with a top two featuring a pair of equally talented singers in which one was Christian and the other was not.

"If I wasn't a sane, God-loving individual, I would not vote for any of the listed contestants (Danny, Michael, Kris, Scott, Matt and Lil) just out of pure spite," Jess wrote. "I knew the country was going to be divided on this issue, but for the Christian right to pronounce that they support an us-vs.-them philosophy is absolutely outrageous."

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A while back I wrote a blog called American Idol: Good for TV, Bad for Church which came to the attention of MTV Senior Writer, Gil Kauffman. Gil wanted to know why so many Christians were not only tuning into "Idol" this year, but also performing on the show. He took a couple of quotes from our conversation and put them into his story for MTV.com. Here's an excerpt:

Just as this season kicked off, freelance writer CJ Casciotta penned an essay for faith site ConversantLife.com titled "American Idol — Good for TV. Bad for Church," in which he questioned whether the show's shunning of the "awkward, the socially inept, the ugly, the difficult" during the often cruel early rounds shouldn't be a call to action for the rest of us to embrace those whose lives are a struggle.

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