ASSIMILATION

I have no problem with contemporaryism, but what I see is us mimicking the world. I withhold judgment on "Christian rap" and all other art forms. The problem is that the world is forming the "Christian artist" in appearance, performance, presentation as they dress like thugs with bling all around their neck, wrist, and all in our mouth, rapping in such a way where worldly beats, videos of urban like ghetto environment with Christian rappers using thuggish, gang like hand gestures all this drowning out the message of the lyrics. We gyrate to it like the world does to there's, so much so that if an unbeliever were to step in or turn on the performance, they would probably say, "What or where is the difference," or would feel right at home. Or would come to Christ feeling no need to change, no need to be separate. 

We unjustly demonize our own culture, yet we assimilate into the most destructive part of that culture's art form, the part of the art form that misrepresented us and that helps genocide our culture, a misrepresentation and genocide that was not by mistake but by design; but we mimic and assimilate into that destructive part of that culture in appearance and performance and tag the word "Christian" to it which has more potential to hurt than to heal, and we do that in the name of Jesus. I wonder what the backlash would be if we open a "Christian" whorehouse run by a "Christian" pimp who advertises that they only have "Christian" prostitutes who are well-versed in the Scriptures who will share the Gospel with every client. I am sure the client wouldn't remember any of the Gospel preached to them. You may say: Ray, that's a bit extreme. I would disagree with that being too extreme, but for the sake of argument, let me take another route.

This assimilation is like giving an alcoholic a non-alcoholic licker; the alcohol content may be very low, or zero percent, but the taste, smell, and ritual of drinking can act as a trigger, potentially leading to relapse. Jesus warned the future leaders of the Church with these words in Luke 17:1: “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

Believers today often find themselves wanting to mimic the world's ways because they have a stealth desire and are heavy addicted to the ways of the world. Today this stealth desire and heavy addiction to the world is found in our Christian leaders, and today there's nothing peculiar about the Church, for sure, tagging the word "Christian" to what we do has only served as a great marketing tool for profit, for making a commission instead of for the mission of the Great Commission. So, while the Church should be winning the world, the world is winning the Church, or perhaps we have these Christian leaders/influencers who admire and prefer the ideologies of countryism, capitalism, colonialism, churchism, and celebrityism over the identity of Christ. It is ironic that it seems as though the more we grow up as Christians, the more we want to be like the world and develop Christian adult language to justify it.

Be well and stay blessed,

Ray Mingo