Hip-Hop Discipleship

Approximately a month ago, a significant event in the Hip-Hop nation took place. J. Cole released his highly anticipated album Born Sinner on June 25. On the album there was a track that stood out to listeners everywhere, namely "Let Nas Down". On it, Cole raps about veteran rapper Nasir Jones being one of his idols and how they first met. At their first meeting, Nas informed the up and coming rapper about how he was a fan and that he was the heir apparent. Nas has been the vanguard of political and social conscious Hip-Hop, while simultaneously enjoying mainstream success, for almost 20 years. Nas was signifying to Cole that he believes he could carry on that legacy.

 J. Cole then describes how he succumbed to the pressures of his record label which was pushing him to produce a hit single. Cole did respond to the pressure and released the biggest hit of his career, "Work Out". Soon after the release of the single, word got to Cole that Nas hated it. Why would he release such a mainstream single that gave in to pop-sensibilities? Cole laments on the track that he "let Nas down". But what happened next is a thing of beauty.

About a week after the release of J.Cole's album, Nas released a remix to the "Let Nas Down" track. On the track Nas explains to Cole that he understands the pressures that record labels bring on artists and that he was only trying to explain to him that he must rise above the fray of popular opinion in order to sustain good and meaningful art. Nas affirms the young emcee and tells him that he, in fact, "made Nas proud". This is a beautiful moment in Hip-Hop and I believe it gives us insight into discipleship in the church.

I have been reflecting a lot recently on the idea of discipleship. I have been reading on the concept of personal discipleship and following Christ on an individual basis, but also the idea of communal discipleship. In other words, how do I as a spiritual leader foster and encourage spiritual growth and development in my church? One of the key ideas I have come across over and over again in my reading is the idea of mentoring or apprenticeship. Taking what you have learned and experienced and passing it on to someone else. This is central in Hip-Hop culture!

Once an artist has risen to prominence, it is an unwritten rule that that artist seek out and build up other artists. For example, Dr. Dre "discovered" and developed rapper Eminem. Once Eminem rose to fame he discovered Queens rapper 50 Cent who developed artists like Lloyd Banks and Young Buck. In this cycle, you have four generations of artists that are engaged in relationship and work together. They learn from each other and sharpen one another as artists and hopefully as people.

What if the church had such a concept of discipleship? Everybody is being discipled while they are in turn discipling someone else. It should be a never-ending cycle that keeps on producing new fruit. What if as soon as you become a Christian (or Adventist) you are expected to find someone else to bring into the fold? We allegedly believe this but few practice it. It has not become a core value in our church culture. If the work is to continue and churches are to grow, perhaps we could all take a page from Hip-Hop discipleship.

Preaching to the Choir

 

            Da Truth is back! He has just released his newest album, Love, Hope & War. I’ve listened through the whole thing and am hard pressed to find a song I don’t like! It’s a very well put together album with solid production and great beats. It stays true to its topic with every song falling under one of the three title categories, love, hope or war.

            What is interesting and unique about this album is that it is markedly different from other recent releases in “Christian” hip hop. Some of my previous posts have been about Christian rappers that no longer wish their music to be labeled “Christian”. These rappers, like Lecrae and Sho Baraka prefer that people think of them as rappers that happen to be Christian rather than “Christian” rappers. Artists like Lecrae and Sho Baraka have decided to give their music a more evangelistic thrust. They make music specifically for the unchurched.

            Da Truth, on the other hand, takes a very different approach. He WANTS to be called a Christian rapper. For him, this title is very essential to who he is, and the music that he makes. Truth has made no qualms about the fact that his music is specifically for the church. But is there a place for this in Christian hip hop? From its inception, Christian rap has been overwhelmingly “street-focused”. It was meant to be an outreach tool to those hip hop heads that wouldn’t go into church or listen to a traditional gospel song. Da Truth, however, believes that there’s also a place for in-reach in Christian hip hop.

            So the question is what is the purpose of Christian music? Is it supposed to be primarily evangelistic, or is there a place for Christian music made just for Christians? Parenthetically, pastors are faced with the same dilemma. We are caught between the realm of shepherd and evangelist. Which is primary? There are voices that would argue for one over the other and voices that would say they are both equal callings. I tend to agree with the later. Da Truth cites the Apostle Paul as an example. He was the missionary of missionaries. He was the “apostle to the Gentiles”. He helped spread the gospel message from Jerusalem and nearly to Spain. However, he is also attributed to have written 70% of the New Testament and his letters were undoubtedly pastoral. He was very much concerned with the well-being of the churches he established and Christianity as a whole.

