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November 5, 2025 • 14 mins

In this week’s episode of Granger Smith Reacts, Granger dives into a bold take from worship leader Jeremy Riddle — who’s calling for a total overhaul of Christian award shows. 👀 From “the Dove Awards aren’t Christian” to “what would Jesus’ award show look like?”, this one sparks a deep (and funny) conversation about faith, music, and fame.

 

Granger shares his own behind-the-scenes experience with award shows — the red carpets, the awkward dinners, and why he despised them — while wrestling with the big question: Can we really celebrate faith the same way the world celebrates fame?

 

💭 Expect honest reflections, biblical wisdom, and the usual Granger humor as we unpack how the kingdom of God might hand out trophies… if it ever did.

 

👉 Watch Episode 1 here if you missed it: https://youtu.be/80OJ1pIuWAc

🎙 Subscribe for more faith-filled reactions every week!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Okay, it is video reaction time. What do you got
to hit? What do you got for?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Did you like last.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Week's first of all? I did?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. Okay, so we're
gonna kind of branch off of that one and that
one last week's If you didn't watch it, we were
talking about Forest, Frank and Jelly Roll talking about Forrest's
denial of awards and award shows. I'm not going back
to award shows. This guy I want to introduce you today.
He is a worship Leader's name is Jeremy Riddle. He

(00:31):
wants to completely change the way we look at award
shows in general.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is he a famous guy?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Somewhat? I would say. I mean yeah, I has quite
a few followers on Instagram and then I've seen him
on several things. I didn't not as recognizable as as
you know Brandon Lake, or at least wasn't for me, but
I think for some people maybe. So here he is
we get your thoughts on this.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hey, my friends, I just wanted to come on here
and follow through on my last post about the GMA
devil words, and I promised to share my thoughts in
a more in depth video.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I debated writing it.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
But I just felt like it was important for you
guys to hear tone and my heart. I just think
it's important for you guys to know that I've come
through so much. I've been through so much. I have
seen so much, you know, and I do have a
real hunger and thirstful righteousness that we would live rightly,
that we would do rightly. And sometimes I got to

(01:33):
confess that makes me angry. It's ever been angry before.
You just need to know I've been an accomplice. I've
been a part of all of these things that I'm
going to be talking about. So I couldn't sit in
the judgment seat. I'd be the first one to be
condemned if I tried to sit in that seat. And
I also want to say that there's so much to

(01:54):
love about the devil words truly and sincerely, the coming
together are believers and artists and runswers and the like
from all streams and the body of Christ and coming
together and lifting the name of Jesus and giving speeches
that honor and provoke one another for the glory of
Jesus and all of that. I love that, the genuine worship,

(02:14):
and you know that happens in different parts. My main
issue and contention is with the reward system itself, and
I think part of the thing is because I feel
like a lot of that other stuff that surrounds the
awards that really is beautiful, can mask the underlying root
issue of what's wrong with the devil words. And again,

(02:37):
my issue and my contention and the case that I'm
going to make is with the reward system itself. And
I'll just be very blunt and just say I do
not believe that the GMA double wards system for awarding
people is Christian. And I know that's a strong statement,
and I'm going to explain it. Every award show has
a set of values, criteria, a set of metrics that

(02:59):
they use and that a committee evaluates when getting an award.
So if we were to use song of the Year
as an example or an illustration, if you receive, for instance,
song of the Year, it's simply because your song was
more popular, it was played in more churches, and essentially
it's streamed or sold more copies than any of your

(03:21):
other brothers and sisters. It is according to sales and popularity.
And so when I say things like the GMA Devil words,
system is in Christian it's just because that's not a
Christian value system, that's actually a secular value system. So
forgive me for having real fun here, But I just
have a really hard time imagining Jesus awarding in such
a manner. I have really hard time imagining Jesus saying

(03:43):
to anyone, well done, good and faithful servant. Your project
was streamed more times, was played in more churches than
all of your brothers and sisters. You outrank them in popularity.
Well done, enter into your rest, receive the crown of
Artists of the year or whatever. And I'm making fun, obviously,
but I'm trying to make a point. I'll also see

