He thought he was going to talk about music, but instead, Brandon Flowers defends his Mormon faith.
When the “I’m a Mormon” campaign featured Brandon Flowers, of The Killers, I was a little hesitant to be fully behind it. Last I heard he wasn’t very involved with the Church, and I was concerned it was just a publicity stunt. Like if there was a commercial featuring Ryan Gosling or Katherine Heigl. The message was very positive, yet was more focused on family rather than the Church.
I had asked a friend about the video. (Who is another popular recording artist and is Mormon, I didn’t ask for permission to share this so I won’t include his name.) They played shows in the same area together. He said Brandon is a real stand up guy, and they spent time talking together about their faith. It really made be respect Brandon.
Then yesterday another friend shared this video with me of Brandon Flowers as a guest on Skavlan, a Swedish talk show. He was brought on to promote The Killers’ new album “Battle Born,” but spent little time talking about it. First I just thought it was odd they were hosting the show in both English and Swedish. Then as I listened to the questions they were asking the tone of the conversation changed to his faith. At first they were pretty inquisitive (2:49), but then the show really takes a turn at 5:07 to more accusatory. When one of the panelist asks him if he truly believes the story of the gold plates and Joseph Smith. In his response, he talks about the need to gain your own testimony and affirms that he truly believes.
In the next segment hey bring out Richard Dawkins, who is a famous atheist. Dawkins speaks for a few minutes about science, then he proceeds to berate The Book of Mormon and calls Joseph Smith a charlatan right to Brandon’s face on television. I think any of us would want to just shirk away at this point. But Brandon defends his faith and says outright, “When I hear you call this call this man a charlatan, I take offense to that.”
At that point (5:00 into the second video) The host excuses Brandon to join the Killers backstage to prep for the performance of “Runaways”.
Seeing the way Brandon spoke about the Church and defended his faith helped me to gain a new found respect for him. Shame on Skavlan and Richard Dawkins for railroading Brandon. He expected that interview to be about The Killers, and not with a panel of atheists ready to challenge his faith. I also wanted to apologize to Brandon (because I am sure he is a huge fan of the blog). I’m sorry for any thoughts that I might have had towards his conviction towards the gospel. I know he has a testimony and I hope he can return to be with his wife and kids soon.
