Cancel Culture, Porn, and Going Viral for Jesus | Alexizz Rodriguez (Bloodlines)

Hello, friends. This is Ben from Provoke and Inspire. And today, we had a very unique conversation with the front man of the Christian hardcore band, Bloodlines. His name is Alexis Rodriguez. And while they've always been very open about their faith, they recently created somewhat of a viral moment on TikTok by writing a song and ultimately speaking out against pornography.

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Now the internet went wild. People sharing this, commenting on it, mocking it. A bunch of news and media outlets picked it up and shared it. It was even mocked on a late night CBS show, so it became kind of a big deal. And we invited him to join the podcast and share his experience.

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And we wrestled with the idea of the purpose of art, the idea that our culture now is wrestled with the idea of the purpose of art, the idea that our culture now is so confused and lost that it actually celebrates pornography and mocks those who speak out against it. I think you're gonna find this a very interesting conversation and very helpful and quite sobering in a sense of what culture is like today and what it looks like to stand up for Jesus outside of the church. So check out that entire episode. Just a couple things I wanna highlight. First, as always, this podcast is part of Steiger, a worldwide missions organization.

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We reach those who would not walk into a church. There is a role for you to play in this mission. This is gonna take all of us. And to find out more, you can go to steiger.org, steiger.0rg. You can learn about our mission there and how you can plug in.

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And the last thing I'll emphasize today is our brand new website, provokeandinspirepodcast.com. I was just talking to a friend who told me that he listens to every single episode, and yet he had no idea we had this amazing new website. So go to provokeandinspirepodcast.com. You can see all of our content, the blogs, the podcast episodes, the discord community. I would also encourage you to sign up for our newsletter.

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You can receive news, thought provoking articles, and stories directly to your inbox from myself, David, Luke, and Chad. Sign up. That way you will not miss anything. Alright. That's it.

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We're gonna get to the conversation with Alexis Rodriguez from the band Bloodlines as we discuss how he got canceled for speaking out against pornography. You're listening to the Provoke and Inspire podcast. Alright. Let's do it. Alright.

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So here we are, Provoke and Inspire podcast. We got all four squares filled, but it's just not normal. Right? We don't have David. Don't have Luke.

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Alexis, you don't even know who they are. And maybe that's for the best. We got Chad, the former A and R legend himself, current legend, but past A and R. And then we got Alexis from the band, bloodlines. Dude, thank you for being here, man.

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Thank you for having me, man. Hugh John. Yeah. Yeah. This is fun.

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Yeah. What's funny is that when Ben told me we were gonna have this conversation, and it was, like, tied to pornography, I was so surprised because I remember seeing videos surface of you guys, like, maybe six months or so ago that were, like, revival style videos and, like, people talking about what the Lord was doing through you. And so it's funny that it's like, oh, yeah. Sweet. We're gonna talk to Alexis about porn.

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Like, wait. I thought there's all this crazy stuff going on, but, no, it's cool to hear what God's doing through you guys. Very excited to have you. Yeah. Pornography or or otherwise.

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Oh, yeah. Can you give us a little bit of the background into who you are, the band you're part of, and then maybe dive into this weird controversy that we've alluded to just a little bit and probably confused people with? I think there's so many things we could discuss related to it, but set us up, and then we'll we'll dive right in. For sure. First hand, I'm Alexis Rodriguez.

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I am the vocalist of Bloodlines, Texas. We are a metalcore Christian band. We do include the name Christian there because we are sold out for Jesus. All four of us, we do ministry aside of this. Before we're a band, we're Christians.

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We all serve at our churches. We feed and we drink off of our pastors, you know, but whatever word they have for our lives. The foundation is there, which is Jesus. It's something we live. It's not something we get an idea from just to hit, oh, this topic is hitting, oh, this topic is hitting.

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You know, some bands do that and it works for them. Praise God for that. That's awesome. But when we go to the studio, we sit down, we catch up. Obviously, we talk about what the Lord's doing in our lives and, the Holy Spirit just falls just falls on us every single time we record, a song.

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He just starts ministering to us what he wants us to say. You know? That comes from our hearts. Lord, what are you speaking right now? And so this song, holiness cries, this topic of pornography, it's sneaky and it's very quiet.

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In churches, we don't touch that topic at all. Youth groups, we don't touch that because it's awkward. A lot of us deal with that. A lot of us have dealt with that. A lot of us have been delivered from that.

