People today are less hypocritical and are more realistically faced with the conundrum of what to do with their lives.
I collect old vinyl. I got started just a few months ago and posses about 225 albums of mixed genre. Everything from Glen Campbell to Ozzy Osborn, the Monkees to Led Zeppelin, Sinatra to The Police and everything in-between. I have a decent amount of classical selections too, J.S. Bach to Vivaldi.
This morning I was looking for something to play I hadn’t in a while, or ever. I pulled out Rick James’ Hotblooded and dropped it on the platter. While cueing up song one on side one I read the blurb on the record sleeve, and then checked some lyrics. I had barely put the needle to record and I was astounded by the philosophy of life and the content of the songs. This is what I found:
He had a symbol of a triangle within a circle and explained it this way.
“The circle is for the Planet Earth where we must all live together, the Pyramid is for The Father, The Son, The Spirit pointing us upward towards heaven the higher ground. That Peaceful Place we’d all like to reach someday.”
Then, I looked at the songs; they contained musings about threesome sexual relationships, drug and alcohol abuse, pimping a woman, pretty much a highly sexual focus to every song. This on the heels of claiming a desire for the peace of heaven.
It helped me to realize what many of us already have; – we are deeply confused about ourselves and others but yet desire real intimacy, so we search everywhere looking for this missing component. The age we live in is far more complicated than the simplistic times in which the Bible was written. No, human nature hasn’t changed, but the opportunities, challenges and directions we are pulled in has changed, immeasurably.
Scripture is supposedly timeless, but honestly its words haven’t changed His people enough to adapt to the changing world. Most things are simply explained and boiled down to basic principles, but to analyze and dismiss people and behavior so deftly in this hour is a mistake, and will further push people away from God.
Rick James was confused, mixing spiritual faith with torrid sexual affairs is a recipe for destruction. I don’t think he was hypocritical however, and Christians who struggle with sexual thoughts and actions are no more hypocritical than James was. We have been confused by mixed signals from parents, people of “faith”, religious leaders and this ever-changing world. A vacuum exists in our hearts that longs to be filled with substance.
What he was correct about was his assertion found in the lyrics to his final song on the album.
UNITY
Unity, brother and sister
There’s got to be unity, yeah
Unity, unity’s what’s missing in our life
You see we need love – a little word of
confidence every now and then. A little honesty and trust among us
a little love and harmony, and there’ll
Surely be some unity, unity, unity
Rick James
The Place to be Real 