Propaganda on Hip Hop, Culture, and Christianity
New Saint Andrews College presents a conversation about Hip Hop, Culture, and Christianity with Jason Petty (a.k.a. Propaganda), N. D. Wilson, and Douglas Wilson.
Moderated by Darren Doane.
Love me some Propaganda.
The Consequences of the Fall in the Political Realm
Bruce Ashford and Chris Pappalardo in their book, One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics:
So, the political realm has everything to do with our relationships to other people. In the aftermath of the fall, the political realm remains structurally good but has been corrupted directionally. In other words, God structured the world in such a way that we would have politics and public life, and the fact of its existence is good. But because of the depravity of the human heart, politics and public life are always to some extent directed toward idols rather than toward God.
They continue:
The problem runs deep, deeper than most political analysts even conceive. But the problem is never politics, per se. Liberals aren’t the problem. Conservatives aren’t the problem. Politicians aren’t the problem. We are. We all are—because we all have the entrenched tendency to twist God’s created order into idolatry. Pointed toward Christ, anything in creation becomes a blessing. Pointed away from him, the greatest blessing becomes a curse.
Repentance and Faith
In his commentary on the book of Acts, Darrell Bock offers a helpful explanation of how repentance and faith in Jesus relate with one another:
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.
[…]
Repentance to God represents a change of direction in how one relates to God. It entails faith in Jesus, so that the turning results in one placing trust in what God did through Jesus as one embraces his person and work.
There is a good reminder here that repentance is ultimately about God and how we relate with God. Therefore, repentance isn’t simply a turning from sin, but also a turning to Jesus, in faith. A ‘gospel’ that demands the former and disregards the latter is no gospel at all.
How Should Christians Comment Online?
Jon Bloom on Desiring God:
Reading people’s comments online is an interesting and sometimes troubling study in human nature. And reading comments by professing Christians on Christian sites (as well as other sites) can be a discouraging study in applied theology.
The immediate, shoot-from-the-hip nature of comments on websites and social media is what can often make them minimally helpful or even destructive. Comments can easily be careless. That’s why we must heed Jesus’s warning: “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). This caution makes commenting serious business to God.
Can We Still Weep Together After Orlando?
Russell Moore:
Our national divisions increasingly make it difficult for us not just to work together, but even to pause and weep together. We become more concerned about protecting ourselves from one another’s political pronouncements than we do with mourning with those who mourn.
This is especially true of gun violence. Is our nation even capable of mourning a tragedy together when guns are involved? I’m not so sure any more.
Moore ends his piece with this exhortation to Christians:
How then do we weep with those who weep?
Let’s call our congregations to pray together. Let’s realize that, in this case, our gay and lesbian neighbors are likely quite scared. Who wouldn’t be? Demonstrate the sacrificial love of Jesus to them. We don’t have to agree on the meaning of marriage and sexuality to love one another and to see the murderous sin of terrorism. Let’s also pray for our leaders who have challenging decisions to make in the midst of crisis. Let’s mobilize our congregations and others to give blood for the victims. Let’s call for governing authorities to do their primary duty of keeping its people safe from evildoers.
[…]
As the Body of Christ, though, we can love and serve and weep and mourn. And we can remind ourselves and our neighbors that this is not the way it is supposed to be. We mourn, but we mourn in the hope of a kingdom where blood is not shed and where bullets never fly.