How Far Can Christian Art Go and Still Be Christian?

            About two years ago, Christian rapper Sho Baraka announced that he was leaving Lecrae’s high-profile label, Reach Records. He did so because he claimed that he felt artistically restricted. Indeed, Reach Records is one of the premiere Christian rap labels in the nation, and has a reputation for its “unashamed” stance for Christ. Because of this, Reach, like many other Christian rap artists and labels has a tendency to sound the same. Every album sounds the same. Every artist deals with exactly the same subjects: worship, rebuke to hip hop culture, a song to show a promiscuous girl her worth, etc. Every cd drags on repetitively and boringly. Sho felt like he wanted more artistic control. He was determined to deal with subjects that are considered taboo in the Christian community, like racism, poverty, economic disparity, etc. So he split.

 

            Fast forward two years to this past Tuesday when Sho released his third solo album Talented 10^th. It is a concept album based on an article by W.E.B. DuBois that asserted that it will take 1 out of 10 blacks to get a quality education for the race to excel. He deals with precisely those subjects that were denied him before. The most prominent and poignant of those subjects is racism. Sho deals with it on his highly controversial song “Jim Crow”. In the song Sho repeatedly uses the word “nigga” and even throws a “b***h” in the 3^rd verse. However, the later was used in the context of a rebuke to rappers that use it, not in a glorification of it. Regardless of the context of the song and the context of the verse, this song has produced much controversy, leading to the main question of the hour: “How far can Christian art go and still be Christian? I will approach the question from two perspectives: first from the perspective of an artist, and then as a Christian.

            An artist’s job is self-expression. Whether they are a rapper, musician, poet, or a painter they draw from life experiences, feelings, and emotions to create. One of the most frustrating thing for an artist is to be pigeonholed and censored. For an artist to be told “you can’t write this” or “you can’t say that” is to kill inspiration. Truth be told, musicians and rappers/poets are the only artists that “the church” demands must produce purely “Christian art”. I’ve never heard anyone chastise a painter for painting “non-Christian” portraits. Nor have I heard of anyone demanding someone who draws to only draw pictures of Christ. Why do we put this expectation on musicians?

            Why must musicians, above any other artist, be defined by their Christianity? I don’t believe it’s fair. Furthermore, the church still has a problem with this idea that something “Christian” is always neat, clean, and family-friendly. Let’s face it, if we put the same content limitations on the Bible itself as we put on musicians we would have a very small Bible. The Scriptures are full of R and X-Rated content. Rapes, murders, incest, illicit sexual affairs, prostitution, and countless other things are part of the biblical narrative. Is the Bible’s portrayal of such events glorification or description? I think we would all agree it is description. Therefore, what matters more than content is context. What is the context in which “questionable” material is presented should be the real question.

            So back to Sho Baraka’s dilemma; is Sho’s use of provocative content a renouncement of his “Christian” title? By no means! If those critics of the song “Jim Crow” would actually listen to the song and get a sense of the context in which both words are used I think they would understand a little better. Part of the problem is that the church has ordained musicians, poets and rappers as “ministers” simply because they use words when, in truth, they are simply artists. And even if they were ministers, that does not mean they must censor their content to meet Christian criteria. I wonder what the church would say about the prophet Isaiah walking around naked for 3 years (Isaiah 20:1-3). Sometimes the message God wishes to convey is messy and uncensored and we dare not reject it just because it makes us uncomfortable.

 

Shalom