John Piper Praises Lecrae for Leaving Evangelicalism and Embracing Black Liberation Theology

TLDR version:

Rapper Lecrae gave an interview to Truth’s Table podcast to announce his “divorce from white evangelicalism.” In the interview, he talks about his “soul journey” and “racial identity development work” over the past couple years, his new respect for the murderous Black Panthers, and his embracing of Black Liberation Theology. He praises Dr. Christena Cleveland for setting him off on his new spiritual path.

Who is Christena Cleveland? She’s a Black/Feminist/Queer Liberation Theology professor who says God is a woman, and the Virgin Mary was a “badass womanist liberation theologian.” She also says that the black thugs hurling Molotov cocktails at the police in Ferguson a few years ago were “imaging the justice of God.”

That’s the person whose spiritual insights Lecrae credits for his new path in life. And what does John Piper say about all this? After all, Piper and Lecrae have been very close in the past. You’d think John Piper would be deeply troubled. But on the contrary, Piper says that after listening to the interview, he’s “thankful” and “hopeful” for Lecrae’s new direction, because unlike some young black men frustrated at how hateful white Christians are, Lecrae didn’t throw “the brown baby of Bethlehem out with the white bathwater.”

And that’s not all. John Piper praised the three female hosts of Truth’s Table as “thoughtful.”

The women of Truth’s Table call Malcolm X “Brother Malcolm.”

They refer to the Holy Spirit as either a woman or a tranny.

They invited a well-known abortion rights activist to preach at their church.

On the birthday of Angela Davis, an open lesbian, Black Panthers founder, and almost certainly a murderer, they wished Davis a happy birthday, saying, “Shine, Queen!”

One of them recently tweeted, “Abolish the police.”

These are the women John Piper calls “thoughtful.”

The reason John Piper isn’t troubled by Lecrae’s embrace of Black Liberation Theology is that he embraces much of it himself.

Full article:

The popular “Christian” rapper Lecrae, who has been fawned over by one Christian leader after another for the past several years, just released his latest album, and the other day he sat down for an interview with the Black Liberation Theology podcast, Truth’s Table. They discussed his new album, and how it’s his way of announcing his “divorce from white evangelicalism.” (He didn’t use the word “divorce” himself, but the interviewer did on more than one occasion and he never corrected her.)

In and of itself, this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, as it’s not all uncommon for “Christian” celebrities to leave Christianity behind once they’ve gotten enough fame and fortune that they don’t need to spout phony talk about Jesus anymore. Katy Perry was a “Christian” singer until she decided she could make a lot more money singing about the joys of bisexuality. Many evangelicals can’t stand Colin Kaepernick now, but most have forgotten that just a few years ago he was another popular “Christian” celebrity. Back in June, the Babylon Bee published a satirical article, “Christian Rapper To Stop Talking About Jesus The Moment He Gets Whiff Of Fame, Fortune”, which was obviously aimed at Lecrae. So it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that Lecrae would leave evangelicalism behind. In fact, on Lecrae’s latest single from his album, he basically just comes right out and says he was just waiting until he had made a lot of money to tell his white Christian fan base to get lost:

I was waitin’ for the right time to tell y’all how I feel

And, yeah, I know that it hurts, but look, it’s gon’ heal.

I waited ’til I was on prime time before I let y’all know.

And you prolly won’t wanna hear my music no mo’

In the interview, however, Lecrae made it clear that he’s not giving up on religion. Yes, he’s leaving evangelicalism, but he’s embracing Black Liberation Theology. No, he doesn’t come out and actually use that term, but that’s to be expected – all the Black Liberation Theology proponents who are active in infiltrating evangelicalism always deny that they’re preaching Black Liberation Theology (they usually call it “racial reconciliation”). I’m not going to transcribe the episode (which you can listen to here) but just the fact that he agreed to be interviewed by Truth’s Table is pretty much all you need to know. The cover of his new album aptly represents in a photograph what he talks about on the podcast – his “soul journey” along the path of “racial identity development work.” In Black Liberation Theology, light is evil, and darkness is good, and on the cover Lecrae is pictured turning his back on the light and stepping into the darkness.

