Of Poets and Pastors

For a good while now, because of some really bad religious experiences and poor examples of good religion, our culture has openly rejected the idea of “religion.” Openly religious people and their organizations have done terrible things to people and society has responded by saying “keep your religion.” In response, Christianity came up with clever bumper sticker quotes like “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship” and “I hate religion but I love Jesus.” Lately, there has been this growing sentiment that Jesus “came to stop religion.” and “Jesus hates religion.” But you CAN NOT read scripture and come to the conclusion that God hates religion. 

By most definitions, Jesus was a RELIGIOUS man. He went to synagogue every Sabbath - like a good religious Jew, He prayed regularly - like a good religious Jew, He even taught others religion, He gave money and did all the good religious stuff that good religious people did. What He DIDN’T do was be hypocritical, loveless, self-serving and more for the sake of keeping His pet-project traditions alive. 

When you look through scripture, there is never a knock on religion in general. The knock is always specifically on BAD religion. Let’s look at a few examples. This isn’t an exhaustive list of every reference to religion, but here are a few: 

“These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” - Colossians 2:23 

So the problem isn’t religion but rather SELF-MADE religion. Let’s look at more

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. - James 1:26

So the problem again isn’t religion, but rather a TYPE of religion that is worthless. But let’s look at this

 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. - James 1:27

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father…” - if Jesus came to stop religion, then this statement alone would be irrelevant to the scriptures and genuine spirituality. If Jesus came to stop it, then it couldn’t be pure before God could it? Of course not. 

Hypocrites who didn’t practice what they preached were the problem. People who put their own interests above those of other people and masked it as spirituality were the problem. People who put their own traditions above God’s word were the problem. People served any and everything BUT God in the name of God were the problem. Christ-less service of Christ was the problem. Bad religion was the problem. Not religion itself and to state anything other wise is to make a claim that scripture itself doesn’t make. 

Now, some of this stuff I hear actually comes from a greater sense of being more gospel centered in our ideas about faith & what Christianity should look like. I love the fact that people are having a renewed emphasis in the Gospel. At the same time, let’s not DE-EMPHASIZE other things that are good in order to get there. Let’s not pander to the self-righteousness of the masses by essentially saying “I’m greater than those religious people” as if to be religious is bad. It creates a whole different kind of self-righteousness. I even hear Christians saying “Religion has caused war.” Has it? Or have people attempting to either assert their power or take power from others then cleverly veiled it in religion started war? And why do we say that as IF irreligious people have never started wars?! Hitler’s lack of religion SURELY didn’t appear to be the answer now did it? 

Religion is not bad, bad religion is. Jesus didn’t come to END religion but rather to assert Himself at its proper place  - with Him at the center of it. Sure, its easy to throw out the baby with the bath water and throw out “religion” with “those religious people.” I have had HORRIBLE experiences with those same people, churches, pastors and the like  and it kept me from Christ for a long time. I was hostile towards Christians because of it. I get it. But instead of joining those who would bash the Church for some of her tainted pasts, how about we show what genuine religion IS in light of what we’ve been shown.

And if you’re reading this and you’ve been hurt by people who claim to represent God and they did the EXACT opposite of what you know you should’ve seen, I’m sorry. I pray for your comfort, peace and joy to be restored in Him. I pray that God would do the same thing for you that King David prayed for himself in the Psalm where he asked God to “restore the joy” of his salvation. 

Let me start from the top - Jay Z and  Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne” is an ICONIC piece for the 21st century. 

“Steve, that is a BOLD statement bro!”

You’re right. It is. And I stand by it. Before you shoot me down or build me a mansion, allow me to explain.

What I am NOT saying is WTT is the best album you’ve ever heard. What I’m not saying is Jay Z cemented his position as the greatest rapper alive with this album. What I’m not saying is this album is the rap version of “Thriller” or Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” I’m not even saying its the second coming of “BluePrint” or “College Dropout.” Lyrically, you’ve heard better, heck, you’ve even heard better from them. But In this post I won’t argue or discuss the musical and lyrical merits of this album. Yet I contend that this album is iconic.

Why? Because of the content and the context into which it was released.

This album at its core are the creative musings of 2 men wrestling with an idol that they most likely don’t even realize they worship. These men aren’t alone at bowing at the feet of the idol they are dealing with. In fact, I would contend much of our culture is unknowingly bowing its knee to the same god day after day. Humanity has wrestled with this thing since the beginning and it hasn’t gone away. Its rearing its head today with its sanctuary full of worshippers offering sacrifices and complete devotion to it. And Watch the Throne gives us insight into not just the 2 men dealing with this idol and all its demands, pleasures and pains, but it also gives us sneak peek into the hearts of millions of others dealing with the same idol. This album is a full blown treatise about the pains and pleasure of pursuing the idol of power. And for that very reason, its iconic.

