Okay, Thunderstruckers, you really need to check out the new issue of Risen, a magazine edited by the host of Thunderstruck. Click on the cover to go to the website. Plus, check out the very cool things Pauley Perrette said about the mag on her blog by clicking here: "I love this magazine. It is no fluff in content, (yes there are ads, because, it's a magazine). I sat down for hours and read all three magazines from cover to cover and I fell in love. It is absolutely my favorite magazine ever. They interview all kinds of people, but instead of silly Hollywood stuff, it's about the real stuff, mind, heart and soul." (www.PauleyP.com)

Also, Sonny from P.O.D., just did a cool video message to all The Warriors, encouraging them to subscribe to Risen. Check it out by clicking on the cover.


I caught up with the gorgeous and bubbly Kristen Chenoweth in New York last weekend for the junket for RV with Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines and the bombshell above. Thought you Thunderstruckers would be interested in a few of her responses to questions.

Kristen Chenoweth: The minute you say, 'I’m a Christian, I have faith,' people are like, “ohhhh”—scared. I am not like Tom Cruise Scientologist — kinda wacky.…I don’t mind saying that. I do have faith and I do pray and it is part of my childhood and I am really glad that I have it because it is what has sustained me. Do I meet people at Starbucks and say they are going to hell? No.
Every decision that I make, I always weigh very carefully. Playing Annette Benning’s lesbian lover in Running with Scissors was an important decision for me to make. And I knew that doing an FHM cover would create a certain backlash from the Christian community. But I don’t live my life in judgment and I don’t think anyone should. My best friend is gay.…I don’t try to walk any sort of line. I guess I am somewhat of a dichotomy because I love to perform and act and sing, but I am a person of faith. That is a major aspect of who I am, and I am also in this industry. There are certain business decisions that I make. Will I do Playboy? Probably not. Do I judge people who do? No.
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"I was reciting a Bible verse in my mind. It was 2nd Timothy 1:7, which is 'God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.' I kept repeating power, love, sound mind. I had a nice read on it, and I said to myself, 'This is for you Jesus,' and knocked it in."
--Australian Aaron Baddeley in winning his first PGA Tour title
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"I've done some f----- up things, I admit. We all make mistakes in life. But there's only one perfect person in our society, and they put him on a cross. For what? For being kind? For loving people?"
--Barry Bonds in USA Today
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"14 years P.O.D. has been around, we been saying the same thing since we first started, that there is a God out there that loves you. We have that faith and I believe that keeps us strong, and even though we been in this business and industry you see so many fakes and phonies... one of the lyrics on our album says if you don't stand for something, then you don't stand for nothing. We have been the same way for 14 years, no changing - no gimmicks."
—Sonny from P.O.D. on MTV
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"I believe being a worship leader is the highest of all art forms, to worship and call people into the presence of God."
-- Bono, discussing Christian and secular music with a group of reporters after the National Prayer Breakfast
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"The drugs didn't make me funny. God made me funny. The drugs kept me up in my imagination. But I felt … pathetic afterward. Drugs messed me up."
--Richard Pryor in The Washington Post
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Boston Globe: You were on the cover of a Christian magazine last year talking about being a God-fearing pop star, but I was on your website and found that you're selling Clay Aiken thongs for 10 bucks a pop. Where does that fit into being a good Christian pop star?
Clay Aiken: First of all, do you think that Christians don't wear underwear? Of course they do!
--Clay Aiken in the Boston Globe
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"Q: Money. Irishness. God. Which one couldn't you live without?
Bono: Wow.  Well it's an easy question to ask but... here's a thing.  When I was 16, my head was exploding. I just felt my life was going nowhere. I didn't fit in. I couldn't get a job. I didn't know how I could do my exams and I wasn't even sure I could concentrate at college. In those days, I remember, a prayer came up inside me.  I said "I don't know what I'm going to do with my life but if there's a God out there, and I believe there is, and You want me to do something, then I'm ready. I don't have any plans for myself and I'm available for work."  Pretty much within a few months of that epiphany I had joined U2 and started going out with Ali. A pretty good two months! Now had my destiny been -- if the God in heaven had said I want you to become a fireman and run up very dangerous buildings and save people's pets, I'd like to hope I'd have gone at it with the same gusto. So -- I couldn't let go of my faith.  But what's more interesting is that I don't think God will let go of me. I love it when people on bar stools rub their chins and say do you believe in God?  That's so presumptuous. A much more important question is does God believe in us?
Q: That sounds like you believe you were chosen.
Bono: No, no, no, I don't believe that. I do think God gets a laugh out of using some very poor materials. I volunteered is what I'm telling you."
--Bono in Q Magazine
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"Free love -- what a poison that was. Free love, the destruction of family life and loyalties and the responsibilities of parents, and I've gone through that, so I know."
--Jon Voight on the 1960s
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"I'm constantly trying to figure out what my place in the world is. That search was obviously instigated by the birth of my daughter. In my film, I talk about how I woke up one day and thought, 'my God, I'm about to have a baby; how am I going to teach my child what the meaning of life is when I don't know myself?' If she asks why she's here and who is God or why are people suffering, I want to have answers. And I want to ask those questions, too."
--Madonna
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"The thing is this: all of the money, all of the success-none of it is going to keep me alive longer than I'm meant to be. But the ICU is finished with 50 Cent. They're through seeing me under any circumstances. The way I see it, even a nigga like me ain't no accident. Like I said before, I believe in God. I didn't survive being shot nine times for nothing. I didn't claw my way out of the 'hood just 'cause it was something to do. I know I've got a purpose-a reason for being on this planet."
--50 Cent
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" They were wonderful people, the Cashes. The last time I saw Johnny we were at my house on my ranch in California. He and June were down. I was playing some songs for him for his new record he was working on with Rick Rubin. We had dinner. Before we started, June had us all hold hands and she said grace. Since then, whenever we have guests in the house we all hold hands and say grace."
--Neil Young in The Tennessean
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"Sometimes we listen to too many commentators about things that don't affect their lives because they're in a different tax bracket. Or to the so-called clergymen giving their interpretation of God's word, and yet they're not rolling the same way in their own lives."
--Stevie Wonder in USA Today
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NPR’s Terry Gross: The new album is Get Behind Me Satan, and there have been a couple of biblical references in your songs over the years—were you brought up with religion?

