This past week, like most of you who don’t live under a rock may have discovered, a country artist named (Chris) Oliver Anthony wrote and sang a song called “Rich Men North of Richmond”, a clear reference to Washington, D.C.
This poor former factory worker is a resident of Farmville, VA (one
of the poorest areas of all Virginia). The song is going ‘viral’ due to the rawness of the message and the spirit in which Mr. Anthony sings it.
It is real. It is emotional. It is speaking to people. You can watch it below.
It has a bit of profanity.
Recently I have been thinking through the Greek concept of koinonia, community, as is meant in Scripture. What is it that makes ‘community’ in the truest sense? What follows, I have most definitely NOT come up with myself, but I cannot remember where I heard it. Regardless, it is something that strikes home with me.
There are two parts to community. There are the objective standards or patterns of thought that create the skeleton of any group; what give it form. Then there are the subjective, the emotions (if you will), that put life and blood and heart into the objective form. Both of these things are needed and necessary in order to have a true community. If you have just the objective form, you have cold rationalism. Without the objective, you have warm, formless goo. Neither of these is good. Neither of these, alone, are
enough to form koinonia.
Churches can often fall into one of these two categories. Generally speaking, the charismatic types fall into the subjective warm goo characteristic, while the reformed types (including us Presbyterians) can fall into the cold, heartless category. One is warm and welcoming, but has very little form or substance to it, while the other has all the form, but has the warmth of a skeleton prop in a biology classroom.
What does this have to do with Oliver Anthony?
It appears that (Chris) Oliver has had a come to Jesus moment. In his latest concert, he opened with Psalm 37. If you follow any of his videos, it looks like he came from a place of despair, and came through it to find Jesus. He wrote this song in order to express what he and many others feel about our current society. It struck a cord and is getting airtime. So how does one reconcile the use of profanity in the song, sung by a man of faith?
First, when we come to Christ, we don’t become fully sanctified (glorified) immediately. In fact, none of us ever reach sinlessness this side of heaven. Jesus accepts us where we are, and then, through sanctification, makes us more like himself. This takes a lifetime.
Second, the Bible uses offensive language. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, uses the Greek word skubalon, a clear reference to ‘dung.’ The argument has been put forward that the term, in Paul’s time, was much stronger; similar to the one used by Oliver in his song. Paul only used it once, another indication that it was a strong word, used specifically for making a strong point.
Shortly after the song was released, social media types started commenting on it. One of the comments found on X (formerly Twitter) was from a popular pastor who slammed the song for it’s use of profanity and how he didn’t think it ought to be a song that Christians should cozy up to or promote. The general comments following his post were a mixed bag, but there were many in agreement with him. Hello, skeleton.
When the church cannot weep with those who weep or rejoice with those who rejoice, we have lost touch with our goal. Our goal is to “First seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33). Here we have a man (Christian or not), crying out for justice, crying out for righteousness, in a time when the leaders of the Western world have become tyrants and oppressors.
How is it that Christians can sit back and criticize the message of a man who articulates what most of us are thinking and feeling, and expect a lost and dying world to see us as a light shining on a hill? Where is the compassion? Where is the humanity? How can we not say “Amen” to a song that we know to be true, just because he uses the term “shit” in it?
To the church:
If you want people to see Jesus and come to know Him, then you, His ambassadors, need to have a heart for humanity. See people; truly SEE them, and offer them the only hope any of us have, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We must demonstrate that we understand the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23).
If we hear a song like this, and all we hear are the possible corruptible words, we’re really missing the point.
To act otherwise is to play the Pharisee, and we know what terms Jesus used for them.
Blessings to you all,
Pastor Chris
Covenant Presbyterian Church 