Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Banned by LifeWay, hip-hop artist says white evangelicals don’t get black culture

NewsBob Allen  |  February 8, 2017

A popular hip-hop artist whose album was dropped by Southern Baptist retailer LifeWay Christian Stores after customer complaints says white evangelicals are trying to reach people in urban contexts without understanding their culture.

Sho Baraka

Amisho Baraka Lewis, a 38-year-old Christian hip-hop artist and writer better known by his stage name Sho Baraka, told the Washington Post the Southern Baptist Convention-owned chain dropped his album released last October titled “The Narrative” because of a lyric that contained the word “penis.”

The retail arm of LifeWay Christian Resources has taken similar actions before. In 2012 author Rachel Held Evans said LifeWay refused to sell her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood, most likely because it contained the word “vagina.”

Earlier the publisher stopped selling DVDs of The Blind Side, a secular film chosen for promoting Christian values, after complaints about its use of street language and ethnic slurs.

Baraka said in a 1,750-word story published Feb. 8 that the song about his past failures to live his life monogamously isn’t profane in context. He agrees with the publisher that sex is intended for marriage but said its customers aren’t used to how an artist like him articulates that point of view.

Baraka called LifeWay’s decision “typical of the Christian industry” but said it points to a larger problem between American evangelicals, who are three-quarters white, and an African-American culture often at odds with a Christianity dominated by political conservatives.

The story comes just days before Southern Baptist churches across the nation observe Racial Reconciliation Sunday Feb. 12. Added to the denominational calendar as Race Relations Sunday in 1965, the observance originally celebrated relationships between black and white Baptist denominations but was renamed as the historically white SBC grew more ethnically and racially diverse. Of 50,500 Southern Baptist churches and church-type missions, 3,502 identified as predominantly African American, or about 7 percent, in 2013.

Russell Moore, head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says racial and ethnic division and bigotry are a problem not just in secular society but also in the church.

“The problem is that Sunday morning, when we are signifying to the rest of the world, ‘here is a picture of the Kingdom of God,’ we gather with the same people we would gather with if Jesus Christ were still dead, and that’s blasphemy,” Moore said at a 2015 summit on racial reconciliation.

“What people will say is we’re trying to reach people with the gospel, and people would rather be around people like them,” Moore said. “Sure they would, and I’d like to fight and fornicate and smoke weed and go to heaven.”

Others note that when white people talk about greater diversity in church, they typically assume that means African Americans coming to their churches and not the other way around.

One reason so many African Americans today worship in churches that are historically black, defenders say, is because for much of the 19th and 20th centuries white churches didn’t want them, and today the black church is one of the few remaining institutions both serving and led by African Americans.

Isaac Adams, a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., said in a 2015 article on the 9 Marks website that white churches can be hard for black people in ways that white members do not understand.

While the black church has a long tradition of opposing inequality, Adams said many white Christians won’t acknowledge that racism even exists and don’t want to hear what it feels like to be black. White churches that think they have a safe place for blacks really don’t, he said, and minority blacks can be made to “feel like projects instead of peers.”

Miguel De La Torre, a professor at Illiff School of Theology and columnist for Baptist News Global, says it’s far more useful for whites to come to African-American and Latino churches to hear and learn from those cultures.

“For me to worship at an Anglo church, I must accept white theology, pray in a white manner, sing white German songs and eat meatloaf at the potluck,” De La Torre said in a Religion News Service story in 2015.

Baraka told the Washington Post that LifeWay isn’t consistent in its own policy when it comes to anatomical references. A sex manual for Christian couples stocked by LifeWay, for example, uses the word “penis” 45 times, not counting euphemistic references like “Mr. Happy.”

Baraka said that for all the conservative outcry over political correctness, both sides want to censor voices that don’t fit their narrative.

“The moment someone like me communicates something like this, who’s the one being censored now?” he asked.

Founded by slaveholders in 1845 and largely supportive of segregation before the civil rights movement, the Southern Baptist Convention apologized for its past mistreatment of African Americans in a resolution passed on its 150th anniversary in 1995.