I don’t believe that power is a bad thing. Its a thing. Neither good or bad. But what would it look like if we put all of the things that represent power to average westerner today - religion, sex, money, fame, status - and we took arguably the 2 biggest stars of urban music and had them make an album reflecting the culture’s inner most thoughts about them on record. 

“human beings in a mob, what’s mob to a king? What’s a king to god? What’s a god to a non-believer? Who don’t believe in anything,”

the opening lines of the album muse. Succinctly they sum up the average person’s thoughts on God and their position with Him. The struggle between humans and God has always been a matter of power. The first book of the Jewish and Christian scriptures tell of the original temptation being rooted in that very battle. “You will not surely die. For God knows the day you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God…” God is holding back power from you - its the original temptation and we’ve wrestled with it ever since. But its been a long time since someone was able to word it so succinctly and so creatively for the masses. So the album begins with the idea that if I don’t believe then a god has no power over me, thus giving me supreme power to wield at my whim. Kanye asserts his power in verse 2 “You will not control the threesome….we formed a new religion, no sin as long as there’s permission.” That’s power. But if the pseudo religious metaphors of power don’t get you, Kanye ends his verse on the song dealing with the loss of power the way many of us do - by pretending to show that we have all the power by spending. “When we die the money we can’t keep and we probably spend it all cuz the pain aint cheap.”

The power plays continue throughout the album in songs like “Who Gon Stop Me” & “What You Need.” The duo also shows that power is more than religious or monetary. Its also found in the form of possessing women. This has been a tricky form of expression to the idol of power because we admire beauty but when we try to possess beauty for our own pleasure and contain and control it, then often we are trying to use that beauty for own power. Listen closely to the lyrics of “That’s My B—ch” where they don’t just talk about the beauty of women, but they talk about displaying the beauty in a museum type setting and then declaring “that’s MY b—ch.” Not just a “b—ch” but mine. Possessive. Power. 

The duo switches it up the idol worship on us on one song. They reflect the culture’s power plays in a much more subtle, more positive way on the song “Murder to Excellence.” In it, they lament the murder rate in the black community. “Paper read murder, black on black murder” Kanye wails on the track. Murder, the ultimate power play on another person is denounced and in the second half of the song Jay and Ye ask them to trade one form of power worship with another - the pursuit of excellence and the persona of perfect. Status. From slaying to status - trade one pursuit of power for another. A noble request don’t you think? The idol of power is never satisfied but atleast we can agree that murder is not a good thing. That is unless your pursuit of excellence causes you to kill, right? Power is an idol with a vicious life cycle.

But there are moments when the worshiper turns from its idol and shares its still broken life despite all the things the god of power provides.  On “New Day” the duo tells of the dangers and pitfalls they’ve encountered while chasing power and they warn their unborn sons of those dangers. They lament the sacrifices they’ve made for the god of power and hope their offspring never follow in that same path. Power, when elevated to the status of deity, is a hard taskmaster and Jay and ‘Ye in a moment of honesty reflect on the pain that power has brought them.

So why does this make “Watch the Throne” iconic? Because the idol of power is perched up very high in the hearts of so many in our culture. We live in an era when power is seemingly stripped from so many in the way of joblessness, lower incomes, home foreclosures, school closings, economic crisis, natural disasters, etc. And when the power is stripped from us, our desire to hold on to it has become more than just a pursuit of improvement, its become a cultural idol and currently there is no other album that masterfully captures the heart of an entire era like “Watch the Throne.” 

Any album that has captured the heart of the people and reflected it back to them has been iconic. The Beetles did it. Bob Marley did it. Tupac did it. And now, Jay and Kanye have done it. The idol of power is perched high atop our culture today and this album captures the essence of the casual worshipper in its most subtle form. Its the prevalent god bring worshiped in this culture in our era and “Watch the Throne” captures its worship cleverly. But be careful before you say “tsk, tsk, tsk” because unless you become aware of it, you too may have areas in your life that has quietly yet defiantly bowed its knee to the god of power. But as they mused on the opening song “what’s a god to a non-believer?” You may not be a “believer” in the god of power, but you may be involved in its worship despite your incessant claims to the contrary. 

What’s the solution? Where is it found? I’m convinced that its found in the gospel but that’s a post for another day.

Work inspires inspiration. Keep working. If you succeed, keep working. If you fail, keep working. If you’re interested, keep working. If you’re bored, keep working.

MICHAEL CRICHTON