Lecrae not only agreed to be interviewed on Truth’s Table; he’s also a huge fan of their apostasy. He said he listens to all their shows, and asks the women for book recommendations. On his new single, “Facts”, he samples a female preacher throughout the track. The female preacher is none other than Ekemini Uwan, one of the three co-hosts of Truth’s Table. The audio samples are taken from another episode of Truth’s Table, which was all about Malcolm X, in which they call him “Brother Malcolm.” (Uwan recently earned a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. She says now that during the entire time she was at WTS, she was “oppressed” because she’s black. The “oppression” must have been terrible, because Westminster Theological Seminary gave her the 2015 Greene Prize in Apologetics Award. WTS should be proud. How long before they name a building after Mumia Abu-Jamal?)

During the interview, Lecrae talks about growing up with a mother who was a black radical, who loved Malcolm X and Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver. If you’re not familiar with Eldridge Cleaver, he was the Black Panther who wrote Soul On Ice, which is all about “identification as a black soul which has been ‘colonized’… by an oppressive white society that projects its brief, narrow vision of life as eternal truth.” The book is divided into four sections, one of which is promoting Black Liberation Theology. Here’s a passage from the book, where Cleaver discusses his love of raping white women. He says he started off raping black women, because it was easier, as rape is just part and parcel of everyday life in the inner city, but once he had enough practice, he moved up to his real target:

I started out practicing on black girls in the ghetto where dark and vicious deeds appear not as aberrations or deviations from the norm, but as part of the sufficiency of the evil of a day. When I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically. Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women. I felt I was getting revenge.

Lecrae says that the man who wrote this was one of his mom’s heroes, and that when he became a Christian he assumed he had to turn his back on that stuff, clearly implying that he now realizes that that wasn’t necessary. In fact, on the song “Facts” linked to above, he defends the Black Panthers, saying he knows white people call them terrorists, but he remembers them differently:

You grew up thinkin’ that the Panthers was some terrorists
I grew up hearin’ how they fed my momma eggs and grits

And he now speaks the language of Cleaver, saying on the podcast that white evangelicalism is a perversion of the true faith, “which has been colonized and stripped away and made to be very Western and Eurocentric.” He said he worked hard to ensure that his album reflected his new understanding, and he said after he finished recording the album, he went on vacation to Egypt. Why Egypt? Because he simply had to get away from white people for a while. He considered going to South Africa, but decided against it, because it still has too much “Dutch influence.”

He told the listeners that what initially set him off on his “soul journey” was the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson. He says that Brown, who was rightfully shot after he attacked a police officer and tried to take his gun, was “murdered”, and when his white fans weren’t as outraged as he was at the “murder” of Brown, it was a “shock to my system” and a “visceral awakening.” He began reading a lot of books by black authors like Ta-Nahesi Coates and the homosexual Communist James Baldwin.

But he says the real turning point was when he encountered the “riveting” and “challenging” words of Dr. Christena Cleveland about this same time, who told the Washington Post that Lecrae could be more effective and potent, “but right now I was like an evangelical mascot. And God bless her for that. I value people who can be direct and upfront. And that, for me, was just so riveting and challenging that I had to take a look at myself and I had to process, you know, who I was. And it was a long journey, a lot of depression, a lot of identity struggles, but I’m better on the other side. I’m much better.”

So who is Christena Cleveland, whose “riveting” and “challenging” words caused Lecrae to embark on his “soul journey” of “racial identity development work”? (Not to be confused with Christina Edmondson, one of the three co-hosts of Truth’s Table, and wife of Black Liberation Theology OPC pastor Mika Edmondson.) Christena Cleveland is a Black/Feminist/Queer Liberation Theology professor at Duke Divinity School. She preaches at apostate churches all across America.

She preached with another Truth’s Table co-host, PCA preacher Michelle Higgins, at the big evangelical Urbana conference a few years ago. (They both preached on Black Liberation Theology and the evils of white people, but Higgins got more attention for saying that white Christians need to stop obsessing about abortion and start speaking up for black thugs and copkillers.)

When Cleveland’s not denouncing white Christians for “racism”, she’s denouncing them for “homophobia.” It’s not clear if she’s homosexual herself, but there’s reason to believe she is. She’s a woman preacher, she looks like a lesbian, and she never talks about a boyfriend or husband, but only refers to “my significant other” without mentioning a name.

Cleveland doesn’t just teach at a seminary and preach; she also writes quite a bit. In her article “The Cross and the Molotov Cocktail,” written after blacks tried to burn down Ferguson, Missouri, she explained that the young black males hurling Molotov cocktails at the police were a bit misguided in their efforts, but we must still recognize that what they were doing was “imaging” Christ to an unjust America, even if they weren’t doing so “perfectly.”