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You know, nobody wants to bring it to light because it's dirty. It's filthy. I can't say it's something I wanted to write about, but it's just the Lord put it in our hearts, and then we discussed it. We included our wives because, we're married. It's covenant.

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We're all one. So even women deal with this stuff too with this topic. So we wrote the song that brought a lot of controversy on social media, but it's what's expected from the world, man. It's what's expected. And it's very biblical, but, we didn't mean to provoke something like that, but just the word alone.

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The word and the conviction of the Lord just provokes it. Provoke and inspire. Yeah, baby. That's right. What was the first sign of controversy?

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How did someone realize what the lyrics were referencing and, like, where was it like, oh, man. We may have just poked an angry bear. At first, when we dropped it, we, obviously, we had all of our fans, just liking it, you know, because it's a it's it's topic a lot of Christians deal with. And and it is. Pornography is an addiction that it the enemy uses as a weapon.

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I believe it's one of the strongest weapons against us. The controversy didn't happen until, I wanna say, like, two, three months later. We played the song live. I usually minister and, have the crowd declare stuff because we're a worship band. You know?

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We provoke and inspire people when we're up there. You know? We're not just gonna sing a song about him and not be about it on stage. You know? I I do that here at my church.

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Why am I not gonna do it out there at a bar at it? Then we once played at a strip club too, and we had people chanting and and confessing and declaring, being being saved and all that. Before the breakdown, I I say, you know, it will not take a hold of you because that is what we believe. That is why we wrote the song because it we have to confess this stuff, and there's people whose chains are being broken, and the negative comments started pouring. We made it to, like, the secular metal algorithm or something like that.

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We provoked a lot of the sin, man. The sin was called out, and the word of God would sometimes offend you, even Christians. It it it will offend your our understanding. And so there it began. It just kept going, kept going.

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Did you anticipate at all that this would have impact outside of the church, or was that a complete surprise? I didn't think it was gonna do that. You know? It was mostly just for for us, the Christians in the in the body of Christ, to receive off of this song. Obviously, we do write songs to relate to the secular world.

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You know? All of it is to reach more. Right? That's what the gospel is for. Honestly, I did not think this song was gonna hit that hard.

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Right. What struck me as I was reflecting on this situation is just how upside down the world has become. Right? How what is good now is bad, what is bad is now good, what is worthy of praise has become things that are mocked. And I'm just struck by the world, the way the world had just it it unashamedly praises things that are so evil, so destructive.

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I mean, it's not uncommon in media and on the radio and celebrities and others to just openly talk about the pornography that they consume. I was at my son's soccer game, and I was talking to one of the dads and, you know, I was explaining how I grew up in Amsterdam, and he's like, oh, yeah. I got a friend and, you know, he lives in the Red Light District and, you know, he's but he's a bachelor, and that's kind of how he rolls. And in my head, I'm thinking, dude, that's prostitution. That's basically sex slavery, and you're talking about it like it's a Oh, he occasionally drinks on the weekend.

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How did this strike you as a reflection of how dark the world is? That something that really should be like, yes. Let's not engage in this sex slavery. Let's not engage in the objectification ex exploitation of women is actually like, woah, bro. Like, what what's wrong with you for having this stance?

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How did this hit you? It's tough. It's heartbreaking to see to see our world like that. Yeah. Super divided in that.

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Even the church is divided now on those topics. But you'll see all of that in in Romans one and in John fifteen eighteen. Also, the world hates the disciples. You know? The world will hate you because of me.

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You know? I don't wanna be someone to point fingers or blame, but a lot of it happened when Ben stopped talking about Jesus, you know. I don't know, man. They got sold out to the world, you know, to not being canceled. They didn't wanna be crucified with him.

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I'll gladly do it, but, it's become about people's feelings now. You know? Yeah. There was no one to give this message to the scene. You know?

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There was no one there. It was only found at churches, and those who stayed with it at churches, even with rappers and stuff, man. The world started censoring, and people started closing their mouths. That's when it all happened. What was the greatest offense as it ties, you know, back to all this?

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Pornography itself. Pornography is Yeah. People's escape place to be at. Their safe zone to be at. It's an addiction.

