At first I thought this issue is merely cultural, now however, I think it goes deeper; this is a creation issue. In the Garden of Eden God made everything and it was good. The God told Adam to “take care” of the Garden (Gen. 2:15), Adam’s family was to “take care” of the earth. God wanted them both to use and to preserve.
But Adam’s family had to remember that they were made of dust. They were not God; they were finite, not infinite. To live, they needed to eat. So although God gave them the right to rule the earth, in one sense they were subordinate to the earth. They needed the earth for their food and shelter. Here we find a difference between creation and culture. God creates the world, but does not depend on the world at all. The world depends entirely on him. But in human life, there is mutual
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Why did he rebuke the Judaisers. Because to condemn a whole culture, to demand cultural conformity is to add on to the free, culture-renewing grace of Jesus and say, "Jesus plus our cultural norms."
"Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?," Paul roared. Today, he might roar, "Foolish Euro-centric-classicists, who has bewitched you?"
I think perhaps most issues with Hip Hop arise because we start from the wrong place. Generally we approach Hip Hop as apprehensive outsiders who need to protect the church from its encroachment. But if we start from creation, where all culture - including hip hop - has its roots, we might see it differently. We must not fail to see the beautiful diversity of the church, where there is no Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, Slave, or Free.
Hip Hop is the marriage of musical inclination – a gift from Creation - and technological inclination - also a gift from Creation, and ultimately, it was God's idea. To condemn its use as a cultural artefact is to condemn His work, and to condemn it as an expression of His church is to disparage the bride of Christ in the midst of their