Mixed Message From the "Musicians"

My local newspaper (The Skagit Valley Herald of Mount Vernon, Washington) gives big play in its Religion section today to an AP article about Atlanta DJ Corey "CoCo Brother" Condrey who uses well-known rappers to give "gospel" testimony to their fans. His radio program has featured celebrities from the Hip-Hop world such as Ludacris, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Bone Crusher and others.

Before going any further, let me disclose the fact that this almost 55 year-old white guy is not, has never been, and never will be a fan of Hip Hop or Rap music. In fact, it's a stretch for me to use the word "music" in connection with this stuff. However, I understand that not everyone has that insight. Hard as it is for me to imagine, there are plenty of people who actually like this particular kind of vocal pollution. So I get the idea -- Mr. Condrey is trying to attract his young, hip audience to his understanding of "gospel truth" by the use of celebrity spokesmen. There is nothing new about that approach.

What's different is the apparent hypocrisy of people who make their living by "singing" such violent and filthy lyrics suddenly beginning to talk about Christ and loving one another. The article cites a minister named Orlando Bethel who says "youth shouldn't be taught about God by rappers such as [Yung] Joc who is currently facing a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon. . . ." It seems that Mr. Bethel has the audacity to think that people ought to practice what they preach.

Not everyone agrees. Black Entertainment Television personality Dr. Bobby Jones responds, "I think it's very narrow-minded for someone to categorize another one's relationship with their spirituality. . . . Who are we to say what's right or wrong about what somebody develops? It doesn't matter if five minutes ago someone sang about the love of their life in a very intimate position, then the next five their [sic] talking about their love of Jesus Christ." Apparently this gentleman sees a total moral disconnect between how a person acts one minute and how he acts the next minute.

For a number of years, people have disputed that the lordship of Christ has anything at all to do with salvation. Get saved, then continue to act any old way you want! Apparently, Jones fits right in with that way of thinking.

However, the Bible does not take that position. There is a passage in the book of James which seems particularly appropriate to the idea of foul-mouthed rappers telling people to let God into their lives -"But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?" [James 3:8-11]

Understand, of course, that I have no objection to people telling others the truth of the Bible. In order to have credibility, though, it is necessary to get one's own house in order first. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:5, "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."