the newsboys rant

it's no secret that i despise the newsboys. as a youth minister, i couldn't stand having to go to their concerts, buy their CD's or, heaven forbid, play their music at youth group. i was youth pastor to a particularly rabid group of newsboys fans back in 1998-2000. "step up to the microphone" came out in '99 and i swear that if i had heard "entertaining angels" one more time, i'd have driven my car off the road and ended it all.

how, then, do come to have peter furler's (newsboys frontman) autograph framed and proudly displayed on my bookshelf?

i had developed a theory around this time simply to drive the newsboys fanatics crazy that went like this: peter furler and billy corgan (lead singer / songwriter of the smashing pumpkins) both shave their heads, both play guitar, both wear eyeliner, both sing lead in their respective bands. but when the newsboys are on tour, the pumpkins mysteriously disappeared. when the pumpkins were on tour, the newsboys were "back in australia" - recording dates also seemed to happen at opposing times. peter and billy had never been seen at the same time in the same place.

it must be, i mused, that peter and billy are one and the same!! this drove several people a bit nuts when i would talk about this "conspiracy" and illicited protests and much eye rolling.

fast forward to the summer of 2000. newsboys are on tour in maryland (where we lived and did ministry). the week of our summer camp the newsboys are in town. two of my girls skipped camp this summer to see the newsboys (a sin, i was certain). they had paid extra for the backstage passes and i decided once and for all to resolve the peter/billy question.

taking a pic of peter and putting it next to a pic of billy, i printed the result out and gave it to the girls with the order that they were to meet peter backstage, explain my theory, show them the picture and confront him with the ugly truth of his duplicity! they, of course, rolled their eyes, but then promised they'd do it.

i was floored when, after camp, they hand me back the picture i gave them with peter having written: "This is NOT Billy" with an arrow pointing to billy corgan's picture. he then signed the picture - THUS PROVING that my theory is CORRECT!!

while i still don't like the newsboys, peter/billy has found a special place in my heart. and when he brings the pumpkins back together, i'll be first in line to buy the CD.