I expect to be misunderstood, misquoted, and maligned but here is my take on Prince whose death was just confirmed to be caused by a drug overdose. In full disclosure, I am not a fan of any of the popular music blaring everywhere today. I have not liked any popular music since Perry Como and Nat King Cole died. I do not know music but I do enjoy Christian music, classical music, polkas, marches, and an occasional folk tune.

Like a school girl toward the football star, major media people gushed over Prince in their showers of praise toward a man who did not deserve such praise. According to everyone, he could play the guitar but what I’ve heard was only two steps above noise. As I listened to his music, I thought of Amos 5:23: "Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols (a stringed instrument).“

His singing ability was almost as good. Of course, any death is a tragedy, especially the death of a young person. It may be unsympathetic but not untrue to say that he accelerated his death by his ungodly, unhealthy, and unnatural life.

He would not permit workers at his concerts to make eye contact thus promoting his self-ordaining persona of royalty. It appears that he actually believed all his news releases and the fawning acolytes that hang around the music business.   The Washington Post declared, "With the death Thursday of Prince Rogers Nelson, you may see a strange mix on your Facebook feed of sex and religion. That’s because perhaps one of the raunchiest, steamiest pop culture figures in the past quarter-century was a conservative Christian. Religious and spiritual themes ran through a huge amount of his work.” No, the statement proves that the writer and the editors at the Post are deceptive or deceived or maybe dishonest. No informed person declares that the Jehovah’s Witness sect even comes close to being “conservative Christian.” Furthermore, “Religious and spiritual themes” may have appeared in his work but nothing resembling biblical truth.

I expect secularists to laud Prince and his ilk but when Christianity Today (CT) does so, it would gag a maggot! Mike Cosper is a pastor of arts and worship in a Louisville church and disgraced himself and CT with his ode to Prince. Cosper showed his true colors in praising anything “religious” or “spiritual” or cultic when he wrote, “He seemed to defy mortal boundaries, but in fact, he showed us the glory of simply being made in God’s image.” No, it was very difficult to see God’s image in the way he lived, sang, dressed, etc.

In addition to contributing to the drug culture and aberrational sexuality, he advanced the new “gospel” for leftists everywhere: transgenderism. He sang, “I’m not a woman / I’m not a man / I’m something you will never understand.” Seeking to justify his obsession with sex, CT wrote, “Sex is one of the few places that a secularized imagination maintains space for the possibility of transcendence.” What in creation does that mean?

We are told that Prince was a “wonderfully eccentric, provocative Persona,” but he was really a tragic, talented misfit who surrendered to basic instincts that eventually killed him.

The CT writer opined, “Prince’s life should remind us Christians of how truly wonderful it is to be human. He wasn’t actually more than human; but neither was he mere dust, or the product of a million cosmological accidents resulting temporary consciousness and animation. He was, instead, an image bearer, one who so clearly reflected the Creator’s own jaw-dropping creativity and power.” No, Prince was a weirdo in a silk shirt and the fawning author obviously has a Ph.D. in Gobbledy Gook.

Even if my readers disagree with everything I’ve written, surely no sane person will suggest that Prince was a good role model for young people. It distresses me to know the vast number of youth almost worshipped him and his music. It further distresses me to go into a teen’s bedroom and see posters of rock stars, athletes, and entertainers on the walls that scream, “I’m identifying with these weirdos on my walls.” How pathetic that their life is so jaundiced and empty.

I was a normal teen but when I trusted Christ my heroes became people of character. As a boy, my heroes were military men who carried the battle to Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini. My nonmilitary heroes were a few college football stars and Booker T. Washington, who was one of the most principled men who walked our land. As a teenage jail and street preacher I heard about a young evangelist named Billy Graham who influenced my life; then the five missionary martyrs in Equator became a major life influence; my pastor who was a dynamic preacher, teacher, and musician became my hero; then I met a few missionaries from various nations who visited my church; all impacted my life in a positive way.

Prince squandered his talent, wasted his life, and helped lead untold numbers of people into a world of drugs, sex, and violence. He is not to be praised but pitied.  

Dr. Don Boys’ new book, Evolution: Fact, Fraud, or Faith? was published recently by Barbwire Books. Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives; ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis; wrote columns for USA Today for eight years; authored 15 books and hundreds of columns and articles for Internet and print media publications; and defended his beliefs on hundreds of talk shows. These columns go to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations and may be used without change from title through the end tag. His web sites are cstnews.com, Muslimfact.com and thegodhaters.com. Contact Don for an interview or talk show. Follow him on Facebook at CSTNews and TheGodHaters, Twitter, and visit his blog.