            With this in mind, I believe one can be both. I think that Da Truth can make music specifically for the church and it still have evangelistic components. I think Truth’s stance is also important. In this day and age it is important for Christians to be vocal about what they believe and who they are, and I don’t believe that this stance is in opposition to Lecrae’s. I believe they can coexist. If Lecrae wants to make music that is more palatable to the secular world and has a more evangelistic focus then he should be able to do that, but he should not insist that everybody take that stance. In the same token, if Truth believes his calling is to directly address the church then so be it! But neither should he enforce this stance on others. The key idea is Christian freedom. There is room for both focuses in Christianity and in hip hop. We should be open enough to embrace both without pitting them against the other.

Shalom

 

Has King’s Dream Been Realized?

 

            Today is being celebrated nation-wide as Martin Luther King Day, and in a coincidence of history, it is also the day that America’s first black president is being sworn in for his 2^nd term. In another coincidence of history, this year is also the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington where Dr King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Many assert that the fact that we have a ‘President’ Barack Obama shows that King’s dream has indeed come to pass. In some respects I agree, but in others I’m not so sure. I will take some of King’s statements from the speech and explore whether his “dream” has been fulfilled or whether we still have work to do.

            Dr King’s dream was one of liberty, equality, and inclusion of African-Americans in all aspects of society. He dreamed of a society in which everyone would have equal opportunities. It could be argued that in lieu of President Obama’s 2^nd inauguration today that has been fulfilled. But it is a strange irony that in the same era of America’s first black president the poverty rate is higher than ever and is led by African-Americans. 50 million Americans are declared to be under the poverty line with over 60% of those being black. 27% of all blacks in the country are under the poverty line. Is this because 27% have not applied themselves? Are these statistics to be blamed solely on individual responsibility (or the lack thereof), or are there still structural and governmental elements that play a factor? I believe it is partially both, but there are undoubtedly structural elements in place that have perpetuated this cycle. Poverty itself is a cycle that once caught in, is very difficult to escape. Is there equal opportunity? Perhaps. But are there still things that we as a nation need to work on, indeed.

             In the final section of King’s speech which began the series of improvised “I have a dream” runs, King states, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” So the question is, is there a sense of true brotherhood between races today? Undoubtedly, it is MUCH better than it was 60 years ago, but in the world I live in, things are still very much separate. King was also famous for saying that “the most segregated hour in America was 11 o’clock on Sunday morning”. As a pastor, this statement most certainly still remains true. In the same religion, in the same denomination, we are still unable to worship together. There are many factors that contribute to this and there is blame on both sides. But it still seems to be the case that even Christians of the same belief system and denomination can’t exhibit “brotherhood”. How much more does this apply to society at large?

            Another aspect of King’s “dream” was that “one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” I recently visited the school associated with my church to do their weekly assembly. They showed the children a video about Dr King and the dream that he had. As I sat there and listened to the above statement I thought to myself, “Most of these kids have probably not even met other white kids; much less have friendships with them”. The school, like our church, is historically black. Many of the kids come right from the immediate Southeast D.C. area which is also predominately black. If these kids remain in the area through high school, chances are that they will go to a dominantly black high school due to district restrictions. When they come to church they see only black faces in their classes and in the pews. Perhaps when they go to college they will be exposed to other races and ethnicities, but that’s still a long way off. In my opinion, while these kids will not have to live through a segregated world, they most definitely live in a separated world.

            Some would argue that this is a good thing, but is it in line with what King dreamed? King’s dream was one where everybody not only lived together in peace, but lived together as brothers and sisters; one where we could celebrate unity in diversity. That dream has yet to be realized, even in the church. Especially in the church! If there is one place that this “dream” should be a reality it should be in our congregations, for it was Christ’s dream as well. Jesus prayed for the church that we would be “one” as He and the Father are one. This doesn’t mean that everybody is the same, but it should at least mean that we be together more than once every 5 years at a General Conference session.

            So my answer to the question of whether Martin Luther King’s dream has been realized is yes and no. In some ways it has, in some ways it hasn’t. We still have work to do to heal wounds, put aside prejudices and stereotypes and fight the good fight for equality and justice.

