Alice Cooper: Salvation

Alice Cooper is not a name that you would expect to see as one of my Spiritual Sunday artists, but here we are. Although one of “bad boys” of rock ‘n roll, Alice admits that he never renounced the faith of his youth and that he felt that God had protected him all during the years he drifted away. The personage of Alice Cooper that was seized by Vincent Furnier was purely for show and not necessarily who he was spiritually.

Cooper, er Furnier, was raised in the The Church of Jesus Christ where his father was a lay evangelist and his grandfather had been the president of the denomination. The group was probably the first splinter group from the Mormon Church that occurred when an early leader, Sidney Rigdon, failed to ascend to the presidency of the Latter Day Saints Church when Joseph Smith was murdered.

Owing to Rigdon’s background as a Disciples of Christ minister prior to being converted by Joseph Smith, the small denomination is a strange mixture of Restorationist and Mormon doctrine and practices with a smattering of Pentecostalism. This was the environment for young Vincent Furnier’s faith to develop. In addition, Cooper’s wife is the daughter of a Baptist minister. “Salvation” is somewhat autobiographical and with his and his wife’s spiritual foundation it prompted a return to the faith of their youth.

Alice Cooper’s Religious Testimony