On Sunday past Rick Ross appeared on BET’s Lift Every Voice. In an interview that covered not only his career, Ross openly discussed his spiritual views and practices. Ross did not hesitate to speak on the conflict between him and fellow rapper 50 Cent either. He openly stated without hesitation that he is praying for forgiveness. Like most other entertainers he shared his preshow practice of an opening prayer.

Despite the strides that an interview like this may show for both the Christian community, not being “too righteous” and not embracing the youth; or the hip hop community, being overly sexual and lacking morals, it still leaves one to wonder…? Does embracing and melding these communities strengthen or weaken what either entity represents or has come to stand for? Or, are we returning to the roots where entertainers came up out of the church choirs and youth conventions of yesterday?

BET has often had non-gospel based artists associated with and even performing on Christian formatted programs, do you all remember T.O.K. singing on Bobby Jones Gospel? Now while that song was inspirational by some people’s definition, the rest of the album it was a track off of did not reflect Christ like values. So, who’s responsible when Sis. Johnson goes out to buy their album beause they were on “that church show” and cannot find the uplifting songs her spirit was longing for? We have also seen many Christian artists who “look” and “talk” like secular artists. I remember thinking BeBe and CeCe Winans were married and singing love songs to each other when I was younger. Who’s responsible for the misleading image sent by similar artists where the focus isn’t clearly Christ?

Now, it can be noted that to help some people see the way of Christ you have to go out to meet them. Of course, we can all acknowledge that a more morally based Hip Hop culture might impact our youth more positively. Question is and will remain for some time to come, when have the boundaries been blurred that we can’t see the Christ in the Christian and aren’t quite sure why Jesus and/or God is being thanked for helping an artist make a top selling secular album. Quite frankly, I just wanna thank my momma.