Shalom

"It's All the Same to Me" Postmodernism and its Impact on Hip Hop's Biblical Understanding

For the next few weeks I will be doing a series on Hip Hop, specifically, how Hip Hop culture engages with religion and the Bible. Just for clarification of terms, “hermeneutics” refers to the lenses through which one studies, reads and interprets the Bible. Some may be saying, “Hip Hop has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible!” Many would agree that hip-hop is clearly in opposition and rebellion against everything the Bible teaches and stands for! Nevertheless, hip-hop draws from the Bible and biblical images more than one might think. In fact, hip-hop is obsessed with it!! Various songs contain cries and pleas for God: His presence, His mercy, His forgiveness, His peace, His deliverance, and His guidance. Numerous music videos and even album covers contain religious symbolism and invoke biblical images to get their message across. This series will explore how Hip Hop’s use of biblical and religious images and symbolism gives us insight to Hip Hop’s “hermeneutic” or interpretation of the Bible. The first such segment will explore Hip Hop and postmodernism.

It is no secret that we live in an age that has been classified as “postmodern”. The precise meaning of this term, however, is quite ambiguous and open to interpretation (ironically right in line with postmodern principles). Webster’s College Dictionary defines the term this way: of or pertaining to any of various movements in architecture, the arts, and literature developing in the late 20^th century in reaction to the precepts…of modernism. So postmodernism is essentially a reaction to modernism. This begs the question, what is modernism? What were its “precepts” and tenets? Being that this is not a paper on postmodernism, this subject will not be dealt with exhaustively. Our purposes here are to provide a basic summary of postmodernism and then evaluate its influence and impact on hip-hop culture and hermeneutics.

English writer and theologian David Cook says this: “Postmodernism moves beyond the ‘modern’, scientifically based view of the world by blending a skepticism about technology, objectivity, absolutes and total explanations with the exploration of every spiritual and material perspective.”[1] Modernism’s emphasis was on science. Science and technology were going to be the savior of mankind. I like to describe modernism in terms of the popular TV show that arose as a result of its ideas, Star Trek. In my estimation, Star Trek summarizes the main tenets of the modern perspective. The main gist of the show was that through science and technological advances, mankind rose above all its problems and ascended to a new level of evolutionary existence. In the motion picture, Star Trek First Contact, Captain Picard explains to an earth-woman he had met that humanity no longer suffers from divisions and wars. When asked about his financial stability he replies “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force for humanity in the 24^th century. We work to better ourselves and all mankind”. The idea is that humanity is capable of solving its own problems through the advance of reason, science, and technology.

Postmodernism, is essentially a reaction to, and rejection of this idea. It was quickly realized that instead of advancing humanity, technology was contributing to its destruction! Instead of helping find cures for cancer, it helped discover how to burst an atom to destroy thousands of people. Rather than making warfare more “civil” and efficient, it has only made it more brutal and inhumane. Nihilism and hopelessness are the children of this age. Stanley Grenz puts it this way, “postmodernism replaces the optimism of the last century with a gnawing pessimism…Members of the emerging generation are no longer confident that humanity will be able to solve the world’s great problems.”[2] In general, the postmodern worldview is that “no worldview exists”.[3] Its main tenets could be summarized as follows: a reaction against modernity, a rejection of objective truth, skepticism and suspicion of authority, a continued search for the transcendent, materialism, and individualistic pluralism.[4]

Now the question is, what has postmodernity to do with hip-hop? The answer is simple: postmodernity is hip-hop and hip-hop is postmodernity!! The main aspect of postmodernity I would like to focus on in this section is what Smith and Jackson call, “the culture of questioning everything”.[5] Hip-hop is rooted in this idea of questioning everything. In truth, it is very much in line with the postmodern principle of innate suspicion of authority and institutions. Hip-hop has thus questioned just about every authority and institution that has shaped American society, especially the place of police (basically the entire criminal justice system), the government and, surprisingly enough, the Christian church.[6] It should be noted here that social movements such as civil rights and the black power movement, along with religious movements like the Nation of Islam form some of the roots of hip-hop culture. These movements radically questioned the Christian churches validity and effectiveness for young black Americans.

Keeping this line of thought, hip-hop has questioned just about every “truth” that society tries to impose upon it. In his song “Rock N Roll”, conscious rapper Mos Def questions the true origins of the musical art form saying, “Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul/ Little Richard is rock n roll/ you might dig on the Rolling Stones/ but they ain’t come up wit that style on their own”. Rapper Kanye West, in his album College Dropout, questions whether it is really necessary to go to college to achieve success (using his own example). Rapper Common questions “what if God was a her?” in his song “Faithful”. Slain rapper Tupac Shakur questioned the relevance of the educational system for poor, inner-city black youth. “I think that we got so caught up in school being a tradition that we stopped using it as a learning tool, which it should be…I’m learning about the basics, but they’re not basic for me….To get us ready for today’s world [the present curriculum] is not helping”.[7] Hip-hop is truly a culture of questioning.

