Rockers Emery court controversy with Bad Christian initiative

SEATTLE-based rock band Emery are courting controversy with their new project which includes a website, podcast and ebook named Bad Christian. Read a recent blog, "As a band, we have always strived for transparency and honesty. While this has made for good music and lyrics, it has also brought forth much controversy. We have purposely steered our music careers away from churches in favour of playing in what Christians call 'secular bars and clubs' - what we call 'normal places'. Yet we have always and will continue to sing about our lives and who we really are. So naturally our lyrics will include Jesus. This pursuit of being real has resulted in a lot of anger from those that see us as squandering our platform of positive influence and from those that simply want us to stop talking about all this 'religious bullshit', as they put it.

"In short, a common theme and belief of ours is that the pursuit of being a 'good Christian' is a flawed goal, as it circumvents and distracts the pursuit of Jesus Christ himself. We liken the pursuit of being a 'good Christian' to what the Bible would label as being a good Pharisee. We prefer to label followers of Jesus as Bad Christians who fortunately have a Great Saviour. We also believe that Jesus grows, changes and makes people better. As Jesus pursues change in our hearts, our most effective response is being honest and transparent with our weaknesses and struggles. Through Bad Christian, this is what we intend to personally do - and encourage others to do the same."