Hip-Hop, Idolatry & The Church Pt. 4

The Effects Of The Hip-Hop Culture On Social Morality, Sexuality & Promiscuity.

To continue our examination of the church and its relationship to hip-hop we must look at some of the peripheral issues that help set the stage for the message and trap of hip hop and the churches oblivious nature in relationship to those peripheral issues. ie: We gotta look at what the culture uses to trap our youth and why the church has been so slow to respond to those set traps.

One of the first things to note about modern hip-hop is the tone that it sets for it's adherents and followers. As we've stated in Hip-Hop, Idolatry & The Church Pt. 1, hip-hop is a anti-God and anti-Christ world view, complete with it's own codes, standards, and statements of faith or belief. These elements qualify it as a humanistic religious system. That alone makes hip-hop incompatible with Christianity and Christian practice in general.

Biblical Insights

In ANE or (Ancient Near East) biblical history there were several areas that pagan religions affected among it's adherents. I will focus on a few of them in this section and draw parallels to what hip-hop has done among many of our youth and society in general.

Part A- Social Morality & Clothing

Deut. 22:5 ~ "5-The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God."

Known as probably one of the most popular scriptures in the identification of a holiness church, this verse has often been quoted in and out of context to make the point that God wants there to be a difference in appearance between male and female. In proper context it should be noted that this scripture was referring to pagan practices of dawning the apparel of the opposite sex during religious and other ceremonies.

• “As the word...geber is here used, which properly signifies a strong man or man of war, it is very probable that armour is here intended; especially as we know that in the worship of Venus, to which that of Astarte or Ashtaroth among the Canaanites bore a striking resemblance, the women were accustomed to appear in armour before her.” ~ Clark, Adam. "Commentary on Deuteronomy 22:5". "Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible".

Due to false worship, there is also strong historical evidence that a woman was not permitted to array herself for battle with a man's armor or war garments including men's weapons such as swords. This is one reason that Jael killed Sisera with a tent spike and not a sword. (Judges 4:21) A sword was used as a man's weapon and would be prohibited for a woman's usage. (See Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism from an article entitled “Cross Dressing and Deuteronomy 22:5".)

Regardless of the interpretation, the bible is deliberate about setting forth a distinction between not only men and women, but apparel that is honorific to God in general, and does not confuse genders. In the Christian world view garments were and are an extension of worship and honor towards God.

Hip hop however, has established it's own purpose for garments and totally blurred if not obliterated the lines of acceptable societal standards and reestablished and norm based on it's own idea of street fashion.

A Culture Of Death & Resurgence Of False Religion

One such evidence of garments that help proliferate the hip-hop message is the skull and crossbones scheme set forth and popularized by fashion designer Mark ECKO. This is one of the most popular arrays of garments among today's youth and the hip-hop faithful. The problem here is that the design itself was originally used to indicate either one of two things 1- When the bones are behind the skull- poison or danger and 2- when the bones are underneath the skull- a "Jolly Roger" which indicates piracy or thievery. In both cases the skull and crossbones combination ultimately indicates DEATH. In other words the whole symbolism and purpose of the display is death.

Now, the skeptic says that the military also uses such symbols, and we call them heroes and I respond by saying, rightfully so. However, I would point out the mission of the military in times of war. The military shows up for an express purpose and that's to destroy the enemy and his plans. Knowing that, I would say that the use of the symbol is highly known and in line with its message...need I say more?

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