Lecrae: Self Righteous Christian Rappers Adopt 'Ameri-Christianity, Not Authentic Eastern Mindset'
Lecrae has often said he doesn't want to be labeled as a Christian rapper, but set out to explain why some Christian hip-hop artists are seen as self righteous by many in secular society.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper who has paved the way to mainstream success for other hip-hop artists who are also Christians was a guest on Sirius XM radio show "Sway in the Morning" Thursday where a political news correspondent named Mike Muse asked him about judgemental Christian rappers.
"In terms of the Christian rappers who identify as Christian rappers, sometimes their tones can be condescending and so anti-secular — so judgemental that it doesn't allow the genre to grow," Muse asserted. "Do you think there should be a change in their behavior of how they approach their genre if they want it to grow to more popular genres?"
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Lecrae said he believes white evangelicalism could be the source of the mindset that some Christian rappers have.
"I think a lot of their perspective is adopted from white evangelicalism or what I call Ameri-Christianity and not the authentic Eastern mindset of it. So, you've adopted more of a nationalism than you've adopted a faith," he said. "It's making you hate your own kind. It's making you very condescending, self righteous, making you feel like you're better than other people and not making you realize man, Grace is the only difference between me and somebody else."
Lecrae said he spent some time in Egypt where he got to witness people of different faiths coming together, which is something he wants to see happen in the United States.
"I spent some time in Cairo and you see these Coptic Christians and Muslims holding hands. They got a rich history together of working together and cohabitating," he said. "You couldn't pay to see that in America. I would love to see more inclusiveness, relationship, bridge building, and not a lot of the persecution and nonsense that we've been exposed to."
In the past, Lecrae has spoken out about people stereotyping all Christians based on the actions of some.
"For a lot of people, groups, Christians included, issues are homogenized. And so to be a Christian I'm either this staunch conservative Republican or I'm this tree hugging liberal," Lecrae told CNN last year. "You're stereotyped. It's almost assumed that people know what your issues are going to be."
Still, he defined what being a Christian means to him.
"My views as a Christian means there's moral plumb line that I'm fighting to adhere to ... it's not say this is the way the country's going to run and things are going to be," Lecrae said. "Honestly, what Jesus was about, was laying His life down for the marginalized who didn't have it all together."
