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By J. MATTHEW COBB
TO THIS DAY, there are a number of strong fundamentals that are bothered by the type of buzz high-profiled entertainers and secular giants are giving Christianity. Since Kanye West released "Jesus Walks" into the airwaves a few years ago, the music industry has been quite supportive of how cool Christianity is looking. Of course, R&B and soul artists including Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye have always expressed their faith on record for years. But now, it seems like singing a song that is encouraging, uplifting and is also spiritual seems to be the right thing for gospel audiences. We enjoyed Whitney Houston's contributions on the "The Preacher's Wife" soundtrack, we were touched by the soulful sounds of Beyonce' on "The Fighting Temptations" soundtrack and Mariah Carey recently blessed us with her single "Fly Like A Bird". And as controversial as "Jesus Walks" was with its profanity and dark tone, West blew up hot topics and dared other colleagues of his to speak out regarding their faith and beliefs. India.Arie should be far from controversial. She carries herself gracefully, she lives a drama-free life, always smiling, always a bundle of encouragement. She is a visionary and a woman of peace. Her songs have healed numerous amounts of relationships and broken hearts and she is also being called the Stevie Wonder of our generation. But even India.Aire isn't supported by some in the faith community. India.Aire has emerged as being an artist to focus on. With her amazing number of Grammy nominations and previous album sales, she has received a number of industry praises from Motown Records president Sylvia Rhone calling her "one of our culture's most uplifting artists" to even Stevie Wonder himself. Her latest album release, "Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship", reflects on her pains and her struggles and blossoms with answers and solutions of inner peace and spiritual development. The path is truly to new beginnings and is carved into each cut represented. Of course, she is not preachy like in most gospel music. But it is careful to say that she is inspiring and truly more effective in her approach of music than a simple evangelism track from some missionary. Recently, Andree Farias of ChristianityToday.com digged deeper into India.Arie's spirituality and discovered that In a recent edition of Relevant magazine, she declined to discuss certain specifics about her religious convictions, but said that, though ambiguous, her belief system was "full of truth." In her music on this particular album, you can see where and why faith means a lot to her. On "Wings Of Forgiveness", she deals with the power of forgiveness and offers some powerful poetic moments. The lyrics are challenging and awaken her listeners to the power of hope by saying that "if Jesus can forgive crucifixion, surely we can survive and find a solution". Never before have words so poignant and prolific been expressed on a recent album that has already gone gold and from an artist as respected as India.Arie. And yet she continues with "There's Hope". The music is infectious and possesses a groove that J. Moss would seep his teeth into. But the lyrics also takes us to another level of healing: "There's hope/It doesn't cost a thing to smile/You don't have to pay to laugh/You better thank God for that". While she deals with the depression in our land today, from wars to poverty, she offers hope through her lyrics. Her faith intensifies as she declares that a brighter day will come on "This Too Will Pass". It's a beautiful, animated track filled with lush orchestration and India.Arie's innocent vocals. But the spirit of the lyrics continue to soar its way to the deeper courts of the soul and encourages us anyhow. She also shares the brokenness from her lovelife, but seeks to express the benefits that have come from it, such as in "Good Mourning". She plays with words, of course, but notice how she dwells on positivity to boost her esteem and her faith: "Good morning optimism / Good morning to my faith / Good morning to the beginning of a brand new day / I know that God's will be done / So I lay down my pain and I'm moving on / I know that God's will be done / So it's a good morning after all" On PRAYZEHYMNOnline.com, "There's Hope" leaped to the #1 slot in the month of September 2006 on the PRAYZEHYMN's Top Ten. This alarmed a particular visitor of the website and she began to express her feelings with us. While we can understand why it may be a problem for some to accept a non-traditional gospel artist being referred to as a gospel artist, the problem mainly centered around her religious secrecy. The visitor wrote: "India is a secular artist who does not profess Jesus in any of her music nor on her CD “thank you's”. She is not a Christian artist but is an artist who believes in the movement of spirituality (a form of Godliness that says you don't need Jesus to live holy) and not of Jesus. Isn't Jesus the reason why we do what we do and why we live the way we do. As Christians we need to be wise and watchmen of the faith. If this is a Christian website then we need to promote Christian artist only not just anyone who uses the word “god” in their music, what god are they talking about if they don't declare the name of Jesus". Even though the linear notes suggest she is referring to God and not just any god or a particular god, this situation troubled the reader. The bothered visitor of the website also suggested we check out ExMinistries; a one-sided, fundamental ministry founded by G. Craige Lewis focused on exposing the evils in hip-hop music and has criticized the efforts of T.D. Jakes, Kierra "KiKi" Sheard, Pastor Hezekiah Walker, producer Warryn Campbell and Ruben Studdard. Expressed by advocates of strict fundamental values, they find this album dangerous and a potential threat to new converts of Christianity. And it's all because she has not revealed what religion she embraces. She fails to identify herself as a Christian and this puzzles some gospel music supporters. So, for us to brand this a gospel project would be a serious jump. The album may have styles of gospel music in it and may have familiar features that gospel music lovers may enjoy, but this is an album that will surely inspire and encourage anyone - regardless of their faith, denomination or their religious beliefs. But for us to ignore her statements and to dismiss this glorious portrait of inspiration, just because the artist fails to comply with our personal codes of religious conduct, would be an ignorant decision. Especially when her codes of religious conduct are no different from what Jesus Christ taught us. OTHER VALUABLE RESOURCES TO LOOK INTO:
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