American Idol

Wednesday night's are pretty typical for me.  I drive to campus to meet with one of my students at 5:30pm to study Galatians till large group which starts at 7:00pm.  Large group goes till about 9ish and then I drive back to Newport News (about a 35-40 min drive).  Since I'm gone on Wed. nights my wife has some of her friends over to hang out.  So, I got home at about 9:40ish and they were watching the normal show they always watch....American Idol.  This night on the show was there "give back" night, they were raising money for various charities.  I normally walk in the door grab some food to eat and check my email and send a few.  This night on the show was like every other till I started hearing the song "Shout to the Lord" being sung from the TV by all the participants of American Idol.  I was taken back...I stopped what I was doing and was captivated by what I was hearing.  On American Idol they were singing a song that openly proclaimed about worshipping Jesus.  Somewhere between 18-21 million people watch this show each week according to the shows statistics.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little impressed to hear this song sung on such a mainstream TV show.  Why did they change the lyrics to "my shepherd" instead of "my Jesus".  Before I finished this post I caught last's night episode and they sang the song again....except this time they sang it "my Jesus".  Needless to say dozens of questions are rolling around in my head.  Here are a few...How and why are they signing this song? Did Hillsong give them a bunch of money, and ask them to sing this song?  What cause them to change the lryics to "my shepherd" the first night and back to "Jesus" the second?  I was also curious who decided to have them sing this song. Curious to hear everyones thoughts.

I've put the click below for you to check out if you didn't get to see it.  I also put the lyrics to the song below as well.

my shepherd version (above - from 4/09/08)

my Jesus version (above - from 4/10/08)

Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing
Power and Majesty, praise to the King;
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name.
I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You. 

My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You;
All of my days I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love.
My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength;
Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship You.