Why Do You Hate My God? (No Church in the Wild)

I was minding my own business, trying to look at a video from one of the individuals that I subscribe to on YouTube when some lyrics on the song they had playing in the background of the video "No Church In The Wild", caught my attention. I would have rather listened to Hail Mary by Tupac Shakur. This is one of the more existential songs on The Throne, the latest release by Kanye West and Jay-Z. Check out the hook, sung by Frank Ocean:

Human beings in a mob
What's a mob to a king? What's a king to a God?
What's a God to a non-believer who don't believe in anything?
Will he make it out alive? Alright, alright, no church in the wild

Human beings are in a mob, but that mob is nothing to a king. At the same time, a king is nothing to a God, and that God is nothing to a non-believer who doesn't believe in anything. What is the wild? Also, who is trying to make it out alive, God, or the non-believer. I suppose the non-believer makes it out alive, because there is no church in the wild. Since there is no church, and no reverence of God, the non-believer is free to do what he may in the wild.

This is from Jay-Z's part of the first verse

Jesus was a carpenter, Yeezy he laid beats
Hova flow the Holy Ghost, get the hell up out your seats, preach

Obviously, Jay-Z is elevating himself and Kanye West above God by asserting Jesus' occupation on earth. He conveniently leaves out the part where Jesus was the Son of God. It is as though he only reads the parts of the Word of God that agree with him.

I feel as if Jay-Z and Kanye's sole mission in the industry is to mind-rape Christians. After all, Jay-Z has admitted that he doesn't make that much money from rap anymore, in comparison to what he makes from his other business endeavors. Supposedly Kanye West gets a pass, because his mother died. I can almost understand where Kanye West is coming from, but the turn that he has taken lyrically, one has to wonder if he were ever that close to God to begin with.

Then The Dream comes in and makes a case for hedonism. This is the second hook.

I live by you, desire
I stand by you, walk through the fire
Your love is my scripture
Let me into your encryption

Kanye West, who is the real lyrical genius here, takes it further

Two tattoos one read "No Apologies"
The other said "Love is Cursed by Monogamy"
It's something that the pastor don't preach
It's something that a teacher can't teach
When we die the money we can't keep
But we probably spend it all cause the pain ain't cheap, preach

I suppose this song was meant to be deep. But the only thing that I am left with, are sinful acknowledgments of ones struggle with their spirituality. Other than confusing the listener, I am still not convinced that either of these writers are truly done with God. They may have issues with Christianity, but they are still angry at God. When you are angry at someone it is a response to them, as though they have failed you, or as though you have this angst and you cannot get through to them. If you no longer care, are indifferent, or no longer have any love for them, you usually keep their name out of your mouth. Kanye West and Jay-Z keep talking about God; both are great writers, but they continue to ask questions, or make blanket assertions about God that do not make any sense.

I could go to any barbershop in any ghetto across America and hear some of the doublespeak that these two are talking on this song. I don't know; yes there are a lot of things that the pastor doesn't preach, but if you read the Word for yourself, God will reveal those things to you. At the same time, God isn't interesting in revealing things to you when he knows that the enlightenment is going to lead to sin and your own demise because you lack the wisdom to deal with the truth. Somehow I think that Kanye West, Jay-Z, his followers, and apparently, his producers, are still stuck in the garden staring at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They want to take a bite, but they want to do so knowing that they can go back to the way that things were. They realize that if they do they can forget about that prior existence because they will be set apart from God. Either you want to be apart from God or you want to continue to live in his presence; which one is it?