The Bible...in Rap?

So The Bible in Rhyme was posted on a few blogs and tweets yesterday which was pretty cool. Except they all seemed to be relating back to a post about how The Bible in Rhyme was doggerel garbage. Ouch.

And the headline was "A Rhyming Bible. Can the Rap Version Be Far Behind?"

It hurt my feelings for about 10 minutes, and then I realized, "Wait...this is the goal! To get people talking about, thinking about, and opening their Bibles!"

So I read Mr. Gibson's post again, and I enjoyed it much more. It got me thinking about the possibility of a rap version...again. This is not the first time. In fact, I had two people in different areas of the publishing industry recommend that I change the title of the book to "The Bible in Rap" before publication. Of course, I did not. But they thought it would make for quite the publicity.

I didn't want it to be The Bible in Rap. Mainly because I can't rap. But also because even though there is Christian rap, the genre is generally regarded as violent and misogynistic. Now that I think about it, the Bible can actually come across that way too.

But let's pretend somebody does come out with a rap version of the Bible. So what? If it reaches people where they are, gets them interested enough to open up the real Bible, and learn what the holy scriptures say, how is that a bad thing?

Jesus went to Samaria and converted the sworn enemies of the Jews. He healed and comforted the Romans who ruled over and oppressed them. Why on earth would we not want ANYTHING that reaches those who need it most? Just because they don't look like us, don't talk like us, and don't listen to the same music as us, should we excommunicate them? If we do so, aren't we really excommunicating ourselves from what Jesus called us to do?

Whether we rhyme, rap, rock, yodel, dance, sign, sing, sneeze, cough, or lip sync something that helps bring people to a place of hope and faith doesn't matter. What matters is that we pour out our hearts to help expand the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Somebody else can take rap. I call dibs on The Bible in Yodel.