So how does this affect hip-hop’s hermeneutic? What impact do the postmodern traits of universal questioning and institutional suspicion have on hip-hop’s interpretation of the Bible? Fundamentally, it has created a type of religious pluralism where no one religion can claim to have all truth. As noted earlier, hip-hop is automatically suspicious of institutions (primarily because institutions have proven themselves untrustworthy). Therefore, any church or religion that claims to be or have absolute authority or truth is automatically viewed with suspicion. Take a lyric by Philadelphia rapper, Black Thought: “Sex, drugs, murder, politics and religion/ forms of hustling…”.[8] Hip-hop is fundamentally distrustful of any religion that makes an outstanding claim to truth.[9] Well this poses a very potent problem with Christianity and its Bible that claims to be the exclusive Word of God. Rapper Talib Kweli says this: “Who was King James?/ and why did he think it was so vital to remove chapters and make his own version of the Bible”.[10]            So the Bible cannot even truly be trusted! This inevitably creates, what has been termed in the academic community, religious pluralism. In the everyday language of everyday people it is adequately termed “survival”. These people are so frequently lied to by social and government institutions that they feel it necessary to be suspicious so as to not be sucked in by another “hustle”.  There is no absolute truth in one religion, but they all hold information that can lead any of their adherents to God. Consider this striking statement made by Chicago born rapper, Common: “As a child given religion with no answer to why/ just told believe in Jesus cause for me he did die”.[11] So first, he questions the validity of a religion evidently handed down from his parents. It seems that Common is addressing a type of religious ritual or formalism that takes place in many Christian families across the country: church. If we had a tally of how many children were dragged to church on Sunday or Saturday mornings with no other reason than the threat of a belt, I doubt this page could contain the results. Common’s statement also suggests a sort of agitation at the fact that he was brought up with only one religious viewpoint. “Just told believe in Jesus cause for me he did die”.

His next few lines will illustrate what he did with this youthful frustration. “My mind had dealt with the books of Zen, Tao, the lessons/ Koran and the Bible, to me they all vital/ and got truth within ‘em, gotta read them boys/ you just can’t skim ‘em, different branches of belief/ but one root that stem ‘em”.[12] As a reaction against his seemingly narrow upbringing, he took it upon himself to investigate some of the other religious claims ranging from Buddhism to Islam. His conclusion? “To me they all vital and got truth within ‘em”! Now do we object that some truth can be found in other religions? I hope not. I hope we are not that narrow. However, for us, the Bible still holds the absolute authority and is the basis by which we judge the “truth” in the other religions. For Common however, (and here Common is representative of hip-hop as a whole) the only authority by which to judge this truth is rooted in survival. Truth is that which can help one survive in this life. Author Terrence Tilley points out concerning hip-hop’s grandparent, the blues, that for blues artists, “truth is experience and experience is the truth”.[13] I believe the same observation can be made of hip-hop.

Consider the next line: “Who am I or they to say to whom you pray ain’t right/ that’s who got you doin right and got you this far/ whether you say ‘in Jesus name’ or ‘Al-hum-du’Allah’”.[14] In Common’s eyes, nobody has the right to dictate the “rightness” or “wrongness” of a religion that has helped one survive. A lyric in Talib Kweli’s song, “Give ‘Em Hell” has the same ring to it, “So it all sounds the same to me/ that’s why when they say one is right and the other is wrong it just sounds like a game to me”. Numerous other artists deal with the same issues and they are all saying essentially the same thing: all of these religions and their holy books are valid paths to God and no one of them has absolute truth. There is a rampant pluralism that exists within hip-hop that makes pinpointing an actual hermeneutic a very difficult task. However, even with hip-hop’s pluralism, some things that were mentioned earlier are essential to understanding the key to unlocking hip-hop’s hermeneutic. We noted that hip-hop’s critique of the Bible or any religion and religious book is rooted in that which helps us survive in this life. This leads us to the major issue that drives hip-hop’s hermeneutic which will be explored next week: the question of theodicy or suffering.

If there was any goodness or merit found here, that goodness and merit is from the Creator. If there were any flaws or errors, those were mine. Blessings

---

[1] David Cook, Blind Alley Beliefs (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996), 9.

[2] Stanley Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 3.

[3] Graham Johnston, Preaching to a Postmodern World: A Guide to Reaching Twenty-first Century Listeners (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 27.

[4] Ibid, 26.

[5] Smith and Jackson, The Hip-Hop Church, 103.

[6] It would be more accurate to say organized religion as a whole, but this will be explored later.

