I am not a fan of hip hop. It sounds like noise to these 1970s-trained, suburban ears. However, I recognize that it is a large part of a predominantly young, black culture that I’m not part of. A lot of hip hop has been violent, misogynist gangsta music. Pour that kind of influence into a culture and you wind up with a lot of what the songs glorify. That’s not a rip on hip hop, it is simply pointing out what the message of many of those songs results in. The genre itself can be good or bad.

Thabiti Anyabwile has a post on the effects of what he calls “holy hip hop” on the African-American culture. He says:

What these brothers are able to distill, teach, and distribute via urban hymns is incredible. I pray for the widespread popularity and faithfulness of the brothers putting out theologically robust, evangelistic, and culturally-engaging rhymes for the glory of God.

What I thought of when I read this was how the gospel simply won’t be stranded in one culture. It is brilliant how God brought this about. He made a culture in the children of Abraham. He called one family, placed them into a society where they were outsiders (Egypt) and then gave them his Law which was so extensive that it formed their culture as something unique in the world. God never intended them to be isolated forever but used their different culture to bring about the birth of Jesus. The early church wrestled with the question of whether Jesus was for the gentiles but the Holy Spirit repeatedly demonstrated that the good news of Jesus was indeed for the whole world. After a few years, the gospel was largely rejected by the culture to which it was born and God used Paul, one of that culture’s fiercest protectors, to carry the good news across the known world.

Almost from its birth the gospel of Jesus was cultureless in that it was not bound to first century Jewish culture or North African culture or third century Eastern European culture or sixteenth century North American culture.

In all of these examples, the gospel didn’t destroy culture or segregate itself from culture, it righted culture. Consider Paul’s words:

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Acts 17:26-27

God placed people in different countries and contexts and time periods and he did it “in hope” not in judgement. Paul does say that now that Jesus has come things are different. “[N]ow he [God] commands all people everywhere to repent” and has sent his messengers to let them know about it.

So back to hip hop. Again, God didn’t destroy the cultures he sent the gospel to, he did destroy the things in those cultures that were opposed to him: idols, superstitions, distorted roles for men and women, etc. I don’t think you start with the question of what is wrong in a culture before you decide if the gospel can be carried into it. You bring the gospel to the culture and reformation follows. That’s what these guys are doing through their hip hop. They’re trying to bring solid theology into a subculture that in many important areas is standing on its head. We can stand on the outside and lob stones but that just kind of furthers the gangsta, bad boy identity. No, what needed to happen was change from the inside. Thabiti has been clear in the past about the reformation needed in black churches and culture so it is important that he applauds this effort.

So if you’re like me and very much an outsider of hip hop culture don’t tisk tisk and assume that hip hop itself must die. Rejoice that our gospel is not stopped by cultural barriers.