Starting programming

Is it a good idea to start programming with LISP through SICP? I've always heard mixed opinions: some say math and books aren't really important to programming and you should just get to the point (a language you want to learn) and some say you should be good at it and focus on learning math as well.

if you don't want to use the racket language with sicp because of some slight incompatibilities

There is big incompatibility with most industry standard languages and normal syntax notation, plus heavy emphasis on recursive abstraction and list structures. If you want web apps, you study javacript(or javascript-derived languages that compile to it), if you want to builds performance-oriented libraries or programs/games you learn C++.
The niche for studying Scheme is low-performance scripts, that is already dominated by python and ruby. Always ask yourself, what use-cases for Language X will be in 10 years and what skills you gain from only focusing on X?