Can you see the suffering Christ in the oppressed, even the ones who aren’t responding perfectly to society’s oppression? Christ doesn’t just suffer for the innocent, the ones who don’t have the energy to fight back, or the ones who perfectly respond to injustice. He suffers for the ones who suffer now and sin in their suffering.

And make no mistake, our God is a God of justice. The young black men who launch Molotov cocktails at the police are misappropriating God’s justice by taking it into their own hands, but the rage they feel is the rage that God feels towards injustice. In a sense, they are imaging forth God’s justice to an unjust world.

Nice. Lecrae recently denounced some old white guys for wearing their baseball caps sideways, while the woman he credits for his new spiritual outlook says that blacks hurling Molotov cocktails at the police are “imaging God’s justice.”

That pretty much sums up Black Liberation Theology in a nutshell.

And, oh yeah, Lecrae’s new spiritual mentor also says that God is a girl. And the Virgin Mary was a “bad-ass womanist liberation theologian.” A few months ago, Cleveland decided that since the Episcopal Church Morning Prayer is too patriarchal, and since it also “marginalizes” women and trannies, she and her lover would rewrite it to be more inclusive:

As an adult I’ve come to love and savor the practice of Anglican/Episcopal Morning Prayer. The breadth of the prayers, the stillness of heart that the practice cultivates and the dally repetition of praises help to awaken my soul to the essence and movement of God. However, since the practice (and much of the wording) dates back to the 16th century, it is laden with patriarchal language that excludes the feminine aspects of God and marginalizes people who do not identify as men. (Unfortunately, many contemporary prayer practices and worship songs tend to err in these ways as well).

So, my significant other and I drafted an inclusive morning prayer. Drawing from the Book of Common Prayer, Enriching Our Worship, The Inclusive Bible translation, and various prayers, creeds and canticles written by women, we set out to create a morning prayer practice that honors the Anglican/Episcopal tradition but is also gender and class inclusive. We hope it nourishes you as it has nourished us.

Here’s the “Creeds” part of the Morning Prayer. The first one was written by a woman named Sarah Moon, while the second is apparently the work of Cleveland and her “significant other.”

CREEDS (CHOOSE ONE OF TWO):

God Our Mother Bear (by Sarah Moon)

I believe in God, our Mother Bear, source of all being.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s wisdom made flesh,
along with Sophia, the church, and all that live in wisdom. Born of the bad-ass womanist liberation theologian, Mary, suffered under the systems of oppression of this world, was crucified, died, and was buried,
forever joining in solidarity with those murdered by Empire.

On the third day, the women declared him risen;
signifying God’s “No” to oppression.
Jesus points to God our Mother Bear,
who works in this world, calling for justice for the poor and oppressed. I believe in Sophia Spirit, Christ’s body, the church,
the communion of saints,
the grace to reject this world’s systems, hope for justice in the future,
and renewed life everlasting. Amen.

……..

God our Mother

We believe in the presence of God in the world. She is our mother, source of deep wisdom, who: holds and protects us,
nourishes our bodies, comforts our pain,
hears and accepts our times of failure and success.

She is our lover and is allowed to touch our pain: healing and recreating,
seeking out what is hidden,
revealing deep precious mysteries.

She is our friend who stands alongside us: working co-operatively for the common good, sharing our concerns,
fiercely criticizing our lack of integrity

We believe in the presence of God in our world.
We meet her as people met her in Jesus, in countless relationships
which are at once human and divine:
in simple encounters with all people,
in office and schoolroom, home and supermarket,
in the community of her people.
We believe in the presence of God in our world,
whose truth is denied, in anguish, like that of Jesus on the cross, whenever:
food is withheld,
the earth is poisoned, abused or destroyed,
people are oppressed, denied dignity and responsibility, tortured or killed.
Together we affirm the truth and goodness of God, our mother, lover and friend and commit ourselves to her in following the way of our brother Jesus.

So what’s John Piper got to say about all this? As one of the evangelical leaders who’s been the most outspoken in promoting “Christian rap” and has also been very influential with many of the rappers themselves (one of Lecrae’s earliest songs was named after a famous Piper sermon), and who has been fawning over Lecrae in particular for years, you’d think he’d be deeply troubled.

But John Piper isn’t troubled at all. In fact, he thinks this is just terrific. He wrote the other day about the Lecrae interview with Truth’s Table, and he said that after listening to it he’s “thankful” and “hopeful” about Lecrae’s new spiritual path, because unlike many young black men frustrated at how hateful white Christians are, Lecrae hasn’t thrown “the brown baby of Bethlehem out with the white bathwater.”

