Former Bethel Star Confirms Moral Rot and Cover-ups In CCM Worship Industry, Including Bethel

In 2019, I wrote that the greased and lubed celebrity machinery of modern Christian music wasn’t just distracting—it was hijacking the very glory of God. I pointed out how artists chase chart ranks, fame, social media clout—and lose the weightier matters: God’s truth, Christ’s exclusivity, the cross. I had mentioned Lauren Daigle and Lecrae as case studies, frontrunners who traded gospel clarity for applause, becoming idols unto themselves and complicit in a gospel-lite, idol‑driven pop culture.

Fast-forward to today—and an insider at the top of the heap is spilling the same tea.

Bethel Church’s Cory Asbury, once a chart-topping artist in that celebrity machine, recently posted a TikTok that reads like a confession—and a condemnation. In his own words:

“Marketing yourself is antithetical to the way of Jesus… every Christian artist has a camera on themselves… it's all a publicity stunt nowadays.”

“I see artists whore themselves out to every single worship movement alive… just grinding for the success.”

“People writing worship songs knowing that they're going to get a big fat CCLI check… it becomes formulaic… inauthentic garbage… not from God but from man and the desire for mammon.