{"id":26734,"date":"2026-04-14T20:18:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=26734"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:18:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:18:01","slug":"brandon-lake-says-doors-were-open-to-christian-buddhist-query","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=26734","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Lake says \u2018doors were open\u2019 to \u2018Christian Buddhist\u2019 query"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Katelyn WebbMonday, April 13, 2026Brandon Lake appears on the \u201cNashville Now\u201d podcast on April 1, 2026.<\/span> | screenshot\/YouTube\/Rolling Stone<\/span><\/p>\n

Brandon Lake said he hopes \u201cthe doors were open\u201d to those exploring faith in response to a question from a Rolling Stone editor who asked whether there is room in Christianity for someone who identifies as a \u201cChristian Buddhist.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the April 1 episode of Rolling Stone\u2019s \u201cNashville Now\u201d podcast, Joseph Hudak posed the question to the \u201cHard Fought Hallelujah\u201d singer, saying that after reading the works of late Buddhist monk Th\u00edch Nh\u1ea5t H\u1ea1nh, particularly the book Living Buddha, Living Christ<\/em>,\u00a0 he now identifies as a \u201cChristian Buddhist in some way.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not asking for your judgment of me, but I\u2019m just asking, in terms of Christianity and the church, is there room for that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Hudak continued to ask whether there is space within the Christian faith, contemporary Christian music and Lake\u2019s own platform for those who may not fully identify with Christianity or even have \u201ca foothold\u201d in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would so hope that you felt like the doors were open,\u201d Lake, who serves as worship pastor at the multi-site megachurch Seacoast Church based in Charleston, South Carolina, responded. \u201cI think Jesus would love to sit down with you, would love to have this conversation with you, and you can. I would also hope the Church would be that open. Why would you not have a place here? Even if we disagree on something, why would you not have a place here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lake, a Grammy and Dove Award-winning worship leader, added that the \u201conly person\u201d Jesus would \u201dshoo away or snap at\u201d were the Pharisees, adding: \u201cI can believe what I can believe, and still be able to sit down and share a meal … we might not align on these things, but like, doesn’t God call me to love you and to listen? \u2026 I think there’s something we can all learn from one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cGratitude\u201d singer said he\u2019d be \u201cheartbroken\u201d if Hudak \u201cshowed up somewhere\u201d and was told he couldn\u2019t enter the doors: \u201cI don’t think that’s what the church is called to do,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you actually go read the Gospels, Jesus is often just sharing a meal and having a conversation. And Jesus told stories to get people thinking. He wasn’t shoving it down people’s throats. He was like, \u2018Man, consider this,\u2019\u201d Lake said. \u201cYou’re not going to benefit from me saying you’re wrong. \u2026 Let’s have a conversation and see what God does with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conversation was part of a broader discussion that touched on the growing popularity of Christian music, Lake\u2019s crossover into country music and the pressures artists face when navigating public expectations, including recent controversy surrounding country artist Jelly Roll\u2019s decision not to comment on social issues at the 2026 Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n

At one point, Lake acknowledged the weight placed on public figures to provide answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a funny thing when people expect someone who\u2019s been given a platform to have all the answers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last year, Lake sparked controversy after suggesting worship songs threaten to alienate non-Christians if they are too overtly biblical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see more worship sets, more churches kind of keep Bubba in mind. We call him Bubba: the guy who\u2019s in the back of the room and he got dragged there by his wife,” Lake said. “And I just don\u2019t know if, when your opening song or most of your songs have so much Christianese language, I think he has a hard time going like, \u2018Can I sing that? Like, I\u2019m not there yet.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he hears a (‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’) and I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not saying ‘Hard Fought’ is the answer, but like, I love like, like when your first song is like, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.’ I think he\u2019s going like, \u201cWhat does \u2018holy\u2019 mean? Like holy crap? what? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an interview with The Christian Post in 2019, award-winning musician and modern hymnist Keith Getty warned that modern worship songs are often too worried about placating the surrounding culture instead of worshiping God, which he said is effectively \u201cde-Christianizing\u201d the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany worship songs are focused on this Earth,\u201d Getty said at the time. \u201cI believe that the modern worship movement is a movement for cultural relevance. It\u2019s a de-Christianizing of God\u2019s people. It\u2019s utterly dangerous. I have no quibbles saying, \u2018Enough is enough.\u2019 This can\u2019t happen to build an authentic generation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katelyn WebbMonday, April 13, 2026Brandon Lake appears on the \u201cNashville Now\u201d podcast on April 1, 2026. | screenshot\/YouTube\/Rolling Stone Brandon Lake said he hopes \u201cthe doors were open\u201d to those exploring faith in response to a question from a Rolling Stone editor who asked whether there is room in Christianity for someone who identifies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[4985,8904,72,1702,5678,989,8905],"class_list":{"0":"post-26734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-brandon","9":"tag-buddhist","10":"tag-christian","11":"tag-doors","12":"tag-lake","13":"tag-open","14":"tag-query"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}