Michael Sweet recently commented on a video where two people were arguing about Stryper’s music and Christianity during a street interview on Instagram.
“If you’re a real Christian, name three Stryper songs,” one man challenged the reporter in the video. When the latter replied, “I don’t know any Stryper songs,” the man claimed, “Then you’re not a Christian.”
Sweet jokingly agreed with that point by captioning the post, “Well, there you have it. I guess you’re not a real Christian if you can’t name 3 Stryper songs.”
Sweet formed Stryper with Oz Fox, Perry Richardson, and Robert Sweet nearly four decades ago. Their songs often included Christian elements since their debut album, ‘The Yellow and Black Attack,’ but the members didn’t identify as a Christian band despite common opinion.
“I recently, in the past few years, said quite a few times, and it’s really caused a stir, that we’re not a Christian band,” the vocalist shared in a 2022 chat with the ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast. “And people say, ‘What?’ But we’re Christians in a rock band. And there’s a difference.”
He explained, “I look at Petra as a Christian band, I look at Sweet Comfort, I look at Rez Band as Christian bands, ’cause they were Christians in a rock band. And they were brought up in the church, for the most part.”
“We weren’t brought up in the church; we were brought up on the streets of L.A. playing Gazzarri’s, Troubadour, Whisky, and we became Christians. And we just continued doing what we always did, but with a different message.”
Sweet added that it was okay if people wanted to call Stryper a Christian band but noted that he viewed them more as a rock band ‘that’s comprised of Christians.’
