SKILLET's JOHN COOPER: 'If You Don't Believe In God, You Don't Believe In Any Eternal Consequences To The Way You Live Your Life'

In a new interview with Church Leaders, John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, spoke about the lyrical inspiration for the group's just-released single "Unpopular". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The song is not overtly preachy. It's not really proselytizing. It's almost like you can kind of take it to mean what you want.

"I think people that know SKILLET or have heard of the band are probably aware that we're Christians [laughs], because we're so vocal about it," he continued. "And so there's an assumption made there, but certainly this is something that, like the Joe Rogan crowd, the Kid Rock crowd, even the Bill Maher crowd, which Bill Maher is an atheist Democrat, would hear and be, like, 'Yeah, I get this,' because people have gone crazy. And I do think it's kind of a rock and roll thing to do, but rock and roll is always — there's lots to say about that, but it always had that rebellious tinge to it."

Cooper went on to say: "I'm not writing a song to please the crowd. I'm writing a song because it's what I believe, and rock and roll is inherently rebellious. That's true; it was when it began. But for SKILLET, it hasn't been about rebellion against God or rebellion against traditional values, or, as they would call them now, Western mores, Western sexual taboos or something like that. No, for us, it was, like, well, yeah, there's things I wanna sing about and I wanna do it the way we wanna do it. That's what I think is so cool about this song. It's got that rebellion to it, but I'm, like, yeah, this is something that everybody can relate to. Part of it is alluding to even just this idea of cancel culture too, that if you speak what's on your mind, you're gonna lose your friends."

Cooper added: "I've gotta tell you, it's been remarkable to me. I mean, I've got tons of friends who are not Christians and who are on the left and who are progressives and they say stuff against my faith all the time [laughs], and they're still my friends. I'm, like, yeah, that's who they are. I don't know. They're my friends. I love 'em. And if I don't like it, I'll tell 'em. But at the same time, I think that tolerance has kind of gotta work both ways. I'm not asking for them to be kicked off of social media because they said something that hurts my feel feels or something like that.

"So anyway, I guess that's kind of like going over the same territory as I already said, but there is that element. It's that rebellion. But I also think that the song just rocks. It's got a rebellious attitude to it that it's kind of funny and catchy."

Cooper also talked about SKILLET's upcoming album "Revolution", which will arrive on November 1 via the band's Hear It Loud imprint. He said: "If people see the artwork, which we've just released, you'll see there's a flag and it says SKILLET on there. And in the corner of the flag, if you look, you'll see it's got a verse, 1 Corinthians 13:13. I wanted to put that on there. In fact, I should just give a little bit of a nod to STRYPER. STRYPER always had their verse under their logo. And I thought, 'I wonder if we should do like a verse.' And I thought, 'STRYPER always did that. That was kind of clever.' And because they're just going, 'Hey, this is our motto,' or whatever. But I thought it would be important because we're in a time in this country of revolution."

John, who has said in the past that his Christian faith directs him to speak out on cultural issues, continued: "I wanna make sure that people know the kind of revolution that I am talking about is very different than some of the revolution that we often hear about on the news, which is a revolution against America, against God, against Western civilization, against the Bible. And I'm thinking, 'Well, certainly people will know that's not what I mean.' So I put that little verse. And that's the one that says we hold on to these things — faith, hope and love — that these things will never go away, and the greatest is love. And the reason that's so important is because the revolution we're talking about on this record is not a political revolution. It is certainly not a militaristic one, which I've never supported. It's a revolution of love. It's a revolution — I should say for love, is what I should say. It's a revolution to love your enemies. In fact, you could even really philosophically call it a counter revolution, really. It's revolution against the revolution that wants to tear down these traditional things that are so wonderful. I don't want to end freedom of speech and freedom to assemble, to go to my church and worship God, to preach the gospel unhindered. Now we're going to preach the gospel no matter what the government says, but it sure is nice to be able to preach the gospel without being fined or having penalties or worse, going to jail or something like that. This is a really wonderful thing. And so that's a revolution. But it's also a revolution, very much a spiritual awakening."

Cooper added: "We're living in a really atheistic time in our country. It used to not be like this. And so what you now have is a generation of people that are now becoming young adults who were raised in an America where people just don't believe in God. Because if you don't believe in God, then you don't believe in any sort of almost like eternal consequences to the way you live your life, because there are no consequences and we don't know what matters and what doesn't matter. And I just live for me. I live for the way I feel and I try to do what's right. And because of that, we now have a generation of just depressed people, and it makes sense that they're depressed. They are medicated — highly medicated. They have been told that their lives don't have any grand purpose outside of basically Darwin's evolution. Just basically either the strongest survive or they have to try to manufacture a reason that they matter. That's what I'm trying to say. When you believe in God, you know that you matter because you were created by a creator, and that gives you a sense of purpose and identity. And then you begin to go, 'Okay, well, if there is a God, then how does he want me to live?' Those are normal questions. And maybe there's eternal significance to my life. You take God out of it, and now you're dealing with young people — the highest rates of suicide in recorded history in America, depression, medication. It's just so sad. And so there is this revolution against these false ideologies that are so harmful — so harmful. And so it's a little bit of a, 'Hey, guys, we are losing the plot here, and it ain't going good.' And so you're gonna hear those kinds of songs on the record."

John has written in depth about his views in the two books he has released so far, "Awake & Alive to Truth", which came out in December 2020, and "Wimpy, Weak, And Woke", which became available in late 2023.

Cooper told Baptist Press about how his faith directs him to speak out on cultural issues: "If Jesus is the truth, then that means He has something to say about culture, politics, abortion and sexuality. The Bible has something to say about these things."

In various interviews over the years, John has said that he "always had faith in God" and that his mother was a "Jesus fanatic." He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

In April 2021, Cooper told the "Undaunted.Life: A Man's Podcast" that it was perfectly fine for Christians to play rock music. "I would say that music is created not by the Devil; [it is] created by the Lord," he said. "All things were created by God. So instead of thinking that the Devil owns a genre of music, I would say capture that music and bring it back into subjection under the Lordship of Christ."