I became a big fan of Ben Harper when I first heard his 2003 album Diamonds on the Inside. And who wouldn’t be inspired by lyrics like the following found in the song “Blessed to be a Witness”:
Corcovado (mountain) parted the sky
And through the darkness
On us he shined
Crucified in stone
Still his blood is my own
Glory behold all my eyes have seen
I am blessed to be a witness
Anyone hoping that Ben Harper would use his immense musical talent to spread the Good News of the Gospel Jesus Christ must have been as excited as I was when recorded There Will be Light in 2004. This brilliant gospel album featured The Blind Boys of Alabama and songs like “Pictures of Jesus” and “Mother Pray.” These inspirational gems will long be burned in my memory – not to mention stored in my IPOD.
Around that time, I was beginning to think it was too good to be true. Artists so versatile, so talented, so hip, and yet so unabashedly Christian are hard to come by. And then it happened. In 2006, Ben Harper released the album Both Sides of the Gun featuring the song “Black Rain.” As soon as I heard the songs’ lyrics about Hurricane Katrina, I began to regret my purchase:
You left them swimming for their lives
Down in New Orleans
Can’t afford a gallon of gasoline
With your useless degrees
And your contrary statistics
This government business
Is straight up sadistic
Harper wrote nothing at all racist in the opening verse of “Black Rain.” But I was annoyed nonetheless. Certainly, he was too intelligent to believe that those left behind in Katrina – both black and white – were helpless people who had made good decisions but just “(Couldn’t) afford a gallon of gasoline.” And his business about “This government business” seemed to miss the point that black dependency is caused, not remedied, by government intervention. Nonetheless, I kept listening:
You don’t fight for us
But expect us to die for you
You have no sympathy for us
Still I cry for you
You may kill the revolutionary
But the revolution you can never bury
Nor was there anything at all racist in the second verse of “Black Rain.” The jab at the Iraq War was a bit annoying. So was the idea that there is still a meaningful civil rights movement decades after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonetheless, I kept listening:
Don’t you dare speak to us
Like we work for you
Selling false hope like some new dope
We’re addicted to
I’m not a desperate man
But these are desperate times at hand
This generation is beyond your command
I didn’t find anything racist in the third verse, either. In fact, I was glad Harper brought up the issue of drugs. I suspected that the failure of so many people to take heed of the oft-repeated hurricane warnings had something to do with the proliferation of mind altering drugs in the Big Easy. But, towards the end of the verse, Ben began sounding a bit like those anarchists I lectured at Planet U-MASS. Nonetheless, I kept listening:
It won’t be long ‘till the people flood the streets
And take you down one and all
A black rain is gonna fall
Needless to say, I found nothing but racism in that last verse. And what a disappointment it was to hear a man singing the Gospel on one album and fanning the flames of racial hatred on the next.
I’ve never had an ounce of confidence in the people at Virgin Records. They may be bright enough to know that young people are influenced by the words of Ben Harper and, therefore, publishing a celebration of race war is bad for race relations. But the almighty dollar, not the Almighty Father is the final authority to which Virgin answers.
The real questions are about Ben Harper, the artist I once admired:
1. Does he want a race war in the streets of America? Or does he want racial harmony in the streets of heaven? He cannot have both.
2. Is he a Christian? Or is he a racist? He cannot be both.
3. Does he want to spread the Gospel of Jesus? Or does he just want to sell records?
For awhile, I thought Ben Harper (http://www.BenHarper.net) could do both. God knows, I miss the old Ben Harper.
.
Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
.
Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
.
After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
.
Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
- Kids Write Obama on Abortion; Obama Misplaces Them - Tuesday January 22, 2013 at 5:15 pm
- Stand For Life - Wednesday January 16, 2013 at 12:44 pm
- Fellowship in the Woodlands - Thursday January 3, 2013 at 1:23 pm
