A so-called Christian heavy metal band whose frontman was convicted
of attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife has
admitted that it duped fans into believing that they were Christian in
order to sell their music.
“Truthfully, I was an atheist,” Tim Lambesis, the lead singer and founder of As I Lay Dying told the Alternative Press
in a recent interview. “I actually wasn’t the first guy in As I Lay
Dying to stop being a Christian. In fact, I think I was the third. The
two who remained kind of stopped talking about it, and then I’m pretty
sure they dropped it, too.”
The publication noted that his wife, Meggan, had likewise divulged in
divorce papers that Lambesis had become an atheist. Lambesis, in
admitting his atheism, outlined that he turned away from Christianity as
he majored in religious studies while attending college through a long
distance program.
“In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” he said.
And one sin led to another, turning his renunciation of Christ into justification for his actions.
“The first time I cheated on my wife, my interpretation of morality
was now convenient for me,” Lambesis explained. “I felt less guilty if I
decided, “Well, marriage isn’t a real thing, because Christianity isn’t
real. God isn’t real. Therefore, marriage is just a stupid piece of
paper with the government.”
But he continued to profess to be a Christian, as did others in the band, in order to sell records to Christian music fans.
“I remember one Christian festival where an interviewer wanted one of
the guys [in the band] to share his testimony, and he just froze up and
let one of the guys who was still a Christian at the time answer the
question,” Lambesis recalled. “We laughed about it afterward, but we
were only laughing because it was so awkward.”
“When kids would want to pray with us after shows, I’d be like, ‘Um,
go ahead and pray!’ I would just let them pray. I’d say ‘Amen.’ If
praying while I have my hand on their shoulder makes them feel better, I
didn’t want to take that away from them,” he continued. “When they
would specifically ask me to pray for something, I’d say, ‘I don’t
really like to pray out loud, but I’ll take that with me to the bus.”
He said that during his tenure with As I Lay Dying, he realized that a
number of bands that professed to be Christians were faking their
faith just as he was.
“We toured with more ‘Christian bands’ who actually aren’t Christians
than bands that are,” Lambesis stated. “In 12 years of touring with As I
Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with
were actually Christian bands.”
As he continued to fall deeper into sin, Lambesis asked a personal
trainer at his local gym if he knew any hitmen that could kill his wife.
The lead singer was soon arrested and taken into custody following an
undercover sting operation where he allegedly supplied police with
directions and cash to carry out the murder. He was sentenced to six
years in prison in March of this year.
But Lambesis just recently came forward with the truth about his atheism and the front that the band put on to sell records.
“A lot of Christian parents said, ‘Yes, you can buy this As I Lay
Dying CD, because they’re a Christian band.’ They don’t even think to
actually check the lyrics,” Lambesis stated. “So when you change your
views, you kind of owe it to the fans to be honest.”
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