(04:04):
no grounds for that type of honor in any of
the Apostolic writings. And if I'm going to get even
a little stronger, guys, I tremble a little bit. I
think we ought to tremble when we take the image
of the dove, which is the image of the Holy Spirit,
and we award someone according to that value system, which

(04:27):
I think is utterly contrary to how he awards. It's
contrary to his character, it's contrary to his kingdom, it's
contrary to the culture of his kingdom and the way
that he actually awards. And I think it stands to reason, guys,
that if you're going to call something Christian, that it
must first informs it is of highest importance that it
adheres to the value system of Christ and the commands

(04:50):
of Jesus. And I just want to say that actually,
this system and this way of awarding directly opposes the
values of the Kingdom, directly opposes how Jesus and scripture
has specifically stated he will reward last thing. I'm going
to leave you, guys here with just two thoughts. Mission.
We have a mission. And the thing about this whole

(05:12):
adoption or mimicking of the world, it's so contrary to
our mission because our mission, guys, our identity, the core
of who God has designed us and made us to
be in this moment in this world is to be
the light of the world. It's to be the salt
of the earth. And Guys, the biggest thing that we're missing,
besides just offending the word and grieving his heart, is

(05:34):
the fact that we are not being salty, and we
are not being a city on a hill. No one's
going to from the world is going to look into
our system and our way of awarding. Oh you award
according to sales and popularity. Oh yeah, that provokes me.
That's challenging.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
No, it looks exactly like them.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
It's exactly according.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
To how they award.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
But what would a truly Kingdom Awards show look like.
I think it would definitely be a section devoted to
the martyrs, like people have paid the ultimate price, you know,
given their lives for Jesus. How powerful would be to
see their names faces? How provoking would that be? You know,
if we honor the way that Jesus honors guys, it

(06:13):
will be so transformational. It will expose and reveal him.
Our one mission on this earth is we get to
know him. We get to know him, and from that
place of knowing what he's like, knowing his character, knowing
his values, knowing his wisdom, that is in stark contrast
that makes a mockery, makes foolish, the wisdom of the

(06:35):
world shames the wise.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
We get to reveal that wisdom.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
That type of way of rewarding, and that is so
utterly contrary. That's what light looks like. That's what salt
is going to taste like. To say this, it won't
be his room full of celebrities. I think it'll be
a room full of people that are largely hidden, but
that are doing something in total hiddenness, that have been
laying their lives down for years, if not decades, for
the poorest, to the poor, the loss to the least,

(07:01):
the most broken in society. We would be honored if
we just were after Jesus' award systems, who would be
upholding the values and the character that we would be magnifying.
There's nothing of character in our current award system. It
doesn't even matter if people are living in a way
that's utterly contrary to the Gospel. As long as they're
selling something, we're awarding them. And that is not Jesus.
I don't know how many times to just take that

(07:22):
over and over again. It's contrary to the values of
his kingdom. Character doesn't matter to him, And oh my gosh,
just dream share. What would a truly kingdom Jesus like
reward show look like?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
There you go, those are my thoughts.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Is that.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
That's it?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Okay, there you go.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
It sounds like he's crying.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, yeah, it does, he does. But he has some
good thoughts in there, thoughts of what if you changed
the entire award show system to award people based on
how Jesus will one day reward people, and you did
that here on earth rather than do what the world
does and awarding people the way the world awards people.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
So yeah, it's like you said, dream with me on this,
but it's not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
You're correct. It would be a room full of not celebrities.
It'd be a room full of people you've never had.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
And just because of that, because of it being a
room of people you never heard of, you have never
heard of them to find them, so you've never been
able to find them.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
How would you do that?

