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Thomas Gross

Recent Sermons

Read a $%&* Book! (Blog)

Eph 4:29

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
NASU

READ A BLANKETY-BLANK BOOK!

Jesus said that Satan is a liar and the inventor of lies. So no one would know how to lie better than he, or be more effective at it. Once a person comes to the light of the knowledge of the word of God, Satan's lies become easier for that person to spot. Only those people caught up in Satan's darkness are not able to see the lies that he has perpetrated upon mankind to deceive.

One example is that of the most recent development at BET where the station is apparently attempting to influence young black children to read by using a PSA rap song performed by Bomani "D'mite" Armah to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that is full of vulgar and offensive lyrics. Just to give you an idea, here is the first line of this "song":

Read a book, read a book, read a m*****f*****' book.

My main issues with this foolishness is found in two statements quoted in an internet article by Warner Todd Huston. (The link can be found at the end of this article). The first statement is by the rapper D'mite himself. He is quoted as saying,

"See, I used to do songs with hooks and concepts and (expletive deleted), right? Well, (expletive deleted) that, I'm trying to go blacker!"

Here is what appalls me. He associates his pig-sty form of uncreative entertainment as being "blacker" - as if this is what black people are supposed to be. Thus, he has defined all blacks by his putrefying and corrupt standards. Excuse me, Mr. Armah, but speak for yourself and your own gutter-like thinking. Instead, say that you are going to be more ignorant, more vile, or baser-but not blacker. If you insist that your style of vulgarity is "black" as if that is the way blacks must be in order to really be black (how stupid!), then call me "colored". And just for the record, such a putrid presentation is not "blacker" - it's "eviler" and "wickeder". (Bad grammar intended).

The second statement with which I have an issue is found in a review of this PSA by Eugene Williams Jr. that can be found quoted in Warner Huston's article. The link to that article which is too long to be inserted here can also be found at the site of the link below. In his review, Mr. Williams writes:

"Mr. Armah has cleverly given black American youth the positive message they need without sounding corny or preachy. He is telling our young people what they need to hear. Quiet as its kept, Mr. Armah is simply telling us to do all the things that Bill Cosby is trying to tell us to do, only in a different more "hood-palatable" format. If our church and community leaders can get past the explicit language and take time to listen to the timely and ironically positive message, this song will do for the black community what rap was originally intended to do!!!"

Sadly, Mr. Williams has also bought into the false Satanic notion that this is the way young blacks are supposed to behave and speak which is evidenced by his "hood palatable" comment. Now when he talks about "church and community leaders", he is stepping on my toes and has brought me into the fray. So you are telling me that a kid cannot hear truth that will ultimately help him or her just because it's "preachy?" Intelligent kids will be insulted at the insinuation that they can't learn what is good through conventional measures. Later in his review he talks about the "church getting past the explicit language" used in the PSA. What he does not understand is that church leaders are not the only ones who have a problem with profanity. God Himself is not happy with this kind of communication either and we church leaders simply follow His lead. Our desire is to please Him and not ourselves or anyone else. Neither Mr. Williams or "D'mite" realize that sin will eventually get people thrown into an eternally burning hellfire, and that the time will come when those so condemned will realize that profanity (or any sin) , was absolutely not worth it and that Jesus' dying on the cross really did mean something special for mankind.

Another thing Mr. Williams does not realize is that rap is doing what it was always intended to do. It is an instrument of Satan to destroy people by imprisoning them into its philosophy by its rhythmic hypnotic grasp. As a result, children are more openly vulgar, and some parents are okay with that. Some parents even encourage or abet their children's vulgarity by the musical genre. Don't argue with me here. I've seen it. Some of these parents have resigned themselves to the idea that their kids are sold on the hip-hop brand of immorality and that if it is what they like, then it is okay with them because it's their phase that they are going through. Thus, hip-hop has popularized and glamorized violence, racism, debasing of women, murder, death, drugs, rebellion, stupidity, slovenliness, thuggery, and prison life, along with the new aspiration of wanting to be a rapper as a sole occupational goal. Of course, every kid knows that one does not need any education at all in order to pursue that goal, so many of those who are desirous of that pursuit are mental and intellectual drop-outs, and are consequentially accomplishing what Satan's lies are intended to produce through rap to the glee and delight of ol' Lucifer himself.

Satan has fed those lies into many in this society about the assumed nature of blacks via this genre of music, and in true oxymoronic fashion, a rap now attempts to encourage black children to read and become more intelligent by its typically unintelligent form after it has already implied to children that they do not need any more education in order to live the "black" lifestyle.

Warner Todd Huston's article can be found at: therant.us/culture_war.htm. Then scroll down to the article link entitled; BET TV Playing a PSA Telling Kids to 'Read a Mo F'n Book'?