"Don't listen to me. We just met. What do I know?"

WORCESTER, MA – DIVERSE CITY. DIVERSE CHURCH?

 

"I'm not delusional. /This most likely is your first experience with me. / Greetings, my name is Propaganda. / I wrote my first rap in '93, simply put: / Fire baptized battle rapper / Who's heavily influenced by folk music and found creative freedom in poetry. / Combo is strange, I know. / But let this one bake your noodle: / I'm the son of a Black Panther / With a Mexican spouse and Caucasian best friends..."

Underground hip-hop artist, Propaganda (aka Jason Petty), provides a provocative introduction to himself on his 2012 album, "Excellent." The combinations of characteristics that make up who he is are powerful. Rapper – Folk Music – Poetry. Black Panther – Mexican – Caucasian. And he doesn't stop there.

"...I know color theory very well. / I have a degree in illustration and intercultural studies / And a teaching credential, yet I rap for a living. / Let that sink in..."

Illustration – Intercultural Studies – Teaching – Rap. In a sense, Propaganda is an avatar for the melting pot of our growing globalized culture. His life represents our best intentions come to life, mixing various people groups, perspectives, passions and platitudes into a potent mix of, well, propaganda?

Because really, do these ingredients that make up Jason come together as smoothly as his poetry in the neighborhoods in our cities? Where do we see the interaction of Black, Mexican, and Caucasian happening? Where is rap appreciated as poetry among the culturally common and elite? And where do we see people not only appreciating, but joyfully interacting with each other in all of the above categories? Besides in this one person, can these elements be reconciled among people, despite our best intentions, and honestly, lackadaisical efforts and practices? How can we raise the people of our culture to a level of relationship that is excellent? 

Prop addresses lowering the standards of culture as well:

"...You know lower standards will lower the culture. / The Roman empire was destroyed because of lower standards and moral decay. / You know they fed each other to lions for entertainment. / Humans, when left to their own devices seem to be hopelessly selfish / And bent on their own destruction. / It seems that unless a power greater than us captures our hearts / Nothing will change that trajectory. / Wealth, knowledge, success seems to only feed the beast. / But don't listen to me. / We just met. / What do I know?"

A Diverse Church in Worcester Has to Keep Jesus in Mind

Is there something great enough to capture our hearts so that – instead of separating from those who are different, and living by the creed that our own wealth, knowledge, or success are the goals above all else – we start diving into the melting pot of our city to serve others? We start opening our homes to those with different skin colors, different incomes, different families, different cultures and see what this potent mix can spring forth into our lives? Is there something or Someone stronger than our drive to self preserve?

"In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ...Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them." – Saint Paul (Galatians 3:28, 2 Corinthians 5:15-19)

Could these words about Jesus be the transformative truth and powerful call-to-action that changes our hearts and compels us to bring people together? 

– Sully

Feel free to connect if your curiosity is piqued, or something inside you is being stirred.