Derek Minor - Dear Mr. Christian

[Dance Or Die]

Since the subject of Christian rap songs was brought up, here's one I absolutely love. Christian rappers tend to speak it like it is. Most Christian music nowadays is either the whole "God I love you" side of CHR or vague sounding lyrics of Christian rock. This is a song I truly appreciate. For once, someone isn't afraid to call out Christians themselves for acting high and mighty and condemning people without believing that they themselves aren't also sinners. I have to say, that as a Christian myself, this song can be difficult to listen to. I personally am also guilty of the looking down on people that maybe don't fit my vision of a "good person". What we as Christians need to realize is that we shouldn't look down on others, but try to actually help people.

This is probably the most Christian post I've ever written on here I hope I didn't come off like a boring preacher, but it's what I think. You can easily tell that Christian rap is some of the more powerful stuff.

[Billy Uranus]

Very good song, and certainly hard-hitting! To me, it comes across a tad anti-Christian, but I can see where he's going with this. A lot of Christians look down on people for the way they dress, what they do, what they drink, having tattoos, etc. A lot of religious people come from privileged backgrounds, and fail to understand someone who grew up around violence and abuse.

You don't come off like a preacher. What do you think is the criteria that should be used for being a "good person," and how is it so easily misunderstood?

[Dance Or Die]

For me, a good person isn't necessarily the most "perfect" person or a "saint". Really it's the person that recognizes the mistakes they make and try to correct it. No one can ever be perfect and everyone's gonna screw up all the time. It's just human nature lol Even from the Christian perspective, being saved doesn't automatically mean you're perfect or a "good person". I know for certain I'm not perfect & do stupid things more than I'd like to admit.

I think it's so highly misunderstood because most people like to project themselves onto others. Like, say I donate $5,000 to some charity, and some other person just walks by like "meh". I might say "Oh, he's such a horrible person because he doesn't care about this." When in reality something that is super important to you may not be to someone else and it doesn't make them a "bad person" because what if they have that charity that they feel strongly about and donate to. Also, most people believe themselves to be a "good person", so if they perceive themselves to be "perfect" and someone does something slightly different, that person is automatically a "bad person". Of course there's a lot more craziness that can be factored in to that, but that's pretty much the basic idea.

I can definitely see why the song comes off as anti-Christian, but it certainly isn't. I view it as a wake up call. Saying you understand someone's perspective is much different than actually sitting down with that person and hearing them out.

[Billy Uranus]

Very well said. I try my best to appreciate anything with good intentions. Even if it's a charity I don't "get" I enjoy the fact that other people do. A lot of people roll their eyes at charities benefiting things like high school sports/music programs, not realizing that they help keep kids away from gangs, drugs, etc.

I think if you showed this to a conservative person from the "Bible Belt," there is a good chance they'd misunderstand it and see it as anti-Christian. I got the same meaning you did, though.