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Pornography is it's intimacy. People go to this to feel intimacy when they're either sad, stressed. They wanna feel something. That's why when people are are addicted to it, they finish doing what they're doing, and then they're like, why did I do this? Like, I hate this.

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And then they do it again. Why did I do this? I hate this. Like, this is disgusting to me. But in the moment of the temptation, it's just it's the missing thing in their heart.

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And all of that can be found in Jesus. That void, that that urge, that intimacy, Jesus could bring that into everyone. I understand it's not easy. Yeah. I mean, I'm you're talking to a decades long addict of pornography, lust, and fantasy, and someone who's sought help both from the Lord and from trusted people and groups and different things.

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But and I've seen incredible breakthrough, and thankfully pornography no longer owns my life, which isn't the same thing as saying, I don't ever struggle with fantasy. You know? Yes. I find that it's still a daily battle, a daily struggle, but one that's much, much easier to navigate now than it ever was. And it sounds to me like what people were saying was, like, don't tell me not to go there.

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It is more addictive than cocaine. So it's like, if you think about someone, you know, just like at one of those bars or the strip clubs that you've played, snorting cocaine in the back, you know, and you're like, yo yo. Stop doing that. Yeah. That's a really heavy blow if that's drug of choice.

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Sorry. What'd you say, Ben? You said heavy blow. I I just said pun pun intended. Nice.

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That was good, dude. Sorry. Yeah. Pun pun intended. It's an easier thing to possess and to hide, you know, to get away with.

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It's free, man. It's just in a click of a button Yep. And then in a click of a button, it's gone. It's a secret. You know, I would say that if you could cut open a vein, probably most people would say that they have sort of a need hate relationship with pornography.

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There's probably not too many people that are just, like, would wear a shirt that's like, I love pornography. They they kinda admit, like, it's maybe not great, but something I do, I kinda I fall in and out of it. But mostly, what the average person is rebelling against is who's this dude trying to tell me what I can and cannot do. Right? Because our culture They say it just like that too.

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Who's this dude? Yeah. Well, that's how I would say it. Because our culture our culture above all else praises you do you, I do me. Like, don't tell me how to live.

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Don't tell me what's right. Don't tell tell me what's wrong. And here you come with this very clear moral injunction that says, this is wrong. You just confronted probably the most dominant spirit of our age, which is relativism, which says there is no right. There is no wrong.

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What matters most is do what you feel and don't bother me. So would you say that part of this is you confronted you confronted that spirit as opposed to just, like, all of the porn lovers out there that are just like, how dare you? Like, yeah. There's the porn industry that's probably, like, really mad at you. But mostly, it's just be it's just mostly guys going, man, what it who are you?

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Yeah. Right? Don't you think that was a lot of it? Yeah. Yeah.

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A lot of it is it's it's mocking. I know the the post got I don't know. On TikTok, it's just more angry. Facebook was just more mocking. Instagram was just a mix of all of it.

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You know? But, The different profiles have their own. The boomers were all like, oh, what a loser. But the the TikTok kids were, like, just raging, apparently. Just kidding.

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No. Yeah, man. This is very spiritual. It's a spiritual warfare. Of course.

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Most definitely. I do feel that it's a weapon the enemy possesses. We exposed it. You know? Yeah.

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You know, in the scene, we did confront it. And it's funny because a lot of them are like, how dare you? How dare you? But it's I I think it's very punk rock, you know, doing the, like, the lead opposite. So I heard someone talk about the idea that being a Christian is the most punk rock thing you can be today.

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But the point is, it is really odd. Right? In a culture that rallies around the idea of being justice oriented or confrontational in the right sense of the word, they couldn't be any less that. They couldn't be any more politically correct. Yeah, man.

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What is the role of a Christian artist outside of the church? Should it be normal? Should it be commonplace for Christian artists to be calling out these kinds of issues? Do you think that's effective? Yeah.

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I do think Christian artists should be living according to his word. You know? I do and and and all of it, even the offensive ones. I do think at a show, maybe they should minister and reach out to the herd, to the lost, second Timothy. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our lord or of me and his prisoner.

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Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God in suffering. So that means all of this that's gonna come to be bold. Romans one sixteen, for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone. That's the goal. That's the goal.

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Before an artist, you're a Christian. Right? It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew then to the gentile. Okay. So, yes, I do believe it would be more effective, and I think every Christian artist should be preaching the word of God.