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, and then what would that cultivate? It would cultivate
people that want to be the least of these and
they try harder to be seen, to not be seen,
and to help more poor so that they could get
invited to it. We're humans and were deceitful and it
just never worked. You can't award anything. That's why the
awards are in heaven. You know they're not here. But

(08:51):
this is coming from somebody. I despise award shows and
I it was the worst time, you know, the three
or four we would do a year was the worst
days of the year for me. Yeah, I hated it.
Amber really liked it because you would get dressed up
and do the red carpet.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Somebody else did her makeup and somebody else did her Yeah, stuffy,
somebody else gets you a cap.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
No, No, it felt so stuffy, you know, and and
it felt weird. I but but, but so I say
that to then defend the award show. How how do
you do it? If if you want to make a
song that let's just say it shares the gospel, and

(09:33):
you want it to be in front of a lot
of you want a lot of people to listen to
it and say it does really well. You know what
makes it do even better is being on the award show.
So the awards it's not it's not only to award
a song that's done well. It's to continue to propel
the song to be even better. You and I both

(09:56):
know we've been We're in music a long long time.
Award shows have launched. They launched Chris Stapleton like he
didn't exist before an award show. So you have people
that are behind the scenes that are working a song
and song pluggers, song publishers, song writers, musicians. You have

(10:19):
A and R reps, and you have radio reps, and
you have radio pds, and you have radio DJs, and
you have lighting crews and bus drivers. I mean, there
are so many people behind the one name that gets
the award, but those people don't get paid if the
song doesn't do well. And for the song to do

(10:41):
really well, one of the goals of a song to
do really well is to be awarded an award. And
when it's awarded, and the award, the people behind the
scenes get rewarded for their effort. So you see what
I mean, It's like a circle you can't break.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
That's why I like this perspective. And you know, yes,
he may be a musician as well, and I and
you know, I actually dig this this perspective of him.
But I wanted to get your responsive of just like, hey,
what do we reimagine these things? Who would we reward?
That's not necessary and it is a dream, but it's
not really the point. The point that I wanted to
get from you is your perspective on it. Yeah, like
you you've been a part of those.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, my perspective is this one. This is why I
think the forest Frank model works.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, put the award out there. That helps all the
people that got the song to where it is. I
just won't be the one accepting it, right because I
don't think I deserve or should be accepting an award.
Give it to the song and thereby that rewards all
the people that were involved and people get to hear
the song.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Number two, I think I think it's very difficult to
be in the music business and to to serve the
Lord faithfully.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
It is.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, So I think there's that. So you don't need
God doesn't need a song to go viral so that
his message gets out there. God doesn't need more people
to hear an album so that the kingdom grows and
Heaven is crowded because of a song or an album.
He doesn't. He does things from the least of these.

(12:19):
God builds a kingdom from the least of these. He
makes the wise seem foolish and the foolish seem wise.
He does that. This is First Corinthians. And he does this,
and in his own mysterious way, God chose what is
foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose
what is weak in the world to shame. The strong

(12:40):
God chose what is low and despised in the world,
even things that are not, to bring to nothing, things
that are so that no human being might boast in
the presence of God. And because of Him, you were
in Christ, Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that, as it is written,

(13:04):
let the one who boast boast in the Lord. You
don't need an award show, you don't need a record deal,
you don't need a popular song. I can't tell you
how many times I will speak for a men's group
and I'll tell him the gospel, and I'll tell him
my story how I came out of that to become
just a minister of the gospel, a plain, old, ordinary

(13:25):
minister of the gospel. And almost every time there'll be
a young boy that comes up to me afterwards and says,
how could I make it in the music business after
I just told him that I came out of it.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, you didn't want to be a part of it anymore?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, And I will graciously give him some advice. I
one of these days, I'm just going to go don't
But it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
See, I already give that advice to people that want
to get in a radio.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, don't.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah. So if we're considering First Corinthians one, what did
I just read? I read twenty seven to verse thirty one,
and God doesn't He doesn't need an award show. He
doesn't need a viral song. But on the secular side,
if you want it to be viral, it needs to
be on the award show. So that's my reaction.
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Granger Smith

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