Lecrae loses tour date after tweeting that he’s done with 'institutional, corporatized' Christianity
Reach Records founder Lecrae revealed that he and his team lost one of their tour dates this spring after sharing an honest tweet about deconstructing from “politicized” and “corporatized” modern church culture.
“Once upon a time I thought I was done with Christianity. But the reality was I was just done with the institutional, corporatized, gentrified, politicized, culturally exclusive version of it,” the popular emcee tweeted on Tuesday.
The following day, Lecrae re-shared his tweet and wrote: “Just lost a show because of this tweet. Point proven.”
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The Grammy award-winning artist added: “Vulnerability gets people kicked out of exclusive tribes. Jesus welcomes the outcast and seeks to bring healing.”
Just lost a show because of this tweet. Point proven. ??????????? pic.twitter.com/5c2nkqCw8a
— Lecrae (@lecrae) January 19, 2022
In recent years, some notable Christian figures have claimed they are deconstructing from Christianity altogether after experiencing doubts about their faith. Lecrae admits that he also had to do some soul searching after feeling so abused by fellow Christians in 2017.
That season almost made him walk away from his Christian faith. However, the rapper sought out on a journey to reconstruct his faith. Now his relationship with Christ is stronger than ever.
“What inspired the tweet was that a few people that I know this year, who’ve been professing Christians for years, have decided they no longer claim Christianity,” Lecrae told The Christian Post, speaking of his recent “once upon a time” tweet.
“I just thought to myself, ‘Man, I know that feeling.’ But sometimes we throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I wanted to just encourage people that, ‘Hey, I know where you’re [at], what you’re feeling. But sometimes the problem is not with the faith; it’s with the distortions of the faith,’” he continued.
The Texas native is gearing up for the “We Are Unashamed” Tour coming nationwide this spring.
“It was actually a tour date” that was canceled following his comments on Christianity, Lecrae revealed.
“Not only did it affect me, it affected all the artists on the tour,” he told CP.
Despite losing some support, the entertainer said many others have been reaching out wishing to rebook the date.
When responding to why he thought a Christian venue would back out on him following his tweet, Lecrae said he believes it was because they have the wrong idea about him. He did not disclose the venue that canceled his tour date.
“I think people have a lot of assumptions about me, some of the things that they’ve seen, really it’s been rumors,” he described. “There’s been so many rumors about me that people look at everything that I post like a confirmation of a rumor.”
Lecrae received much criticism when he was a featured performer at a December 2020 event in Atlanta called “Get Out the Early Vote Rally & Concert,” co-hosted by pro-choice Democrat Raphael Warnock during a contentious U.S. Senate election runoff. Warnock was elected Georgia’s first black U.S. senator the following month. Lecrae said the performance at the event is still having an effect to this day, he maintained.
“Whether that is that I’m supporting candidates that they don’t like, which I’ve never publicly supported any candidate, but whatever it may be, they look at anything I post as a confirmation of a rumor they’ve heard versus getting clarification from me,” he noted.
To those that have specifically booked him for an event, Lecrae insisted, “you can definitely reach out to me for clarification.”
Despite the lost booking, Lecrae has amassed 30,000 likes between the two tweets. The message has received support from athletes and celebrities alike.
Lecrae recently teamed up with his labelmate 1K Phew to release a new album titled, No Church in a While. Although he is done with the institution of cultural Christianity, Lecrae assured that he still believes in the Church.
“It definitely doesn’t mean we don’t believe in church, we just acknowledging the conversations that have been happening, that people aren’t going [to church],” he declared. “Whether that’s because of the pandemic, whether they no longer want to go to that building or gathering, we wanted to talk about it and talk about some of the reasons why people feel that way, some of the reasons why we felt that way, and just have an honest dialogue in music.”
1K Phew and the label head want to “definitely reach people who don’t go to church, who don’t understand or can’t relate.”
“This is reaching into the community,” Lecrae said. “There’s lots of people who don’t go for multiple reasons, and we just want to be a voice for those individuals.”
Along with the “We Are Unashamed Tour” announcement, Lecrae and his crew released a three-song EP of the same name.
The performer said it is “three songs that represent what we are about at Reach Records: 116 [rap group] is Romans 1:16, ‘We’re unashamed of the Gospel, the power of God for salvation.’”
Jeannie Ortega Law is a reporter for The Christian Post. Reach her at: jeannie.law@christianpost.com She's also the author of the book, What Is Happening to Me? How to Defeat Your Unseen Enemy Follow her on Twitter: @jlawcp Facebook: JeannieOMusic
