The Backstreet Boys emerged as one of the hottest groups of the 21st century with their album Millennium, selling over 40 million units. Many parents exhale with a sigh of relief when they here that there are alternatives to the popular and overtly satanic bands on the music scene like Marilyn Manson. One mother was reported to express great joy that there are groups like the Backstreet Boys which she can allow her daughter to listen to. She said that she appreciated the music of the Backstreet Boys because, "Their focus is on good morals…". I do not doubt that the woman quoted has good intentions for her children, but the naivete of her statement is alarming. Such sentiments that are held by many only go to underscore just how far the moral compass of God’s truth has been plunged into the sea of moral relativism by the masses. When one compares the lyrics of the Backstreet Boys to those of Marilyn Manson, the Backstreet Boys may seem to have "good morals" as the lady quoted above has been led to believe. Marilyn Manson, however, is not our standard for righteousness, God’s holy Word is! While it is true that those who promote witchcraft, drugs and suicide, like Marilyn Manson, are on their way to the lake of fire, this is also true of groups who promote sexual immorality, like the Backstreet Boys. Groups such as the Backstreet Boys are even more dangerous in some ways than groups like Marilyn Manson because most people are intelligent enough not to allow their children or themselves to be influenced by overtly wicked destructive music. Satan is aware of this, which is why he seeks to get in many homes via bands that, on the surface, seem somewhat tame, but are in fact filled with the poison necessary to damn one’s soul. Jesus Christ warned all those who would cause the little one to sin with these sobering words:

"And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea…It is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:43-45).

Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that God will hold Marilyn Manson accountable for promoting Satanism, yet wink at the promotion of sexual immorality by groups like the Backstreet Boys. The scriptures show that the sexually immoral share the same destiny as sorcerers (Revelation 21:8, Galatians 5:19-21). Entertainment Weekly describes a Backstreet Boys concert as, "Another night, another 10,000 sexual awakenings":

"When Nick Carter — the youngest, blondest, and most yelp-inducing Boy — blurts out the lu dicrous line ‘Am I sexual?’ hordes of 8 to 15-year-old girls clutch their throwaway cameras and scream their braces off. Another night, another 10,000 sexual awakenings"

Hopefully the information you are about to read will make you aware of the fact that groups like the Backstreet Boys are in many ways far more dangerous than those like Marilyn Manson. The reason this is true is due to the fact that parents often easily detect the evil effects of groups like Marilyn Manson and are able to successfully keep their children from their destructive influences. In contrast, groups like the Backstreet Boys are able to slip under parental radar and in stealth work their insidious evil. It is true that most parents do not have a clue as to the sexually explicit content of the music their children are being exposed to through groups like the Backstreet Boys or they would have never allowed such poison into their households. This is one reason this article had to be posted, but if you are a young person we have kept you in mind as well because we love you and hope to give you some information that we believe God wants us to pass on to you. Part of the reason the Backstreet Boys have been successful in slipping much of their music under parental radar is that they have not printed the most sexually explicit lyrics in their songs on the CD jackets. Many parents who seek to be more conscientious about what their children are listening to may claim that they have read the lyrics, but if they are depending on the jacket of a Backstreet Boys CD, they are not getting the whole picture. In fact, they conveniently did not print the lyrics to those songs which parents would find most objectionable and have in turn been successful in getting their music into all the more homes. This is not the first time record companies who do not think twice about corrupting millions of children have used this tactic, as you are aware of if you have read other articles on this web site.

There is something else we must consider. How would you feel about a 24-year-old man telling your 12-year-old daughter he wants to have sex with her and then telling her that she is not to "tell mama"? This, we are sad to report, is essentially what is taking place with the Backstreet Boys on a mass scale through their music. The Backstreet Boys are not boys at all. In fact, the average age of the Backstreet Boys is 25 years of age. (Kevin Richardson, 28, Howie Dorough, 26, Brian Littrell, 25, etc) The average age of their fans is only 12 years of age. Is it proper for men averaging the age of 24 to be singing to children averaging half their age about having sex with them? It isn’t even proper if both were the age of 12, but the age differences make it even worse. If they were able to culminate the sexual fantasies into which they lead millions of their preteen fans they would be guilty of child molestation. Jesus declared that if we commit sin in our hearts, it is as much a sin as though it were done in the flesh. Let’s look at what these grown men are singing to their teenybopper fans. The Backstreet Boys sing in their song, Lay Down Beside Me, about how they are seeking to have sexual relations and "fly in" to their "baby":

