Comments on: The Next Big Things http://kev.elbowroomdesign.com/106/the-next-big-things/ improvising ideas and inspiring change Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:41:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Harrison http://kev.elbowroomdesign.com/106/the-next-big-things/comment-page-1/#comment-99 Harrison Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:12:18 +0000 http://kev.elbowroomdesign.com/106/the-next-big-things/#comment-99 That video is sweet. Man, I love Saul Williams. The guy is, essentially, exactly what I think I would have become if I didn't choose Christianity. Saul Williams' thoughts regarding the intersection between hip hop and poetry are spot on. Not all rappers are poets, but some are, and Saul Williams is at the top of this brittle intersection, along with rappers like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Sage Francis, and the like. I agree with him there. I agree that our dual love and hate of the feminine is at the root of hip hop in the same way that it was at the root of fantasy literature, Moby Dick, Romanticism, and everything else. Braggadocio means the power to control the real world and shut out anything that would threaten your supposed firm grip, but the feminine represents the otherworld, the mystical, the unnatural, the magical, the mystical, the wonderful . . . these things threaten power because they cannot be grasped. So we hate them. I agree with Saul Williams on this. What I do not agree with, and never have, is his understanding of the church, the trinity, and God. He is willing to call God both god and goddess, but he doesn't realize that God is a genderless deity. We recognize him as a father because we need to, frankly, but he frustrates us because he simultaneously represents the feminine. Those who follow the Bible are not inherently woman-haters. They are inherently human, and Saul Williams has, in this same letter, explained why this is problematic. Cut us some slack. We breath the same air as those who don't follow the Bible. Jesus was not a Christian, but his followers are indeed his. Jesus loves us, has fellowship with us, and expects that we will love his followers as well, even when they are as far from "getting it" as Peter. I wish Saul Williams could understand that Christians are never really gonna get it. But they'll try. When they fail, it's not because they're Christian, it's because they're human, and if they read a little closer, Jesus beseeched them to sacrifice that humanity fully in order to follow him properly. So no, religion is not my problem, Saul Williams. I am. That video is sweet.

Man, I love Saul Williams. The guy is, essentially, exactly what I think I would have become if I didn’t choose Christianity.

Saul Williams’ thoughts regarding the intersection between hip hop and poetry are spot on. Not all rappers are poets, but some are, and Saul Williams is at the top of this brittle intersection, along with rappers like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Sage Francis, and the like. I agree with him there.

I agree that our dual love and hate of the feminine is at the root of hip hop in the same way that it was at the root of fantasy literature, Moby Dick, Romanticism, and everything else. Braggadocio means the power to control the real world and shut out anything that would threaten your supposed firm grip, but the feminine represents the otherworld, the mystical, the unnatural, the magical, the mystical, the wonderful . . . these things threaten power because they cannot be grasped. So we hate them. I agree with Saul Williams on this.

What I do not agree with, and never have, is his understanding of the church, the trinity, and God. He is willing to call God both god and goddess, but he doesn’t realize that God is a genderless deity. We recognize him as a father because we need to, frankly, but he frustrates us because he simultaneously represents the feminine. Those who follow the Bible are not inherently woman-haters. They are inherently human, and Saul Williams has, in this same letter, explained why this is problematic. Cut us some slack. We breath the same air as those who don’t follow the Bible.

Jesus was not a Christian, but his followers are indeed his. Jesus loves us, has fellowship with us, and expects that we will love his followers as well, even when they are as far from “getting it” as Peter. I wish Saul Williams could understand that Christians are never really gonna get it. But they’ll try. When they fail, it’s not because they’re Christian, it’s because they’re human, and if they read a little closer, Jesus beseeched them to sacrifice that humanity fully in order to follow him properly. So no, religion is not my problem, Saul Williams.

I am.

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