American Idol--and Shout to the Lord?

I don't know how many of you caught American Idol last week, both on their "American Idol Gives Back" and their Thursday night who's eliminated program. In both, the 8 Finalists sang together, "Shout to the Lord," the wildly popular praise song. Could it be the producers of AI recognize the reality that many watching may in fact be Christians? Such a pop icon as AI including this song demonstrates the difficult separation that we so desire between Christ and Culture. What would be necessary for a community of people to seriously engage in a dialogue and action that seeks to find ways of integration rather than isolation? How often do we merely dismiss what we dislike out of an unthoughtful fear? Encountering what we believe to be "The Other" perhaps may be our greatest challenge as disciples. I am reminded of the story of the disciples and Jesus when they came across a group of "Other" who didn't allow them passage and their response was, "Shall we call down fire?" Perhaps we have created more sophisticated ways of "calling down fire" that make us appear correct, right, etc. God, give me your grace to discover "the Other."