[7] This is taken from a homemade interview of Tupac when he was 17 years old.

[8] The Roots, “It Don’t Feel Right”. Game Theory (Def Jam Records, 2006).

[9] It should be noted here that while this statement is true in general, there are many hip-hop artists that subscribe completely to a religion, even though it is mostly Islam.

[10] Talib Kweli, “Give Em Hell”. Ear Drum (Blacksmith/Warner Bros Records, 2007).

[11] Common, “G.O.D. (Gaining One’s Definition)”. One Day it Will All Make Sense (1997)

[12] Ibid

[13] Anthony B. Pinn. Why Lord?: Suffering and Evil in Black Theology. (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1995) 118.

[14] Ibid

To Be Fed?

            Well here it is folks! My first blog post! Let me start things off with a brief explanation of what this blog is intended to be. Essentially it is precisely what the blog name indicates. It will be a compilation of my thoughts on various issues: politics, religion and theology, sports, pop culture, entertainment, etc. For my first blog post I would like to focus on an issue of religion and spirituality.

            Today I attended an after-church, bring your own lunch board meeting at the church where I currently serve as Youth and Young Adult Pastor. The meeting was supposed to be a coming together to discuss issues related to the previous quarter’s Sabbath school lesson on witnessing and evangelism. There was one item on the agenda: how can we as a church facilitate church growth and evangelism? However, as can be expected, the discussion went terribly awry.

            People began to complain about their pet issues of what was going wrong in the church and why it isn’t growing. Blame fell on other churches, the youth department, dry worship services, forgetting the fundamentals, lack of commitment, and of course the pastors. I heard explanations of how young adults aren’t coming to church because they aren’t being “fed” which probably has some truth in it. However, I would like to raise one question tonight: Is that what we’re really here for? To be fed? Is that why we come to church? Is that why we drag people out of their beds at 8 o’clock on Sabbath morning, guilt them into coming to Sabbath School, and have them sit for 2 hours in a service? To be fed? I think this a gross distortion of what biblical worship is supposed to be.

            There are several requirements of biblical worship and none of them have to do with “style” or musical preference. For tonight's purposes I will mention only one of them. Biblical worship is about God and God alone. Nowhere in Scripture will one find anything saying that worship was designed to glorify, uplift, magnify, or edify humans. Throughout biblical history, the purpose of worship was to glorify, uplift, magnify and edify God.

            We see the earliest instances of worship with Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:3-5. Cain brings an offering to God which God does not accept, but He accepts Abel’s. The Bible does not specifically tell us why God rejected Cain’s offering and accepted Abel’s but it does give us a few clues. First, it says that “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground” and Abel brought an offering “of the firstborn of his flock”. The text suggests that Cain just brought any fruit while Abel specifically brought the firstborn of his flock. This suggests that Abel’s offering was actually a “sacrifice” in the truest sense of the word. Abel brought the firstborn, the best of the flock. Cain just brought whatever he wanted and thought God would accept it. The point is that Abel’s worship was a sacrifice, and Cain’s worship self-motivated. Cain wanted to keep the first and best for himself.

          In the sanctuary service established by God in the tabernacle worship was all about God's intervention into human life and how He would ultimately reconnect us to Himself. David revolutionized Israel's worship life by providing music, poetry, and liturgy. The New Testament featured small, intimate, house-worships due to the underground beginnings of the church and the climate of persecution. So biblical worship is diverse, complex and multi-faceted. But it has one constant: It is always centered on God.

          How does this apply to our current understanding of worship? It tells us that worship is about God, who He is, and what He has done for us. Worship should never be motivated by self-interest. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that our “reasonable service of worship” is to present our bodies as “living sacrifices”. In essence, we come to church not primarily to get, but to give. We give ourselves to God! We come to worship and praise Him for who He is and what He has done. Any blessing we receive out of it is a by-product, not the end-goal. It is the same as returning tithe and offering. We return tithe and offering 1) because it belongs to God, 2) because we trust God to take care of us. We should not return it only because God has promised to bless us if we do. The blessing is a by-product, but not the reason. Until we get out of this mindset that worship is about us we will continue to fight and go round and round about worship styles, forms, traditional verses contemporary, drums verses no drums, and “black” worship verses “white” worship. Our focus is completely in the wrong place. Worship is about God not us. If we offer Him whatever we have with a sincere and open heart I believe that He will accept our worship and we will indeed be “fed”.

If there was any goodness or merit found here, that goodness and merit is from the Creator. If there were any flaws or errors, those were mine. Blessings