The resolution pledged “to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life” and to pursue “racial reconciliation in all our relationships, especially with our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
Tags:racismLifeway BookstoresSho Baraka
More by
Bob Allen
  • Through the eyes of Mary: Looking at Advent anew

    This is a four-part series written by Julia Goldie Day in which we seek to see anew the incarnation of Jesus through the eyes and body of a woman, Mary the mother of Jesus:

    The blood of Advent
    The pain of Advent

  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Interfaith leaders influenced MLK’s Christian outlook, biographer says

      News

    • National leader of Chi Alpha resigns as sex abuse scandal looms

      News

    • Alabama Supreme Court declines to stop Samford from taking house of former fraternity

      News

    • New study finds Americans agree on issues facing their families but differ greatly on marriage and family in general

      News


    Curated

    • Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

      Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

    • This Palestinian American professor leans on his Quaker faith during conflict

      This Palestinian American professor leans on his Quaker faith during conflict

    • The Episcopal Church reckons with tangled protocol on clergy abuse and accountability

      The Episcopal Church reckons with tangled protocol on clergy abuse and accountability

    • Nearly a quarter of young Brits open to banning the Bible

      Nearly a quarter of young Brits open to banning the Bible

    Read Next:

    Devouring beasts: Advent and the 2024 election

    OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • SBC Executive Committee files amicus brief supporting NAMB against Will McRaney

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • ACE American Insurance Co. denies allegations in Kanakuk’s recent cross claim

      NewsMallory Challis

    • New study finds Americans agree on issues facing their families but differ greatly on marriage and family in general

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Thank you, Jack

      OpinionLayne Wallace

    • A call for immoderate mediators: David Gushee defends democracy from its Christian enemies  

      AnalysisAlan Bean

    • Interfaith leaders influenced MLK’s Christian outlook, biographer says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • National leader of Chi Alpha resigns as sex abuse scandal looms

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Alabama Supreme Court declines to stop Samford from taking house of former fraternity

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Devouring beasts: Advent and the 2024 election

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • New speaker of the House releases select January 6 footage to allow Christians and conservatives to change the narrative

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • If the Sinner’s Prayer is the only way to salvation, why isn’t it in the Bible?

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Journalist’s book explores ‘crack-up of the American evangelical church’

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • I asked for awe: The gift of awe and the path of radical amazement

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Still a high and holy calling      

      OpinionTony Cupit

    • In Botswana, a booming economy lures U.S.-educated pastors home

      NewsAudrey Simango

    • The pain of advent

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • ‘It was futile … nothing will change’

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • Supreme Court declines to reinstate Florida ban on drag shows

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Immigration advocates deplore House Republicans’ effort to tie Ukraine aid to severe border measures

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Big ideas at human size: An interview with Carrie Newcomer

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Even as Biden supports their interest in Israel, white evangelicals disapprove of his job performance

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • As SBC moves toward second vote on Law Amendment, debate continues on just what it means

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • What I learned teaching incarcerated white students about structural racism

      OpinionChris Caldwell

    • Jack Tales: Remembering Jack Causey

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • ACE American Insurance Co. denies allegations in Kanakuk’s recent cross claim

      NewsMallory Challis

    • New study finds Americans agree on issues facing their families but differ greatly on marriage and family in general

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Interfaith leaders influenced MLK’s Christian outlook, biographer says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • National leader of Chi Alpha resigns as sex abuse scandal looms

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Alabama Supreme Court declines to stop Samford from taking house of former fraternity

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New speaker of the House releases select January 6 footage to allow Christians and conservatives to change the narrative

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Journalist’s book explores ‘crack-up of the American evangelical church’

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • In Botswana, a booming economy lures U.S.-educated pastors home

      NewsAudrey Simango

    • Supreme Court declines to reinstate Florida ban on drag shows

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Immigration advocates deplore House Republicans’ effort to tie Ukraine aid to severe border measures

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Even as Biden supports their interest in Israel, white evangelicals disapprove of his job performance

