Curtis just performed at Piper’s church recently. (click on the link to see the video – HT: Justin Taylor).

Praise God for Curtis’ ministry. Curtis Allen, aka Voice ( http://www.ihearvoice.com ) is a HHH artist (Holy Hip Hop aka Christian Rap).

While someone posted the video over on HCR, I decided to follow the very eyecatching ‘What’s Wrong With This Picture ?’ link at the bottom of Justin’s Blog over to the Sharper Iron boards. I’ve been meaning to join SI for a while now (for good reasons), but today this post really ticked me off into wanting to join simply to vent.

One person at HCR read through the thread and said that he thought that some the guys at SI who hated rap music were either borderline racist or already there.

My response (which turned into a vent):

It’s not so much racist as they are just underexposed and culture-centric.

One thing that SOME Calvinists and WoFers have in common is that there’s a tendency to only fellowship (I mean extended time, conferences, visiting churches, etc…) with those who believe as we do.

So some charismatics never hearing of Calvinism, the reformation, etc… come from the fact that they’ve never been to anything other than the family of churches they fellowship with, they only listen to or read books from Paula White, Creflo, Jakes, Noel Jones, Myles Munroe, Mr. ‘Word-Of-God-Is-His-Sperm’, etc…. they don’t know anything else outside of this. They may know other denoms exist…but they know little to nothing about them except ‘they dead churches! they don’t let the Spirit move!’ or some other drivel.

Likewise, there are some reformed folk (especially in some of the micro-presbyterian denominations) live in a similar huddle. The only people they read are the ‘good’ old dead guys and they may read one or two modern authors, all of whom are reformed, and that’s it. They learn what others believe second-hand from the people they read who do critiques of other viewpoints. Some of them (in case you didn’t notice) HATE Piper (or pretty close) and are the cold, sour, stiff, starched-collar folks you’ve heard about. In fact, some will divide over the SMALLEST point of doctrine and spend page after page arguing over it (infralapsarianism vs supralapsarianism for example). Some HATE anything remotely modern and believe that ‘mature Christianity’ looks like a quiet, 1646 presbyterian church, practicing exclusive psalmody, standing still, no rocking, no powerpoint, they treat the word ’emotions’ like a four letter word….etc….

I call it a case of RATS (Reformed Arrogance and Theological Snobbery).

They have no concept of Christianity outside of the small 15-20 member church they’ve been a member of for 30 years that hasn’t grown beyond that and the people they read about. A lot of them would be EXTREMELY uncomfortable in anything other than that. There’s not very much OUTREACH (as opposed to men like Piper, Spurgeon, Sproul, MacArthur) or heavy thought of outreach. Plenty thought on how to keep the sheep well educated on the faith and growing in holiness, but not much on evangelism or community events.

Similarly to the way i say that WoF doesn’t preach well in impoverished countries, I try to point out as often as possible to folk like this: we have brethren who are reformed soteriologically in Africa who use drums and dance as a part of their worship service. The RPW (regulative principle of worship) is Biblical, BUT the implementation of it in Western Culture is not THE only way it can be done. That’s why John Frame disagrees with you (see Frame’s book Worship in Spirit and Truth). And I’ll tell them in a heartbeat (which I’m going to do as soon as I get home and confirm my registration) – everyone with a criticism on here needs to shut up if you’re not willing to step into SE D.C., Philly, Baltimore, smack dab in the middle of the hood, put up a platform and a microphone and preach. How DARE you simply spit this GARBAGE on this board and criticize the work of a brother (and I’m talking of both Piper AND Curtis) who have made it their MISSION to get into unreached people groups while all you do is sit back in your micropresbyterian huddle content to read Calvin’s Institutes, Hodge and others and let your mind grow fat and your heart grow cold! HYPOCRITES!!!!

I did register for SI, but there were several encouraging (and well thought out) posts in the thread which responded to the cultural elitism of other folks in the thread:

What’s wrong is that this man represents one of millions of people of all races in our inner cities who are not reached with the Gospel. Instead, they are hurting and alone. How will they believe unless someone tells them? Who will tell them if those who have the Good News are sitting around talking about what is “wrong” with musical style?

