Lil' Wayne and Gang Rape Are At Least First Cousins

I get asked all of the time if it is okay to listen to secular music? My typical answer (depending on the person asking) is that it is okay, given he or she is listening to it redemptively - with the goal to glorify God, through the standard and lens of Scripture, and with the motive of love.

Secular music is extremely powerful, having the ability to steer emotions, transform culture, and motivate millions to do things they otherwise would never do.  Therefore we must not only listen redemptively, but carefully.  More importantly, however, we must not allow our over-desire for "over-cleanliness" to keep us from this redemptive activity.

The work of redemption demands that we come in contact with dirty things - even dirty people.  If we don't, dirty people will die.  If no one had, we would have already died.  Our refusal to learn about the things that harm other people, simply because WE do not struggle with those things, leads us into countless accounts of spiritual malpractice.  It's like refusing to stop a child from smoking crack because you don't want to touch drugs.  

With this said, I want to address some things that I have recently come in contact with, and propose that the two are very related.

While driving down the road the other day, I was listening to the radio and heard the Lil' Wayne's song, "I Just Wanna F**k Every Girl in the World."  Yes, this was on the radio.  If the title has startled you, the lyrics are nothing short of derogatory and explicit verbal pornography.

Place really good music behind those lyrics, and you have a song that makes its way onto public radio.  When confronted, people say things like, "I just like the beat...I don't really listen to what he is saying..."  Sure.  Countless songs from this artist and others are filled with this misogynistic, heinous, image of God hating crap.

Then I read things like this in the news:

In 2009, in Richmond, CA, investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood by and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance.  Even more disturbing was that not one student sought to intervene during the 2.5 hour ordeal.  

In April of 2010, a 15-year-old went to a house party in an apartment complex in Trenton, NJ.  She was accompanied by her 7-year old step-sister.  During the party, the older girl allowed men to have sex with her for money.  Seeing an opportunity to make more money, she began to take offers to touch her younger sister.  This initial molestation quickly turned violent as at least seven men raped the child.  

In March of 2011, The New York Times reported the gang rape of an 11-year-old Texas girl by 18 men ranging in ages from 16 to 28.  

The purpose of this post is to simply state that the music and the news above are not unrelated.  And while we cannot relieve the criminals of their obvious responsibility for their crimes, we should not relieve the arts of their culpability either.  

The constant objectification of women; the constant promotion of the acceptance of such; the constant message that women must act this way to be accepted; and the condoning of all of the above has led to a culture where the grace of God seems to be waning, and where the gospel of redemption seems to be completely absent.  

As Christians we must see the connection and attempt, by whatever means possible (without falling into sin), to bring the fulness of Christ to these dark, related areas of our culture.  The shock of the lyrics and news above should bring color to our doctrine of depravity; it should bring us to our knees; it should send us into the streets with the Good News.  Christians do have something to say.  Nothing but redemption will do.  There is simply too much at stake.

For more on this, I suggest the book called "The Deadest Rapper Alive" by J. Johnson