Can You Hear Their Screams?

This Christmas, Skillet brought a great scandal to the table when they introduced a heavy metal version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” I’m not sure it was the genre of music that upset people so much as it was, as one commenter put it, “Screaming as a lyric.”

I’ll be honest: I’ve listened to Skillet for almost 30 years. I don’t love the screaming, but I’ll tolerate it, and this post isn’t really about that anyway. It’s about a deeper issue that I kept coming back to as my social media newsfeed was littered with commentary.

The reason I love Skillet is because they speak to the pain and suffering in life in a very raw and real way. Life isn’t meant to be pretty and comfortable and easy.

Five years ago, I was safely cocooned in a world buffered by Christians on every side. I dreaded family gatherings because it was the one place I had to endure where people weren’t like me. I experienced a lot of discomfort in church as well, but it was easier than going out into the world where people drink, smoke, cuss, cheat, steal, gossip, wear inappropriate clothing and do far worse things that most Christians don’t want to deal with.

Yet God called us to live in that world, not squirreled away in a safe, comfortable environment. He wants us to see people’s unredeemed pain and sit with them through their hardships without just slapping a scriptural Band Aid on it.

It is not an exaggeration to say, “We need to hear their screams.”

I get the feeling that my writing hits people the same way Skillet’s “O Come O Come Emmanuel” does. Some people love it, but it’s not popular among other readers. They don’t want to read about the ugliness and grit of life, cheating spouses, alcoholism, abuse, homosexuality… or WWII from the German perspective.

That’s no judgement—we all like different things, and there are people out there who need a message delivered in such a way.

It is, however, also an opportunity for us to check our hearts as I did five years ago. I’m not saying go out and read my books or start listening to Christian heavy metal, but we might ask ourselves, are we too callous to people’s pain? Do we like staying safe and cozy and forgetting what other people are experiencing?

Do we close our ears to their screams?

Personally, I had to start writing about the things I do. I had to think about what it truly meant to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, or a Nazi gasp. I had to take time to write about a homosexual character who loved God but couldn’t reconcile that longing with the feelings and desires he couldn’t seem to conquer. It’s pain. It’s ugly. A lot of people don’t like to look at it, but it’s real, and that’s the conclusion I came to: Jon Cooper’s scream is ugly to a lot of people. The distortion and drums are ugly to a lot of people. That’s all right, but we shouldn’t judge it as inappropriate or offensive.

Here is the only comment I made on the entire social media debate:
“I think we are coming to a time in history where Christians can no longer be soft… I mean, maybe we need a little screaming to wake us up. I’m not saying that as a joke. I just think it’s indicative of where we’ve been and where we’re headed.”

We all know the world is not getting any better, that there are Christians suffering all over the globe. There are people right around us who, though they love God, are suffering deeply, whether it is because of something that has happened to them, or choices they have made—choices, perhaps, that they can’t quite stop making. And, there are people who are unredeemed, deeply in sin, and don’t even know they’re being destroyed.

Christmas is over and we won’t hear “O Come O Come Emmanuel” for another year. We all hope that 2026 will be a good year, but what if it’s not? What if something happens that shakes us up more than we’ve ever been shaken up? Are we prepared to be jostled out of our comfort zone? If we are allowed to remain comfortable for another year, are we prepared to go and share the love of God with those who are suffering, in a way they can truly relate to?

About Aubrey:

Aubrey Reiss Taylor unites a fascination for history with a passion for redemption, creating a unique brand of gritty, honest wartime sagas, written from the German perspective. She is the mother of three, and married to her best friend Brian. When she’s not writing or taking care of home and family, she enjoys making music, dancing, reading, and spending time with friends.

Download Aubrey’s FREE Novelette, Hans Waldemar Remembers Normandy: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/d2lvbsx9ka