Rap, reggae, the church

Evangelsing to the youth should preserve the sanctity of the temple

The young Guatemalan Catholic priest has gone far in changing the face of Catholic worship in his homeland, using rap preaching, rap music and rap prophecies. Obviously, the man is in the wrong profession.

Many of his countrymen think that the man who behaves like Tic Tac should have been Guatemala’s award-winning top hip-hop artiste and not a minister of the word. Imag­ine Gyedu-Blay Ambolley doing the ‘Zimigwado’ on the pulpit and admin­istering the communion.

When he first introduced rap into Christian worship, many in his con­gregation thought the Guatemalan priest had gone ‘ment,’ precisely gone ‘mental.’ Far from it, the man is pretty sane and is drawing youngsters from far and near with his rap deliv­ery, the staccato power-packed gospel message.

TEMPTATION

First of all, some in his congrega­tion were tempted to think that God and Jesus did not understand rap and anyone who rattled in rap language was merely wasting his time. God wasn’t going to understand what he (or she) was saying, much more an­swers his prayers.

But of course, rap prayers are being answered in Guatemala and the rap mass celebrations still go on. The Guatemalan revolution in Catholicism is fast catching up but the conserva­tive hardliners don’t ‘dig’ the idea.

They reckon that if the young priest had been born in the last two centuries, the Catholic Church room would today be exactly like a rock concert hall with the mass servers break-dancing behind the Catholic Fa­ther, while he is offering the commu­nion for the forgiveness of sins.

One really would wonder what type of music Jesus would like if he was alive today. Probably he’d take a liking to traditional Sikaman gospel highlife. That would be the nearest to what is sang in heaven.

No doubt Peter would go in for funk, may be gospel funk, and by all means Judas would stick to reggae. That in no way means that reggae is evil music, but taking the profile of Judas, he’d be someone who’d thump his feet to the Jah rendition, “One Love.”

The man’s betrayal of Jesus was merely business as far as he was con­cerned. Music had nothing to do with it. Thirty pieces of silver, if melted into cedis today is a fortune the dis­ciple’s greed couldn’t resist. Today, people are doing exactly what the man did – selling their own children, their nephews and nieces for pittance. I hear someone was even going to sell his own mother until the law caught up with him. To sell your own mother? Leave her alone and come and sell Kwame Alomele!

The world is going pieces but if Jesus were alive today, his disciple James would have chosen between jazz and burgher highlife. John would go for the cool numbers just like Andrew. Certainly, Bartholomew and Thomas would go for Congo!

In centuries past, composers of renowned songs performed to hail Je­sus, notably George Frederich Handel composed “Unto Us A Child Is Born” and songs like “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted in praise of the Lord Jesus, called the Christ.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Jesus Joy of Man’s Desiring” was another classic gospel tune of the time which proba­bly earned him the Father of Modern Music accolade. Talk about Beethoven (arguably the most talented compos­er), Mozart (the most intelligent), and you’ll understand the celestial and Halleluyah inspiration of their compo­sitions.

FAITHFULS

Those were the days when fellow­ship was a solemn occasion of hymn singing, choral music and sober ser­mons preached on morals.

Penteco-charismatism began when some faithfuls saw that what hap­pened on Pentecost Day as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was totally sidelined.

On that day, those present spoke in varied tongues, many rattling in Ada-Krobo, Ewe and Gomoa-Fanti when they hailed from Judea, Jerusa­lem, Nazareth and the rest.

It was a phenomenon unprece­dented in Christian history, yet totally ignored by emerging churches like Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Evangelical Presbyterian.

One of the reasons why we have two Evangelical Presbys is the fact that one believes in tongue- speaking and other attributes and manifesta­tions of the Holy Spirit and the other doesn’t. In other words, one is charis­matically inclined, the other tradition­ally enshrined.

HOLY SPIRIT

One sticks to traditional hymn singing, the other takes to fervent praise-and-worship sessions to literally invoke the Holy Spirit. The issue of doctrine is central to the split, and so long as doctrinal differences cannot be reconciled, coming together can only be a pipe-dream.

Of course, the role of music in the spread of the word cannot be de­nied. But more and more, the idea of bringing in floating youths to worship is also distilling the notion that the kind of secular music in vogue must be ‘christianised’ as a way of magnetising the youngsters.

The question here is, if rap or hip-hop is used to draw in the youth, would they be coming to fellowship because they genuinely want their souls to be saved or because they want to do their ‘monkey- things’ also in church as they do elsewhere?

If we do not present the gospel to the youth exactly as it is, then very soon, the latest dance style of very dubious origins will be released in the church room rather than in the dance hall.

The enthusiasm of evangelising the youth must be tempered with the need to preserve the sanctity of the temple, reverence for order, the comportment and deportment of those who leave their homes to go and worship. Greetings!

This article was first published on February 1, 2003