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Some artists are just huge by accident. A song blows up, and they just have no foundation in Christ. And I totally get that. We've seen it with a lot of our favorite bands in the scene too. It's just they got so big because their music was good, but their foundation with the Lord was just not there.

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You know? The whole focus you have on identity, I think, is so right. Yeah. I've been listening through the series by the late Tim Keller, and he talks so much about identity and ordering our loves and getting things right. And you talk about that.

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In fact, you've often listed things very methodically, and I I have the same idea from my life. You know, I'm always repeating to myself that it's like, Jesus, I wanna know you. I wanna be like you. I wanna work for you in that order. I don't wanna get that order right.

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It's like, I wanna know you. That's the most important thing. Intimacy, that's just an end of itself, not a means to an end. I just want to know you as my dad. And then as I get to know you and my intimacy with you grows, then I wanna be like you.

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Like, I trust you. Right? Like, I trust you. So your ways are right. Any of his designs are for our good.

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The way I pull my kid off the road when he's about to run across, he wants to pull you away from something that's gonna destroy you. Right? So it's I love him. I wanna be like him. And then and then I wanna work for him.

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Right? I wanna do whatever he's called me to do. If you don't get those three right and if you don't get those three right in the right order, if if it's more about what you do than being with Jesus, then then it's like what you're talking about. Then you can fall into the temptation in the Christian world, I'm saying, of being defined by the thing you do for God. Right?

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But not being defined by your relationship with him. And so it is so crucial, this idea of identity. One of the things that Tim Keller says is Christianity is the only worldview where your identity is received, not achieved. And it's so profound. Right?

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Because so many artists, even those that, like you said, are Christians on some level, I don't know. It's pretty cool, this whole artist thing. Like, I'm I'm getting a lot from that. I'm getting a lot from the follows and the streams and the crowds and the shirt sales and the interactions. And, man, that's where it's so hard.

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Right? Because it's like, you may start with the foundation of, like, I wanna receive my identity from Jesus alone. But if that's shaky at all and if it's not if you're not surrounded by brothers and sisters holding you accountable, if it's not continued to be guarded, it can quickly change. That's right. Now it's like, little bit of Jesus, little bit of my identity as an artist, and over time, it becomes a lot of my artist's identity, a little bit of Jesus, and eventually, often, there's no Jesus at all.

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So identity, man, you're you're dead right. To me, it's everything. Yeah. Something I I really, really am thankful for is that all four of us in the band five, I'm gonna include our roadie and our merch guy, and he sometimes plays instruments. The Leon of your crew, if you will.

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The Leon right now. All of us serve at their local churches, you know, not just serve. And, when we come together, man, it's it's not just, oh, here we've got this guy filling in with all these bad habits in the van. No. One of us does something.

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You know, we're we're there for each other. We're there. We pray for one another, and it it's not something I wanna, like, boast about. Oh, we're the most Christian band. You know?

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No. It's something we need. It's something I need. All these other guys have something I don't have. But when we come together, it's just the body of Christ right there.

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You know? And it's I need that. I need that. And, man, I love it because it's brothers and sisters in in Christ doing the work of the Lord. When it's just I don't wanna throw shade out there, but when it's just the vocalist, man, how can you do that?

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How can you be out in the world doing that for a long time and say you have this. You know? Yeah. But even reframing this positively, what life is there in that? Yeah.

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Right? So, like, you frame it from a perspective of, like, man, if I don't have my identity right or my accountability right, I might fall, and you're right. But to me, like, because we're I'm part of a band called No Longer Music, and every time we do what we do, I thank God that my art is not about Spotify streams and merch sales and Absolutely. Opinions of others. I'm like, I get to be all over the world on world class equipment in front of thousands of people with the most talented people in the world, and it doesn't matter if we sell a dang thing.

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It's the most liberating, life giving thing to be able to be who I am, but in the way I was designed to be it. And so for me, it's like you said, it it's yeah. It's it's I don't wanna fall. Absolutely. But, also, I go, what?

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I couldn't even imagine, bro. Like, just you sing these songs, and then, like, I always have this moment stuck in my head from a long time ago. I was playing a lot in the scene here in Minneapolis, and there's this big band that rolled through. Right? In my eyes, big.

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So they roll through. What's that? We're we're yeah. Yeah. I was like, the the Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo.