Jack White of the White Stripes: Oh yes, heavy duty—but not to the point of you know, speaking in tongues or anything. But it was in the air for sure. I appreciate it as well. I like looking at life through that at times. I wouldn’t consider myself sort of…I mean, I just like being in touch with God, I think. I think that’s sort of important. I think when you’re a creative person in any kind of art form, once you finally admit to yourself that you can’t create like God creates, it humbles you. And then you can be free to explore the beauty of that creativity. When you look at it with God in the picture as well it just sort of frees you up, I think.
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I've tried everything in my life. I was baptized Lutheran and brought up as a Jehovah's Witness. My mom was Jewish. I experimented with black magic and witchcraft and read the satanic bible. But I became a Christian about three years ago and that's a positive thing."
--Dave Mustaine from Megadeth in an interview with CanWest News
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"She's a Christian, but she's a pottymouth."
--Dominic Monaghan on "Lost" co-star Evangeline Lilly
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"Over and over again, I've been called a walking oxymoron. I do things that you wouldn't associate with a good little Christian girl."
--Evangeline Lilly, star of "Lost"
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"Aspects of the entertainment industry not really related to music began to sidetrack me. For a while, I was headed down not such a good path. But God brought me out of that. He totally saved me."
--Jonny Lang in the Lexington Herald-Leader
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"I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God and religion and superstition and judgment all confused. I think a lot of our music comes out of that. I definately believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?"
--Coldplay's Chris Martin
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"I will never forget Bono's compassion....I had never heard of him, but my younger staff members had. They quickly educated me....Since that first meeting, Bono and my wife and I have become friends."
--Former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)
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"While I may not have been as 'into' the music...I was very much in sync with the band's desire to use their public platform on behalf of people in desperate need."
--Former Senator Jesse Helms on attending a U2 concert, his first rock show