"I can’t deny it, the way your body swings, as I watched you from behind, how could I fly in. Baby let me be the one to hold you, to give you the things I know you need…If you lay down, lay down beside me. You can get all inside me, and I can get all inside you too, if you lay down beside me, you can wake up beside me forever…I give you what you need, just come to me and get it. Baby, you won’t regret it…and before this night is over, you will just know what I need."

The Backstreet Boys sing to preteens and teens in their song, “If You Want It To Be Good (Get Yourself A Bad Boy)”:

"If you want it to be good girl, get yourself a bad boy…If you want it wild…if you really like it hot, Get somebody who hits the spot honey…if you like it innovated…get yourself a bad boy…AND MAMA SHOULDN’T KNOW…I wanna show you how. So won’t you let me show you right now…If you want it to be good girl get yourself a bad boy."

Just as they keep "mama" from knowing what their lyrics say by keeping them off the CD jacket, they tell this young girl that, "mama shouldn’t know" about their sexual advances in the song above. Now it is true that a relatively small percentage of the millions of young girls from the Backstreet Boys’ fan base will actually get together with the band and spend time with these men in bed, however, the seeds of destruction have been sown in the young fertile minds of those teens and preteens that idolize the Backstreet Boys. Not only this, they give the ungodly advice to their fans to, "get yourself a bad boy" . To bring such a scenario to fruition, it doesn’t have to be a Backstreet Boy! Young males are using the music of the Backstreet Boys to make their own advances. Backstreet Boy, Howie Dorough, related to USA Today, "When I walk through a mall now, guys actually come up and say, Yo, man, I really like your album. I play it to my girl, and it helps me express my feelings to her." As they continue to sing about their unbridled lust, they sing in a way that seems to be on the verge of what has been called, "date rape" in yet another song. The words they sing in the following song are nothing less than a mental assault on a young impressionable girl whom they seek to coax into having sexual relations with them. The Backstreet Boys promote this mindset in their song, Boys Will Be Boys:

"We try to get closer, and you always push me away. You tell me it’s much too soon, but I just can’t help it. I always gotta make your play. All my senses go right into overdrive. All my defenses are never going to hold, I’m always going to lose control. I hear you singing that you think that we should wait. If I can’t hold on any more. My body is calling for you, so please don’t hesitate. No…You know I gotta do what I gotta do baby."

These are hardly "good morals" as the poor lady above was led to believe. The Backstreet Boys seem to care little for biblical morals and promote a philosophy that "If it feels good, do it." Once again we see the Crowleyan axiom of "Do What Thou Wilt" at work throughout the music industry. The Backstreet Boys repeatedly preach a message that right and wrong do not matter if it gets in the way of their sexual conquest. They sing in their song, I Need You Tonight:

"I need you tonight, I need you right now, and I know, deep within my heart, It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or right."

In their song, “Get Down,” they command the girl in view to:

"Get down and move it all around…Get on your knees, tryin’ to scream, or touch me please…Come on girl get down, smack it up, flip it, and move it all around"

Spin Magazine reports that when the Backstreet Boys sing, ‘Am I sexual?’ "…the girls roar and pound the floorboards so violently two roadies rush to secure the speakers". Spin Magazine reported after reviewing a Backstreet Boys concert where a 15-year-old girl knocked down a 12-year-old from a crate at the front of the stage and then, "…climbed onto the crate, ripped off her bra and threw it at Nick…". Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys opines, "what guy wouldn’t want a bunch of screaming young women after him." Backstreet Boy, "A J", told a teen magazine that if he was an actor, "I’d like to be a villain. I mean the good guy wins, but the villains are the ones everyone likes." He told Teen Magazine, "…I’m the complete opposite of every clean-cut, decent looking guy you could think of…" It is little wonder Smash Hits refers to AJ as the "dancing devil." If you are into the Backstreet Boys, the Scriptures warn you that you are to flee both youthful lusts and fornication, both of which the Backstreet Boys promote:

"Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2:22)

"Flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body." (1 Corinthians 6:18)

God warns throughout his word that sexually transmitted diseases are the consequence of sexual sin. Many rock stars see their fan base as easy pickings for sexual exploitation because they are worshipped as though they are gods. Frank Zappa admitted:

"I’m the devil’s advocate. We have our worshippers who are called ‘groupies.’ Girls will give their bodies to musicians as you would give a sacrifice to a god."

Rock fanzine, Creem, acknowledged the startling reality that many rock bands are basically carriers and spreaders of a number of venereal diseases:

"There’s gonorrhea, syphilis, crabs, NSU, venereal warts and herpes…I mean you’d simply be amazed at the number of times one has to schlepp (go) to the V.D. clinic; it’s almost a regular stop for some groups on the way to or from a gig…the wallowing through the muck and mire of sleaze is all part of the rock and roll lifestyle…"

Sadly, while God only knows how many thousands of young ladies and men have caught venereal diseases, including AIDS, through direct sexual contact with rock stars, it would be hard to overestimate the evil contribution rock musicians have made in shaping Western cultural morals to unbridled permissiveness through their lyrics. The affect such music as that of the Backstreet Boys has had on the morals and consequent peril on their fans has to be disastrous, to say the very least.

It is important also to understand that as humans we were created by God to return His love and to worship Him. If we do not worship God, we will worship something or someone else. Sadly, many young people have been deceived into worshipping teen idols like the Backstreet Boys. The Express Writer described a Backstreet Boys concert as a "worship" service. People Magazine described the frenzied devotion and homage given to the Backstreet Boys at their concerts as dangerous:

"The countdown to the Backstreet Boys’ Las Vegas concert has begun, and the pop quintet’s fans are having another manic attack at the MGM Grand Hotel…the hundreds of hysterical pubescent girls refuse to go away. "I love Nick!" shouts one. "For Nick, I’ll die. If God says, `Die and let Nick live,’ I’ll do that."

"Actually, the Boys’ popularity can be downright dangerous. During an Aug. 18 show in Edmonton, Alta., more than 50 fans were treated by paramedics after a horde of people surged toward the stage. Amazingly, many injured fans came back for more. "I was in tears because I was happy," says Heather Tasko, 13, who escaped with bruised ribs. "I was lucky to even get close to the stage. It was the best day of my life."

While we have great concern about the spread of venereal diseases among our youth, we are mostly concerned about the eternal welfare of those who are in bondage to the Backstreet Boys and their licentious message. If you are one who claims you or your child does not pay attention to the words of their music, Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys boasts of their fans, "They’re singing every word from every song" . Jesus Christ taught that He is the "light of the world" (John 8:12) and that He is the one upon whom we must cast our burdens and sorrows (Matthew 11:28) and that He alone is the one who can deliver us from darkness and bring us into the light (Acts 26:18). The Backstreet Boys, however, encourage the frenzied fan worship they receive with songs like, “The One,” wherein they declare:

"I’ll be the one who will make your sorrows undone. I’ll be the light…’Cause my faith is gone and I’ll be the one to take you from the darkness to the light…You need me…I’ll be the light."

Dear reader, please recognize that we live in a world filled with spiritual warfare, and Satan is for real and is playing for keeps. Jesus warned:

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." (Matthew 7:12-13)

If you desire to be saved, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ who said:

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." (John 14:6)

If you want to enjoy a truly blessed future, the word of God gives you awesome instruction. He warns you not to walk in the counsel of groups like the Backstreet Boys or to meditate upon their words, but to meditate upon His word and pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who made you and loves you so much that He gave His life to save you from Hell and bring you into His eternal kingdom. Now that, my friend, is true love! Don’t be deceived by perverted men who sing about their sexual fantasies and then try to pass themselves off as nice boys:

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalm 1:1-6)

"I [Jesus] am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

"Behold, I [Jesus] stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)