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I don't know. No. And we so we got on this bill. Right? So we play with them, and they were they were the headliners.

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And, like, when they play, it's like the crowd went from, like, 60 to, like, a 110 people. You know? So, like, clearly, they were the big band. And they were big in my my eyes. And the guy literally, like, two thirds of the way through his set, he stops.

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He's like, hey. Go ahead and buy some merch. Buy, like, some shirts, whatever, so that we can get some McChickens on our way home. And I know he was joking. I know it was kinda funny, but I sat there and I thought, I never wanna be you.

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Like, I know that sounded judgmental, and I didn't mean it that way. That wasn't my heart. But I was like, if this is what, quote, big looks like Yeah. Because in our scene, they were big. Like, I won't say the name, but in our scene, they were legitimately big.

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Touring nonstop, full time Yeah. Paid, all they were doing. And and they needed the merch sales to get McChickens on their way home. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. I it's not about the economics of it. That's not the point. The point of it was like, lord, I don't care if I ever make a dollar. Let me do this for you and in the right way.

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Absolutely. Amen. And I I feel like I've been able to, and I I have as many McChickens as I want, man. Well and you're vegan too, so I'm vegan, bro. Come on.

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On. Don't say that. Don't put that out there. Dude, everybody in Texas is vegan. It's weird.

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That's a lie. I'm gonna get off this call, and I'm gonna eat a meat smoothie. I'm gonna put a steak in a blender. Sorry. Go ahead, Chad.

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You finish this up. I just wanna say, Alexis, that I I honor you and Budlines for being sure. Now a lot of people recognize you as the anti porn band, and, I can imagine That is That's a b b. That's an easy label. But, really, as someone who's who suffered immensely over his life because of porn, I would love to refer to you as the pro freedom band.

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Because every time every time that I move my heart and my head and my thoughts away from the destruction of porn, I almost instantly sense that freedom and that liberty and that overflow of God's love towards me. Not because he's like, oh, you made the wrong decision. Now I'm gonna shun you. But because when we choose him over all of the distractions, some being, you know, more healthy than others, It's just like the he he lends a level of liberty with that that is just beautiful and and hard to put into words actually, but I just appreciate the fact that you're willing to write and say and sing and display gospel centered truths that most of the world is like, what? But, man, tons tons of respect.

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It's all the work of the holy spirit, man. Have you ever got into a room full of, like, believers and everyone's just living the same season? You know? That's the Lord when we come together, man. That's why all all of these songs we write, it's just all him.

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It's all him and what he wants to say to his children, to his body, and to his world in this occasion with the song, I guess. But, yeah, man. It's all glory to him. Chad, would you pray for Alexis and and his band and the future that this would be just one of many controversies down the road for Jesus? And, I mean that in all seriousness, that you guys would continue to be bold and stand up, and and I think that this is just the beginning, man.

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I think with a heart like yours, God's gonna use you guys powerfully, and I can't wait to to watch. So Praise god, man. Hallelujah. Yeah. Lord god, thank you so much for this conversation.

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Thank you, lord, for everybody listening. I do pray that you would pour out your spirit of freedom, over the, addiction to lust and fantasy that so many of us, including me, have struggled with. I pray that right now, Lord, that there would be, an enormous release of, people people everywhere listening to this just just finding that the desire for darkness would leave them, and the desire for destruction would be something that, that all of a sudden that there would be a even greater, much much stronger urge to walk in freedom and to walk in holiness and and to be, a part of your kingdom of righteousness. So, Lord, do continue to use Alexis and blood bloodlines to, to set captives free. I pray, Lord, that you would open doors for them that are so much wider than any man could ever shut and, that you would shut windows that that no man can open and just continue guiding them, filling them, and, and just fulfilling your purposes through them.

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Thank you for the inspiration, of of brothers willing willing to lay it all down for you and help us to to just follow their example. And, yeah, do do as, you only could and continue performing wonders signs and wonders as, yeah, would would bring your name the greatest glory and fame. Thank you, lord Jesus. We love you. Amen.

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Amen. Thank you, man. Thank you guys for that. Thank you. Dude, thank you.

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Thanks for thanks for being with us. Alright. Thanks, man. Let's let's do it again. We'll be in touch, and, that's it.

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Thank you. I'll have you stick around offline a little bit, but that's it. Thanks for listening, everyone. Peace.