Does anyone else feel a little sad about threads like this?

and

Chris said:

Joe,

I don’t think rap is appropriate for worship. I think it lacks the reverence that Scripture requires of worship (Heb. 12:28-29) and is not consistent with God’s character or with our new life in Christ.

Does that make me highminded? Do I need to repent?

I’m not Joe, but Hebrews 12:28-29 is in the context of Hebrews the Epistle. The whole thrust of the book is about Christ, the superiority of Christ, and the utter insufficiency of the God-ordained, God-prescribed worship of the Old Covenant now that Christ is our Great High Priest. I think it is mistaken to use the “acceptable worship” in this verse to defend any style whatsoever. The worship spoken of throughout the whole of Hebrews is the saving worship available through the Christ the Sacrifice and Priest. It is not referring to a worship service or even a lifestyle.

It is also noteworthy that if the God-prescribed accroutements of worship (Hebrews 9) were, even in the Old Dispensation, insufficient to cleanse the conscience even though commanded, then how much more inadequate are the styles and traditions of our worship? The fact of the matter remains that whenever we worship congregationally or individually there is priestly worship that is concurrently taking precedence. Thus, we pray and sing in Jesus’ Name and with all boldness because He is our active High Priest. He is (present tense) interceding for us. We are (present tense) covered by His blood, cleansed by His blood, and, though the sacrifice has been once for all slain, it is (present tense) being received up in Glory.

This is relevent to our music and all of our efforts to praise God. I didn’t like the rap, but I couldn’t help but rejoice that very likely it was done in heart-felt response to the saving work of Christ, offered in Christ’s Name and, though it had many faults, was acceptable to God out of sheer grace. In the same way I trust my singing of an old anthem next Sunday will be acceptable to God.

“Reverence,” on the other hand, could apply in that it is attitudinal and subservient. But then you would have to prove, first, that Allen’s rap was in direct disobedience to the will of God, therefore knowingly “trampling on the blood of Christ” and, second, that his spirit was jocular and irreverent.

On the first, no one has done yet. On the second, no one is able. For even if it were to be eventually proved that to rap is an egregious sin against known revelation, it cannot be proved that Allen did this with that knowledge and without sincere heart-felt worship.

You are confused that a man who has such a high view of God would sit on the front row of the church and allow that music. Maybe it is because a high view of God comes with a proportionately low view of man. When that happens the difference between Mt. Everest and an ant-hill seem trivial when one feels the length to the sun.

Maybe. I don’t know. Just pondering.

I don’t see you as high-minded because you said, “I don’t think rap is appropriate for worship. I think it lacks reverence…” I think that it is generous of you to use provisional language there, minus the dogmatism of “thus saith the Lord.” I’m glad you said “think.” Did you mean that?

Therefore, though I am not Joe, I would suggest that you are not high-minded. Maybe wrong, but definitely not high-minded!

along with:

I think the question may be: “Is music done in this style is always wrong, regardless of lyrical content?” Curtis Allen was asked to do a number (OK – is that a reference to a hymnal?) at our church – I think the reaction was probably similar to what BBC had. It sure was different (as I recall, he did his song called “Divide and Conquer”). Most of conversations I heard afterword went something like: ‘Well, rap is not my thing, but we are excited to see the gospel being presented to a potential target audience that is largely unreached with the gospel.” Does it cheapen the gospel? John Piper certainly didn’t think so, I don’t think I do either.

and my favorite:

[An evangelical pastor allowing a Christian to speak (with a beat) his testimony of being rescued from spiritual death]

…is being condemned by…

[a thread on a fundamentalist blog which tolerates rape jokes, as long as they’re making a point about the man’s music]

I think there’s a beam in someone’s eye.

Prayerfully, some of these folk will grow in their view of the entire body of Christ one day and realize that we weren’t meant to look monolithic in expression.