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • As SBC moves toward second vote on Law Amendment, debate continues on just what it means

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Hawks and Felton to lead CBF advocacy efforts

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • 30 years ago, RFRA passed with support from a broad coalition unimaginable today

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Even on January 6, family was important to Mike Pence

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Transitions for the week of 12-1-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • ‘Pastor Johnny’ wins a bid to unseal Guidepost documents

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Tougher border policies will not stop the flow of migrants, immigration experts say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Professors defend Thomas Jefferson from Christian nationalism

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Judge rules discovery may continue in Sillses’ lawsuit against SBC parties

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • She was the only Baptist and only woman fraternal delegate at a Vatican synod

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Darius Rucker dedicates this one to the faith of his mother

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Virginia church took the grief group outside the church

      NewsPeggy Haymes

    • Thank you, Jack

      OpinionLayne Wallace

    • Devouring beasts: Advent and the 2024 election

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • If the Sinner’s Prayer is the only way to salvation, why isn’t it in the Bible?

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • I asked for awe: The gift of awe and the path of radical amazement

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Still a high and holy calling      

      OpinionTony Cupit

    • The pain of advent

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • ‘It was futile … nothing will change’

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • Big ideas at human size: An interview with Carrie Newcomer

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • What I learned teaching incarcerated white students about structural racism

      OpinionChris Caldwell

    • Jack Tales: Remembering Jack Causey

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Are our churches prepared for Christian autocracy?

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Praying in a time of war

      OpinionMartin Thielen

    • The speaker and the Bible

      OpinionJim Harnish

    • Baptists were for separation of church and state before they were against it

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • What happens when the snow melts? Humanizing victims of the war in Gaza with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Hamas’ ‘sexual pogrom’ in Israel

      OpinionJonathan Feldstein

    • ‘Useful idiots’ won’t end the Israel-Hamas war, and neither will a cease-fire

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • The blood of Advent

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • Five truths about church committees and their work

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Tell me about your Christian tattoo

      OpinionMadison Boboltz

    • A generational torch passes at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • The desire for retaliation is a fool’s errand

      OpinionJohn Carter

    • Knowing what we see and remembering what we know

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Two roads diverged in a cold food court

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • What are you wearing to Thanksgiving dinner this year?

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • This Palestinian American professor leans on his Quaker faith during conflict

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Episcopal Church reckons with tangled protocol on clergy abuse and accountability

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Nearly a quarter of young Brits open to banning the Bible

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Las Vegas man accused of threats against Jewish US senator and her family is indicted

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel’s mosaic of Jewish ethnic groups is key to understanding the country

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Influential Detroit pastor the Rev. Charles Gilchrist Adams dies at age 86

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘Jesus’ film producers plan release of new animated version in 2025

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Elon Musk expresses regret for endorsing antisemitic post but swears at advertisers boycotting X over it

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Search For God In A Faithless Nation: Inside One Man’s Journey

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pope Francis asks theologians to ‘demasculinize’ the church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • An Indian official plotted to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in New York, US prosecutors say

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • AP Photos: Church that hosted Rosalynn Carter funeral played key role in her and her husband’s lives

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Stoicism and spirituality: A philosopher explains how more Americans’ search for meaning is turning them toward the classics

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How support for Trump is causing a rift in the evangelical church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • In the US, Hmong ‘new year’ recalls ancestral spirits while teaching traditions to new generations

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Argentina’s president-elect, Javier Milei, visits Lubavitcher rabbi’s grave to offer thanks for his surprise victory

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Canadian Evangelical Scholar Fired Following University Investigation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Top Diplomat Of Ecumenical Patriarchate Delves Into Catholic-Orthodox Relations

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Africa’s Wall Street Quiets Christian Worship

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Houston’s Hindu youth will soon have a summer campsite of their own

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The challenges of being a religious scientist

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Tens of thousands march against antisemitism in London including UK ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why George Santos’ lies are even worse than the usual political lies – a moral philosopher explains

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Democratic Republic Of The Congo Works To Improve Religious Freedom For Christians

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS