God Rocks
P.O.D. and Creed have taken Christian rock from the church to the charts. Their fans tell us why they worship them. - by Ethan Smith

Two years ago, Sara Sackman walked into her church's youth center in Millington, MI, carrying nearly every CD she owned. She slid discs - Metallica, Korn, Marilyn Manson, to name a few - one by one, from three binders and superglued them, label side down, to the wall where other youth group members had already abandoned hundreds of albums. "It was hard to give them up," says Sara, 20, now a P.O.D. fan. But I'm careful with what I listen to. If it's about sex or drugs, I don't listen to it.

It wasn't long ago that Sara used to hang out with a rebellious group of kids who were into drinking and smoking pot. Then her friend Jenny took her to her church to see a play call "Judgement Tuesday", in which two teenage friends, one born again Christian, the other not, die in a car accident. The Christian gets to heaven; the other... doesn't.

"I got saved at the play," Sara says. "I felt in my heart I was going nowhere - I realized that I need to have a real life or I'd become a deadbeat." Sara soon became a regular at the evangelical Millington Church of God.

Because music was still a big part of her identity, she wanted to listen to something spiritually satisfying. Then a friend loaned her a copy of P.O.D.'s second album, "Brown." The music was blistering rap-metal, but the lyrics spoke to the new Sara in language the old Sara could have related to. "Ya frontin' ain't notin' but words to me... my king is He in he power of three," when "Preach", a song from the CD.

"It was nice to find music that fit my personality and was also God related," Sara says. In the past few years, rock bands that incorpaorate religious themes, espcially Christian ones, into their music have been exploding on the charts. P.O.D. - which stand for Payable on Death, a nod to the Christian concept of Judgement Day - has sold more than 3 million copies of their last two discs, Fundamental Elements of Southtown (2000) and Satellite (2001). That makes the San Diego quartet one of the most successful explicitly religious bands in history. Meanwhile, Creed, the Florida - based hard rock group with a spiritual rep, is hitting even bigger. Their first two albums, 1997's My Own Prison and 1999's Human Clay, sold 15 million copies between them while their latest, Weathered, sold 5 million copies within its first month of release.

Though Christian groups like Jars of Clay and DC Talk have been around for years, they haven't had as much commercial or mainstream success, Obvious, the second disc from the Christian pop act Plus One (whose name refers to the band's five members, plus God), has sold 150,000 copies since its February release, but it's played primarily on Christian radio. And a successful album from punk rockers MxPx (who were first signed to the Christian label Tooth and Nail but don't call themselves a Christian group) sold half a million copies. So how did P.O.D. and Creed get so big?

Smashing the Stereotype
P.O.D. and Creed appeal to their fans partly because they don't sit around campfires singing "Kumbaya." When Abbey Jones, a 14 year old from Watertown, SD, told her mom that P.O.D.'s tattooed, dreadlocked lead singer, Sonny Sandoval, was Christian, her mom responded "Well he doesn't look it!" Abbey doesn't care. "That's what I like about them," she says. "They can be cool and Christian."

Megan Lashway, a 17 year old from North Lynbrook, NY, who likes everything from Beethoven to Linkin Park, adds, "There's a difference between a Christian band and a band that has some Christians in it. If you listen to CDs by Christian bands, it's all, 'We're so happy, we love God.'When you just have Christians in a band, they're comfortable questioning their own views." Indeed, even though members of Creed identify themselves individually as Christians, they don't call their group a Christian band. "We've always had a positive message," guitarist Mark Tremonti told Rolling Stone earlier this year. Lead singing Scott Stapp favors Christ-like poses in his videos and writes lyrics about "the place with golden streets" (an echo of New Testament descriptions of heaven). P.O.D., though, embraces the Christian rock label. When Rosie Maynard, 17, and her friend Rochell Foust, 21, interviewed P.O.D. for their music zine, Element, they asked the band if God had a role in their lives. Sonny responded, "As a believer, I've surrendered my life to God in everything that I do." His goal as a musician he said, is to tell fans "that God loves them. Tell them about the gospel, that Christ died for their sins... even if they're not Christians." "P.O.D. tells everyone about how awesome God is," says Rosie, who lives in Westland MI, a Detroit suburb. "They're saying that there is an answer to problems that seem unanswerable. That's why I'm so passionate about them."

More Than Just a Song
By last fall, when P.O.D. released their fourth full length disc, Satellite, the band had gained a moderate level of mainstream attention. They'd toned down the conservative Christian agenda of songs like "Murder" (chorus: Abortion is muder, abortion is murder, abortion is murder) and began writing inspiring tunes like "Alive," in which Sonny sings, "I'm thankful for every breath I take/I won't take it for granted." Satellite was released on September 11, 2001. After the horrifying terrorist attacks of that day, songs such as "Alive" - along with U2's "Walk On" - became healing anthems for teenagers and adults alike, and Satellite sold a million copies in two months. Think of the album as Chicken Soup for the Soul for the tattoos-and-piercings set.

