The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised pt. 3:How to Subliminally Subvert a Revolution with Mass Marketing

Over the next few days I will publish the totality of one of my final papers The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised. Feel free to comment and give me your opinions.

The Deconstruction of the Corporate Other
Now days one cannot watch television for more than five minutes without seeing the mass marketing bastard child of Hip Hop and advertising execs, who are trying to cash-in on Hip Hop’s lure. Hip Hop started out in the parks of the South Bronx after dark and has ended up in bed with various corporations, stockholders included. Hip Hop went from having groups with names like Public Enemy and Poor Righteous Teachers to Niggaz with Attitudes and Murder INC (Asante 115). It became like the scene in the cult classic film, “The Mack”, where Goldie is watching money rain down on him and with an egregious smile on his face he celebrates his ill gotten gain from the exploitation of women through prostitution. The en-masse sale of Hip Hop into the greedy hands of the barbarian hordes, also known as the record corporations, transmogrified Hip Hop from a vehicle of transformative struggle into a juggernaut of venomous stereotypes, impositions, which began to poison and erode the minds of those plugged into to the catholic sound system.

The Death of a Revolution & Leaders in High Prices
It is a sad sight to see leaders in the Church on television hocking religion like a cheap ponzi scheme that is hustling the gullible masses out of their money. Christianity has been hijacked and co-opted by hustlers and schemers lusting for wealth and power.

Offer a man, rebelling against the system of the status quo, money and power and one will see how deep his convictions really are. Then threaten to take away that money and power and see how hard he will fight to maintain his elevated position. Chances are he will fight harder than those protecting the system he once opposed to keep this system running smoothly and functioning in such a way that he can continue in his position of wealth and authority. This is how the Roman Empire co-opted the Church.

This love affair between the Church and those in power has continued through out the centuries. Today too many in the Western Church are enchanted by the ideals of the power structure that they oppose the values and principals that founded Christianity. Instead of being the vanguard of Jesus’ revolution of love, they have become the staunch defenders of Babylon, quelling grace with every action contrary. Refusing to ask questions that represent the heart of Jesus’ revolution of love. Instead of asking, how can we protect the weak and vulnerable? They ask how can we protect our interests? Instead of asking, how can we love our neighbors and greater dignify the image of God? They ask how can we keep immigrants out of our country? Instead of asking, how can we pursue greater justice and peace? They continue to ask questions that speak power to the system instead of truth (Wallis XXIV).

Conclusion:
If one’s only interaction with Hip Hop or the Church was through corporately owned television and other similar mediums, they would never know that looming in the underground is a movement that, like the Quakers, are not afraid to speak truth to power. This movement embraces the title of “post” knowing that dying in the present is the only way to bring the revolution back to the forefront. This movement is not post-Hip Hop or post-Church. But rather they are post-Hip-Hop-as-a-corporate-whore. They are post-the-imperially-co-opted-Church. They are post-materialism. They are post-autocratic-authoritarians. They are post-anything-that-denigrates-the-living-and-breathing-image-of-God-as-scene-in-humanity. The systemic forces that have fought to control Jesus’ revolution of love are the same systemic forces that have overtaken the voice of Hip Hop. Thus as a Christian and a child of the Hip Hop generation I have a calling to dissent against, nay I have an obligation to dissent against these systemic vices that have sought to mute the very voices that once cried out to God for liberation. Then and only then will the chorus line of freedom be sung. The resurrection will not be televised.