"At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God's work -- with its shopping mall sales pitch and its bumpersticker reductionism -- I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for that clear, empathetic voice of his in that Southern accent. Part poet, part preacher -- a singer of the human spirit. Yeah, I give thanks for Billy Graham. Thanks Billy Graham."
--Bono on Pat Boone's new video tribute to Billy Graham (Click here to watch)



Check out our friends at Paste by clicking on the cover
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"The idea of a God that's preoccupied with our well-being is totally foreign to me. I'm more inclined to think that a very miraculous indifference is responsible for most things. I have faith, but I think there's a difference between faith and absolute belief. Faith requires a certain amount of suspended belief, whereas absolute belief doesn't really require any faith. If you think God is absolutely there watching you, then why do you need any faith? But I do like the idea of a force that made all the miracles. All the stuff we don't understand that we arrogantly pretend to be in control of, that stuff is where I think my faith is."
--Dave Matthews in Rolling Stone
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"Where you have a lot of punks, you don't usually have a lot of Christians. Some of the best Christians of our generation come from backgrounds where they were listening to Slipknot, or Murphy's Law. They go through a refining of their faith."
--Austin Williams of Underground Church in The New York Times explaining why the East Village was ripe territory for his brand of ministry
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"But if a show is a little off, and there's a hole, that's the one song we can guarantee that God will walk through the room as soon as we play it. So the idea that when we played it, people would go, `That's the such-and-such commercial,' we couldn't live with it."
--Bono on why U2 refused £12.5 million to allow "Where the Streets have No Name" for a commercial
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"Coolness might help in your negotiation with people through the world, maybe, but it is impossible to meet God with sunglasses on. It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw. That’s the connection with great music and art, and that is why it’s uncomfortable, that is why cool is the enemy of it, because that's the other reason you wanted to join a band: you wanted to do the cool thing. Trying to capture religious experiences on tape wasn’t what you had in mind when you signed up for the job." --Bono in Bono in conversation with Michka Assayas
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"As a Christian, I feel very shut out from a lot of contemporary Christianity. My understanding in what it means to be a Christian is to, in our own subjective way, recognize Christ as being God, and recognize our shortcomings and our failings, and try and live according ot the teachings of Christ as best we can. And what I find so strange is I look at the behavior of so many Christians, and I don't see any aspect of the teachings of Christ represented there. But [I remember] the quote about taking the log our of your own eye before you can see the speck in someone else's eye, so I don't want to get in the position of judging other Christians. I fully admit that a lot of my actions and a lot of things that are still in my life are inconsistent with my beliefs as a Christian. I'm very secular."
--Moby in Relevant

"We're convinced that if we have children, we're going to do everything in our power to make them gay. Like maybe drinking a lot of extra soy milk while she's pregnant, or anything that would work to make that happen. I'd just rather have a really sharp, interesting, smart gay son than some big dumb hetero meathead."
--Moby in Planet Out


"Theology is a lot more interesting. I mean, I love music, and I love making music, and I love making records, and I've devoted my life to being a musician. But music, in and of itself, is not the most interesting thing to talk about."
--Moby in Relevant
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"So maybe it's time for a new Martin Luther, who's gonna come along and say, 'Live how you want to live, do what you want to do. But if you're going to call yourself a Christian, at least knwo the teachings of Christ. And at least understand the character of Christ."
--Moby in Relevant
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"I'm a scribbling, cigar-smoking, wine-drinking, Bible-reading band man. A show off (laughs)...who loves to paint pictures of what I can't see. A husband, father, friend of the poor and sometimes the rich. An activist traveling salesman of ideas... Chess-player, part-time rock star, opera singer, in the loudest folk group in the world..."
--Bono's self-description in Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas.



