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Lecrae's "Church Clothes" and Christian Hypocrisy
11 years ago
This song got Lecrae in a bit of publicity trouble, but he doesn't care. And honestly neither do I because the message is important.
I'm not going to post the lyrics in this journal, but instead link to an annotated edition on rapgenius. Take a gander if you like.
http://rapgenius.com/Lecrae-church-clothes-lyrics
Here's the video for it, if you want to watch it. It is rap, so listen if you want.
Christians are hypocrites. It's the nature of humans to be hypocritical, despite worldview. You can't call someone a hypocrite without being hypocritical yourself. I typically refuse to call people hypocrites because it's calling them human.
However, this is no excuse, especially for us Christians. This is not written to defend the church. It's to announce that we have a problem.
Although a Christian being a hypocrite is actually a state-of-being, it's not justified. Christians are sinners like everyone else and they do wrong like everyone else. There is no point in trying to avoid being one, because it's inevitable.
The Christian Church has serious issues. I'm not talking about theological splinters and dangers caused by modern heresies. I'm talking about the self-righteousness and godlessness that pervades the church. I'm talking about unwarranted judgment.
Why should anyone go to church and be a Christian if we're all douchebags? If a Christian is all someone sees of God, then it should be the objective to be unrelenting with the amount of love we give off. Otherwise, we aren't doing it right. I'd say we're missing the mark.
Our hypocrisy, if we're not striving to change it or get better, is the mark that we're not receiving or showing the Grace of God.
It's about time we start owning up.
Judgment:
It's within Christian theology that Christians are allowed to make statements about the characters of other Christians. This is a criticism-based judgment, but it's meant for Christians towards Christians, and is never meant to be abusive*. No Man gets to decide who does and doesn't go to Hell; that's God's job. We're supposed to be loving and caring to those around us...
The only instance (I believe) where it is okay to be judgmental is in regard to action, and Christians should be reserved. I still prefer to judge the actions themselves and not the person when those cases arise. Anything superficial, like color, clothes, sexuality, and etc. I don’t care about. What you do matters.
People probably have been through, or are going through, something incredibly difficult. At the least, you should offer patience, even in the face of hate. That’s an image of God you’re talking to. Respect is a must.
The objective is to glorify God and raise others up, not spit in God’s face and tear each other down.
*There is a marked difference between constructive and deconstructive criticism. It’s not hard to tell the difference when you’re the one speaking, unless you’re absolutely blind to what you’re doing (Westboro Baptist Church says what they are doing they’re doing out of love, for example). But, due to social limitations, it’s hard to tell a difference, especially over a text medium.
Note: Anyone who knows me knows I flip out over heresy. This is my struggle. I suppose this comes from my evidentialist/holistic viewpoint on Christian Theology and that I tend to get frustrated with things I consider simple.
I'm not going to post the lyrics in this journal, but instead link to an annotated edition on rapgenius. Take a gander if you like.
http://rapgenius.com/Lecrae-church-clothes-lyrics
Here's the video for it, if you want to watch it. It is rap, so listen if you want.
Christians are hypocrites. It's the nature of humans to be hypocritical, despite worldview. You can't call someone a hypocrite without being hypocritical yourself. I typically refuse to call people hypocrites because it's calling them human.
However, this is no excuse, especially for us Christians. This is not written to defend the church. It's to announce that we have a problem.
Although a Christian being a hypocrite is actually a state-of-being, it's not justified. Christians are sinners like everyone else and they do wrong like everyone else. There is no point in trying to avoid being one, because it's inevitable.
The Christian Church has serious issues. I'm not talking about theological splinters and dangers caused by modern heresies. I'm talking about the self-righteousness and godlessness that pervades the church. I'm talking about unwarranted judgment.
Why should anyone go to church and be a Christian if we're all douchebags? If a Christian is all someone sees of God, then it should be the objective to be unrelenting with the amount of love we give off. Otherwise, we aren't doing it right. I'd say we're missing the mark.
Our hypocrisy, if we're not striving to change it or get better, is the mark that we're not receiving or showing the Grace of God.
It's about time we start owning up.
Judgment:
It's within Christian theology that Christians are allowed to make statements about the characters of other Christians. This is a criticism-based judgment, but it's meant for Christians towards Christians, and is never meant to be abusive*. No Man gets to decide who does and doesn't go to Hell; that's God's job. We're supposed to be loving and caring to those around us...
The only instance (I believe) where it is okay to be judgmental is in regard to action, and Christians should be reserved. I still prefer to judge the actions themselves and not the person when those cases arise. Anything superficial, like color, clothes, sexuality, and etc. I don’t care about. What you do matters.
People probably have been through, or are going through, something incredibly difficult. At the least, you should offer patience, even in the face of hate. That’s an image of God you’re talking to. Respect is a must.
The objective is to glorify God and raise others up, not spit in God’s face and tear each other down.
*There is a marked difference between constructive and deconstructive criticism. It’s not hard to tell the difference when you’re the one speaking, unless you’re absolutely blind to what you’re doing (Westboro Baptist Church says what they are doing they’re doing out of love, for example). But, due to social limitations, it’s hard to tell a difference, especially over a text medium.
Note: Anyone who knows me knows I flip out over heresy. This is my struggle. I suppose this comes from my evidentialist/holistic viewpoint on Christian Theology and that I tend to get frustrated with things I consider simple.