Do you see yet why I respond to Lecrae’s “identity development work” with thankfulness? I know young men whose disillusionment with “white evangelicalism” was not as painful as Lecrae’s, and yet they threw the brown baby of Bethlehem out with the white bathwater. They’re done with Christianity. Done with the Bible. Done with Jesus — except the one they create to fit their present political mood. That could have been Lecrae. It could be you.

It is possible that his story could have been Damascus Road in reverse. Beloved champion becomes bitter challenger. Poster boy turns into arch opponent. Mascot morphs into muckraker. It didn’t happen. I don’t think it will happen. Lecrae is not an adolescent. His faith is not secondhand. I am thankful for that. Very thankful.

No, John Piper isn’t bothered that Lecrae now looks to Christena Cleveland for spiritual guidance, or that he now believes that there’s no conflict between the Black Panthers and Christianity. He thinks it’s just great. Why? Because, when you get right down do it, there’s really not much difference between John Piper and Christena Cleveland. Piper may not be as far down the road as Cleveland, but he’s on the same path. In this response to Lecrae, Piper calls the hosts of Truth’s Table “thoughtful women.” Here are a few gems from these deep thinkers:

As noted above, they devoted an episode of their podcast to Malcolm X. Throughout the podcast, and in the episode’s description, they refer to him as “Brother Malcolm.”

Rev. William Barber is a well-known abortion rights activist. In April 2014, he was honored for his pro-abortion efforts by Planned Parenthood. Just a few months later, in August 2014, Truth’s Table co-host and PCA preacher Michelle Higgins invited Barber to preach at her South City Church in St. Louis. (And John Piper is always going on about how abortion is “black genocide” perpetrated by “white racists.”)

Michelle Higgins says the Holy Spirit is a “her” and a tranny:

Any scripture about the Trinity – If we ask the question “what is Justice?” we are given a picture of it in the Trinity. These persons are equal in power and significance, equal in honor, and all worthy to be praised, and never fight for power or attention. The dance of the Trinity is a picture of justice. And the Holy Spirit, who is with us now and is the person who runs the church, receives very little credit for his – or Her! – work. Jesus and God the Father have a multitude of songs about them, and recognition given to them, but the Holy Spirit is so secure in their own divinity that they do not raise their voice. And this is a picture of the possibility before us: if we can dance with our transgender friends, our recovering white supremacist friends, those we think are so different from us, and not demand to be the center of the story, we will live out Justice.

On January 26^th, on their Twitter account, the “thoughtful women” of Truth’s Table wished Angela Davis a happy birthday, saying, “Shine, Queen!”

Shine, Queen! #AngelaTaughtUs https://t.co/3AKr6NYboy

— TruthsTable (@TruthsTable) January 26, 2017

Angela Davis is an open lesbian. She was also one of the founders of the Black Panthers.

She is also almost certainly a murderer.

In 1970, Davis was still heterosexual, and her black boyfriend, George Jackson, was in San Quentin prison. A couple days before several of his prison buddies were to attend a court hearing, Davis bought a bunch of guns and gave them to her boyfriend’s brother. The brother then showed up at the hearing, pulled a gun, gave his other guns to the inmates, and they took the judge and the District Attorney and three jurors hostage (all five where white). As they made their getaway, they shot the judge in the head with one of the guns Davis had provided them, killing him. In the police shootout, three other people were killed.

Davis was charged with murder, but fled the state and went into hiding. She was captured a few months later, but like OJ Simpson, she got a sympathetic jury (made up of San Francisco area liberals) and walked away scot-free. The United Presbyterian Church donated $10,000 to Davis’s defense fund (the equivalent of $60,000 today), which was organized by the Communist Party. The denomination also donated $25,000 ($150,000 today) to the Black Panthers. The UPC’s support of Angela Davis and the Black Panthers in the guise of fighting “racial injustice” was one of the main factors that led to Christians leaving the denomination and forming new ones. And now, in 2017, some of these very same “conservative” Presbyterians are rallying around Angela Davis, and John Piper is “thankful” and “hopeful” that Lecrae is defending Davis and the Panthers on his new album.

Finally, just in case people still don’t understand just how deeply the Truth’s Table women hate our white Christian way of life, and what Black Liberation Theology is really all about, the other day Michelle Higgins made it plain and clear, when she tweeted, “Abolish the police.”