God Bless Stryper

Now, maybe, just maybe, you read my post about religion and politics in rock music, and maybe you recall that I used Stryper as an example about religion being used in music just a little too blatantly. Now that I've spent more time.listening to them and their music, I'm gonna just retract any previous statements I made about them and start anew.
It took guts to get on stage, play rock music, and sing about Jesus Christ and Christianity. In a time when everybody was singing about getting drunk, getting high, getting shot and getting laid, Stryper stuck to their morals and what they believed in to make more inspiring and motivating (albeit sometimes cheesier) music. There was more money the other way, but they stuck to it. And there were people who hated them because they sang about the Lord. That, to me, is horrible. If you choose not to be  Christian, that is your right and decision. But Christianity, no matter how you look at it, is a thing of love and kindness. Hating Christianity is hating love and kindness. To me, hating Stryper because of what they stand for is hating Christianity. I'm saying this all as a doubtful agnostic. I've never been able to make Christianity a part of my own life, but I have so much respect and admiration for those who have.
Whether you liked Stryper's music or not is irrelevant really. They were amazingly good people, who had strong morale, a lot of courage, and who tried very, very hard to provide an alternative to their day's mainstream rock. Next time you plan on calling them lame or gay, please pause midway through your sentence and say, "Oops. I meant to say Lizzy Borden, not Stryper."
Stryper really were alright...