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"It all comes down to Jesus. It is all about love and how we all are connected. Coming from the inner city where there wasn’t much hope, where there was a lot of violence and drugs, I can relate to the other side, where it seemed like nothing was connected, nothing mattered. It was all dark and painful. I had those feelings when I strayed from my faith, got caught up in the street life, drugs, and crime … and it wasn’t until I woke up in prison that I said, “Oh God, I need to straighten my life out.” It was God that brought me back and put everything else in perspective."
--Mark Wahlberg on his role in I Heart Huckabees talking with Jeffrey
Overstreet of Looking Closer

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"There is a thing called God or Nature or the Universe or whatever the f--k, yeah. Something must be happening for a reason. I overdosed f--ing thousands of times and f--ing had stomach pumps hundreds of times. And no I'm without drugs and alcohol eight months."
--Ozzy Osbourne in Spin on whether someone is watching out for him
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“…I believe in a soul and my soul’s in this body. After that I don’t think that this human mind can even fathom where the soul goes. Is is something you see, something you touch? I don’t know; I can’t really picture exactly what that is. When this life is done that will go on. Hopefully it will be a good place, and hopefully I’ll lead a good life. I am not perfect, but I try to live a good life and to do better all the time. Hopefully that will reflect on my soul.”
-–Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas in Risen Magazine
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"I'd got accepted to the seminary in Wisconsin and I was going to become a priest, but at the last second I thought, 'I'll just go to public school.' I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom and I didn't think I was allowed to take it with me."
--Jack White of The White Stripes on "60 Minutes"
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"I'm thirty-three years old now. I see a lot of things differently now than I used to. I try to do more right than wrong and to keep God in everything I do and to keep the devils away from me. But I know by trying to stay so right, the devil is going to keep on working on me. That's going to be a curse around me all the time. But I don't think it's going to get me. I really dont think that it is."
--Snoop Dogg
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Rolling Stone: What's the last song you'd like to hear before you die?
Bob Dylan: How 'bout "Rock of Ages"?
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"I don't talk about my faith very much, because the people you might want to talk with, you don't want to hang out with.

"To have faith in a time of religious fervor is a worry. And, you know, I do have faith, and I'm worried about even the subject because of the sort of fanaticism that is the next-door neighbor of faith. The trick in the next few years will be not to decry the religious instinct, but to accept that this is a hugely important part of people's lives. And at the same time to be very wary of people who believe that theirs is the only way. Unilateralism before God is dangerous."

