Skillet frontman John Cooper is speaking out about the consequences of raising a generation without belief in God. He discussed the topic in a recent interview.
Cooper explained his concerns about what happens to a society, and to Christian civilization broadly, when institutions like media, schools, universities, and businesses collectively reject the existence of God, morality, and truth.
“You also have the deeper issues of what happens what happens to a Christian civilization,” Cooper said. “And I’m talking about all of Western civilization, but let’s just talk about America now.”
“What happens in that society when all of a sudden all of the institution all the institutional powers that basically that control the society whether it’s media, schools, universities, business etc etc,” he continued. “When everybody decides that actually there is no God and there is no moral code and actually there is no such thing as truth either and then you’ve got kids, teenagers that have grown up in a world where they were told there is no truth, there is no God.”
Cooper went on to describe the effect this environment has on young people, who he says are left without guidance and are increasingly isolated despite constant digital connection.
“They are basically a product of random chance Darwinian evolution basically,” he said. “They’ve been raised in that society and they completely have no anchor. They have no anchor and they’re just being whipped around and they’re also simultaneously being yelled at on social media from their friends telling they’re stupid, they’re fat, they’re never going to be worth anything and they have nothing to live for.”
“And they don’t have friends because all their friends are on these cell phones,” Cooper continued. “It’s their community, but they never see them face to face. They don’t have somebody to go to when you’re like, I don’t know if I want to live anymore. And they have that silent scream. So scream could be actually out loud. It could be guttural or usually it’s a silent scream. It’s people that feel that I have nothing left to live for. That’s what ‘Scream’ is about.”
Cooper then connected these ideas directly to the meaning behind the song, describing it as both a portrayal of despair and a cry for something greater.
“It’s nihilism. It’s like nothing actually really matters. Do the best you can. Take what’s yours,” he said. “And that is a recipe for depression. And so that the tension in the song is going, ‘Yeah, I feel that way sometimes too.’ But then there’s the reaching out, which is the second half of the chorus. Come pull me out from under the noise and thunder. What have I become? So that is the cry out to God. I don’t want to be in this place. I want there’s got to be something more. And that sometimes is something you don’t have to actually say in the song. It’s sometimes rhetorical. People kind of know that’s what you’re getting out. It’s this cathartic moment. That’s what Scream is about, you know.”
Cooper’s comments came as he discussed Skillet’s new EP, “After the Storm,” in which “Scream” is featured.
These remarks arrive at a pivotal moment for the band. Skillet is currently riding one of the most remarkable stretches of momentum in its nearly 30-year career, giving Cooper’s message about faith and the younger generation a much wider platform than it might otherwise have had.
Skillet has officially announced that “After the Storm” will arrive on October 9 as a six-song EP. “Scream” has already been released as a single and has racked up more than five million global streams. The project is being described as a reignition of what the band was always meant to be. It is meant to help listeners find their way out of dark seasons, much like the message Cooper laid out in his interview.
The EP also introduces a new single, “Lift Me Up,” which Cooper wrote during a personal period of struggle. He has said the song came from a time when he felt weighed down by circumstances beyond his control. Writing it became an act of turning to God for relief, he said.
“I was asking God to lift me up,” Cooper said of the track, a sentiment that echoes the same themes of despair and spiritual reaching found in “Scream.”
“After the Storm” was produced by David Cowell of Sleep Theory alongside the band’s own Korey Cooper. The EP marks a return to Skillet’s heavier musical roots. It also carries forward the same convictions Cooper voiced in his warning about a generation growing up without God, morality, or truth.
