Should Christians sing “Buddha is dead and Allah is silent”?

A new worship song has been doing the rounds on social media and raising some eyebrows.

Bailey Redmond’s ‘Dead Idols’ includes the lyrics, “Buddha is dead, Muhammad’s in the grave, Allah is silent, they’re all dead idols”. 

Songs like this are obviously polarising. One of the many challenging aspects of the world we live in is that we aren’t often invited to look deeper. Who is this person? Why are they saying what they are saying? What is their context?

@baileymredmond JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE! Every other false god, false idols, and religious figure is dead, laying in a tomb, and voiceless. but our God, YAHWEH is alive… HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE! He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 #deadidols ♬ original sound - Bailey Redmond

When I first listened to a clip of this song on Instagram, I cringed a bit. Do we really need to sing about other gods and other religions? Does that bring glory to God or build up the believer? But rather than settling in my judgments, I tried to ask deeper questions. 

Firstly, do we see any examples of this sort of mocking in the Bible? My mind was drawn to Elijah on Mount Carmel, taunting the prophets of Baal. These false prophets prayed, danced, and shouted from morning until noon, but no fire came. Because Baal was, in Redmond’s parlance, a dead idol.  

But what about the New Testament? Are there any examples there of believers taunting people who worship a false god? The answer is no. In fact, Paul seems to take a very different approach, especially when addressing the Athenians in Acts 17. While Paul doesn’t shy away from telling the Athenians that they are ignorant of who they are worshipping, he also tries to find common ground with them. 

His approach is persuasive debate rather than taunting or mocking.

These Old and New Testament examples are very different. But it could be argued that each approach was appropriate given the context of the time. 

So what is Bailey Redmond’s context for writing ‘Dead Idols’?

Bailey shared on her Instagram feed the story behind the song, where it came from and her intentions. It’s fairly lengthy, but worth a watch if you want to hear the journey.

She references a ministry she was part of which works to empower high school students in America to share the gospel in their schools. They had been invited to an Islamic school where a little girl said, “Tell them about Isa, the Prophet who heals, he is my favourite!”. Isa is the Arabic name for Jesus used in the Koran, so the team then took the opportunity to share the gospel and the truth of who Jesus really is.

Redmond says that it was her compassion for those who are lost that led her to first sing “Buddha is dead, Muhammad’s in the grave, Allah is silent, they’re all dead idols”. She wants to proclaim the truth and to rebuild God’s altar (like Elijah did in 1 Kings 18) in the context of a nation where she believes Christianity is under attack.

When I heard Bailey speak about her conversation at the Islamic School, I was moved. Not just emotionally, but spiritually. Here is a situation quite similar to Paul in Athens. If I had been there, I would have done exactly what Bailey did and tried to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If I’m honest though, I feel a bit of a disconnect between that evangelistic moment and the subsequent song that has been written. There was a gentleness to how Redmond recounts the conversation and this song doesn’t feel gentle at all.  

As a worship pastor, people often share songs with me. I have to then decide if the song is appropriate for times of corporate worship. In doing this, I need to consider who is there, what their lives are like, what is our context, what is helpful and what is needed.

I probably wouldn’t sing this song in a typical Sunday morning context, but I might in a prayer meeting or during a time of intercession. Nuance is often missed when we come across a song like this in isolation on social media. Not every song should be sung in every space. None of the nuance and story surrounding this song is caught from a viral Instagram reel.

As a songwriter and producer, I am intrigued by an alternative idea. What if a song of compassion was written, addressed to the little girl whose favourite prophet is the “one who heals”? Not to replace ‘Dead Idols’, but to add a different side to the story. I think there’s an opportunity there. 

So should songs like this be written and sung? I think it’s hard to argue that they shouldn’t because at its core, the song is expressing what we believe to be true. After all, many of us sing Chris Tomlin’s “Our God is greater / Our God is stronger / God you are higher than any other”. Granted this song feels more in your face than that, but they are essentially expressing the same truth. Ultimately, we need balance. God is holy and jealous, but God is also compassionate and kind. We need songs that speak to all of these truths.