The new religious rock also soothes the pain of more personal tragedies. Abbey first heard Creed's music two years ago, not long after her friend Corey Schoepp was killed in a car accident. Corey had filled out a questionaire at school citing "With Arms Wide Open," Creed's biggest hit, as his favorite song, so they played it at the funeral. Abbey had no way of knowing if her friend loved the song because of its spiritual message or just the music, but either way, she says "It was very moving."

A car accident led to a musical epiphany for Megan, too. Last year she and her mom were in a serious car wreck outside of Poughkeepsie, NY. Megan made it out with a few minor injuies; her mom, after six days in intensive care, died. "Before the accident [P.O.D.'s] songs were just songs to me," says Megan, who is an Episcopalian. "After that, alot of them took on new meaning." "Full Color," for example, addresses Sonny's feelings after his own mother died. "No one can take your place and I don't want them to," he sings, "If I could take your place, I would."

"I put the song on after the funeral," Megan says. "It was the first time I had actually listened to the lyrics and I was like, My God, that's totally how I feel." While Megan's mom was in the hospicatl, one of Megan's close friends posted a note about the accident on the message board of P.O.D.'s offical fan site, Payableondeath.com. A couple of days after the funeral Megan checked her e-mail and found tons of supportive messages - including a few from the wives of the band members and one from the webmaster saying one of the guys would call her. (She thinks they did call, "but I was never home.")

Spreading the Word
These bands tend to attract a sincere, committed following that can seem more like families - congregations even - than most fan clubs. P.O.D. has enlisted thousands of "warriors" to spread the word about the band and its message as passionately as evangelists preach about their religion. (The Warriors is the title of the band's 1999 EP.) They often go to Christan youth and music conferences to distribute P.O.D. t-shirts, stickers, and flyers. The hard-core P.O.D. fans we talked to are devout, even fundamentalist, Christians who literally believe in hell, heaven, and everything that comes with them. "At first my parents thought P.O.D. was the devil's music," says Nikki Lee, 16, who became a fan two years ago after her youth paster in Marshfield, WI, gaver her a copy of Fundamental Elements of Southtown. "I insisted that they read the lyrics. Now they actually pay for my tickets when I go to their concerts." Josh McNeely, the 23 year old youth pastor of the Believer's Church who gave Nikki the P.O.D. album, makes a point of relating to kids through music. "I tell them, 'I bet I can find you any music style you like, but with a postivie message,'" he says. "Kids are like, 'Yeah, right' But I do my research. Alot of musicians sing about the tough times we all go through," Josh adds. "The thing about P.O.D. is they say, what if God was the ultimate being who could get us out of these times? Alot of kids like that idea." "There are certain bands I think are talented - A Perfect Circle or Tool, for instance - but a lot of their lyrics are anti-God," says Rosie. "I love them as bands, but my spirit just feels so unclean and weird after listening to that."

A "warrior" for seven years, Rosie's met Sonny a coupld of times and says they're talked about everything, including their shared religion. Once she says, the singer even "prayed with me and helped me rededicate my life to Christ."

Sonny says he and his bandmates make a point of staying after shows to talk to fans; "We'll be done playing by midnight and I'll just go out and start talking to the kids. They tell me about friends who want to commit suicide, sick mothers and fathers. I've been there hours on end until I can barely stay up - 4:30,5. We'll sit there however long it takes to give something back to the kids who trust us enough to tell us these personal things. Our fans stick behind us, so we do the same for them."

It's Still Rock 'N' Roll
Outside the conservative-Christian circles, it's largely P.O.D.'s and Creed's sounds that have made them so popular. Annie O'Neill, 15, bought a ticket for a seat close to the stage for a Creed show in Boston las winter because she likes "their wicked guitar playing." And is she in on it for their spirituality at all? "Not really."

P.O.D.'s talent has also made them an MTV favorite. "It's a positive message, as opposed to an aggressive rock band with more narcissistic lyrics," says Amy Doyle, MTV's vice president for music programming intitiatives, "but the spiritual side isn't the reason we play them. They're great musicians who appeal to the mainstream rock audience." Still, it's clear from the girls we spoke to that a big chunk of the bands' following is responding to the lyrics, too. "They're not a band that writes a song in 10 minutes," Rosie says of P.O.D. "The thing I enjoy the most is their message: They're completely Christian; they love God."

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