"Religion is ceremony and symbolism. Writers live off symbolism, and performers live off ceremony. We're made for religion! And yet you see this country, Ireland, ripped over religion, and you see the Middle East. Right now, unless tolerance comes with fervor, you'll see it in the United States."
--Bono in The New York Times
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"Heaven is basically a real prayer that we turned into a song. To tell you the truth, we just feel really honored and blessed that it's that song that people can identify us with, because that is really and truly who we are. And this music business and the rest of the world, man, it seems like you are up against a lot of odds when you go out and put your neck out on the line, in a sense for (a song from the heart about faith), for people to say 'Oh they're religious, they're churchgoers.' But. hey, we're not churchgoers or nothing; we just believe. We are real spiritual people when it comes to believing in God and Jesus and that whole spiritualism story. We just believe that's why we are where we are today."
--Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys _____________________
"God is first. That's the breath of life. For me, that's why I'm here. I've been blessed with these abilities. I believe that it's not what you're given, it's what you do with what you have. I learned that from the Bible. What are you doing with what you have? Everybody has gifts to give. Who did you lift today? Who did you make better today?"
--Denzel Washington in the Independent
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"People are people. It doesn't matter what you've got or what position you're in, we all have issues in life, spiritual battles ... all kinds of things that need to be nurtured.…I'm just trying to, at this point of my life, glorify God the best way I can. I'm very appreciative of God's blessings."
--Lenny Kravtiz
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�I look at is as Christianity is a faith, not a genre. I think that it�s important to us to not put ourselves in a box. Nobody likes to be categorized. I think (categories) limit your audience. But we�ve made music for everybody.�
--Switchfoot drummer Chad Butler
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"If I refuse one of them I'd be like, 'Oh my God. What if that was Jesus?'"
--Pam Anderson explaining why she gives money to homeless people
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"Look, if you see a car crash, somebody's lying there in the middle of the road bleeding and it turns out they're a drunk driver, you're still going to call an ambulance. We can't make these judgments about entire civilizations. We try to re-educate people, we try to deal with the problem. And by the way, not dealing with the problem with something like AIDS, which metastasized, which grows on a geometric level, is really foolhardy. Because it will be more expensive to deal with it later. "
--Bono interviewed by Bill O'Reilly
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"I got on my knees and started praying. And the good Lord told me to start writing it down, dude."
Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys on the inspiration behind the song "Heaven" in Rolling Stone
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"You can't make a deal with death. No, sir. And you can't make a deal with God. Death is coldblooded, and maybe God is, too. So I'm alone, and I'm going crazy, until a righteous Christian lady from the little country town where I grew up wakes me and shakes me and says, 'Boy, stop feeling sorry for yourself. You gotta carry on.'… Made me realize I had to depend on me. No one was going to do sh-t for me. You hear me? No one. I could praise Jesus till I'm blue in the face. Pray till the cows come home. But Mama ain't coming back. So if Mama gave me religion, the religion said, 'Believe in yourself.' "
--Ray Charles, quoted in Rolling Stone
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"I guess I don't speak American, but I thought I did. There are some obscenities in our culture, and this is nowhere near the top of the list. I never meant to be offensive. That language was genuine exuberance. It was a great moment for our band. If you're Irish, you love language, and if you do, you're going to fall on the occasional expletive; it's the percussive side of language. For me, it is preposterous to have good, conservative people whom I like and respect taking on an expletive while the right to pack heavy ammo goes by. It says something eloquent, if not pretty, about where we are."
--Bono in the New York Times regarding his use of the "F" word
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"I'm not all that much of a praying person, and I'm definately not a religious person, but I do consider myself a spiritual person and a Christian. I guess I might be a C-minus Christian, but I am one."
--Johnny Cash, liner notes of Cash Unearthed
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The good, the bad, and the ugly: The Thunderstruck 2003 Retrospective
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"Best Christian blog? The astounding Thunderstruck, where Steve Beard lists and links thousands of key articles from a host of sources, all calculated to make Christians think more carefully about their faith and the culture they live in. I have to watch how often I go there; I start clicking on his links, and whoops, it�s suppertime."
--John Allan, Christianity & Renewal magazine
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BONO TO THUNDERSTRUCK

"Well, you know, I am not a very good advertisement for God. So, I generally don't wear that badge on my lapel. But it is certainly written on the inside. I am a believer. There are 2,103 verses of Scripture pertaining to the poor. Jesus Christ only speaks of judgement once. It is not all about the things that the church bangs on about. It is not about sexual immorality, and it is not about megalomania, or vanity. It is about the poor. 'I was naked you clothed me. I was a stranger and you let me in.' This is at the heart of the gospel. Why is it that we have seemed to have forgotten this? Why isn't the church leading this movement? I am here tonight because the church ought to be ready to do that.
--Bono in response to Thunderstruck's question about how faith motivates his activism, asked during a press conference at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky
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"I�m a religious person. I�m a Catholic. But I think any kind of spirituality is good. My chosen spirituality is Catholicism and I believe in Jesus. Now, if I was to say that in Rolling Stone, it would probably either get edited out or there would be some snide comment about that. And that�s what I was talking about in a song like ("St. Jude"): How spirituality or religion is almost something people deride. A lot of the reason is because of the caricatures of religion, people like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker. Young people see that and say, �This is a joke.� A lot of it is the fault of these people and a lot of it is the fault of the whole left-wing journalism of Spin magazine or Rolling Stone. It�s not �cool.�"
--Brian Setzer, The Desert Sun
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"Think of Steve Beard as the missing link. Without him, you might not find anything to connect "Roy's rock" to rock 'n' roll, bikinis to the breastplate of St. Patrick."
--The Mobile Register



"Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion."
--Alice Cooper
The London Sunday Times