post religious christian » church folks

Kanye West: “I didn’t find Jesus, my parents gave him to me…”

Andre Daley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

if you haven’t seen them yet kanye west jesus walks videos have been playing on mtv for a while now. there are three very different videos

relevant magazine has a summary of all the videos with some spiritual/scriptural connections.

i blogged about this accidental hip-hop prophet previously. he is sharing his spiritual journey in the hip-hop media

i think west is a perfect example of how the postmodern/emergent culture is represented in the african – american community. check this

[Chorus]
Jesus Walk- God show me the way because the devil tryna break me down
Jesus Walk With Me- The only thing that I pray iz that my feet don’t fail me now
Jesus Walk-And I don’t think theres nothing I could do now to right my wrongs
Jesus Walk With Me-I wanna talk to God but im afraid cuz we aint spoke in so long..

I ain’t?t here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I’m just tryna say the way school need teachers
The Way Kathy Lee needed Regis…thats the way i need Jesus.
So here go my single dawg, radio needs this
They said they could rap about anything except for jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God my record wont get played, huh?
Well if this take away from my spinz…which will prolly take away my endz..
Then i hope it take away from my sinz and bring the day that im dreamin bout…
Next time im in the club, erybody screaming out…

no trippin about the stuff that church folks stress about "what did jesus look like?"just focus on what really matters we need jesus and he walks with us!

preach brotha

Technorati Tags: atheists, christian_faith, church folks, emergent culture, Kanye-West, kathy lee, mtv, music, sinz, spiritual practice, talk to god, trippin

is the emerging church racist? – can we talk?

Andre Daley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

can we talk? can we talk about issues of race and racism. or is that too taboo for the emerging church? whenever i have raised this in conversation with emerging church folks i invariably get at least one person usually more saying that is "too much for the emerging church to handle right now." "too big to tackle at this point." most of the books out on the emerging church never address this huge sin in our world. so can we talk? or is this subject off limits? if so what does that mean for the emerging church? dj chung raises some interesting thoughts about being able to speak freely (blog) on touchy issues like racism in the church. robert upton raises some questions worth exploring in his book racism @work among the lord’s people for those of us seeking to faithfully follow jesus in the emerging culture. the folks over a kingdom space also have some thoughtful comments on the subject so can we talk? even if the words are "loaded" because we can’t afford not to. if we don’t we run the risk of becoming irrelevant to the majority populations of the world.

Technorati Tags: church folks, dj, emerging church, emerging_church, Jesus, populations of the world, race and racism, racial_reconciliation, racism, racist, robert upton, thoughtful comments, touchy issues

is the emerging church intentionally racist?

Andre Daley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Rudy carraso recently asked this question on his blog. is the emerging church racist? his answer was no i want to add a qualifier to the question is the emerging church intentionally racist? my answer. no it is not intentionally racist but I think it is racist. by placing racial reconciliation and the evil of racial oppression in our world, so far down the totem pole of things that are important to address the emerging church is operating out of the same place of power and control that the moderns do.

so often it seems the emergent conversation has just becomes another in the latest philosophical and intellectual discussions driven and led by white males with very little perspective or interest in the perspective of people of color.

this makes me sad because there is so much of the emerging church that i resonate with and I think is shared by many people of color. but somewhere along the line all the “openness” of the emerging church folks seems to have degraded into the openness to the issues those who are driving the conversation think is important. as one commenter said over at carraso’ urban onramps “the reconciliation and ethnic diversity conversation can be too energy-consuming and overwhelming”

but if walking the talk and living more like Jesus is what the emerging church is all about; how can we not put our energy into the things like racial reconciliation, poverty and diversity that seems so important to Jesus. is that just a convenient excuse. was Jesus more concerned about worship style than freeing the captive and releasing the oppressed?

well there i got this off my chest. now its your turn holler back!

Technorati Tags: church folks, diversity, emergent, emergent_church, emergent_village, emerging church, ethnic diversity, intellectual discussions, moderns, people of color, racial oppression, racial reconciliation, racial_reconciliation, racism, urban onramps, worship style