CHARAMBA PREACHES TO ZIMDANCEHALL ARTISTS

Pastor Charles Charamba

Zimdancehall has upstaged other genres to become the household phenomenon of the moment.

While traditional genres are struggling for survival, dancehall is flinging its mojo into previously closed spaces.

Ghetto chanters are staking their claim to the showbiz presidium, and the nation is reverberating along.

It is the reinvention of culture – hence the growing number of debates occasioned by this latest urban movement.

Issues of morality and durability have been raised as the downside of the genre, talking points which needs to be addressed for the good of both the artists and the audience.

Whose interest, for example, does the propagation of drug abuse, violence and sexual immorality through music serve?

What makes Zimdancehall music, in spite of its popular reception, less durable and socially applicable compared to other genres and how can this be corrected?

While art is not the site for inhibitive gatekeeping, it remains an influential field of discourse and it is important respond for the greater good.

With this imperative in mind, the Zimbabwe College of Music convened a Dancehall Indaba last weekend where pertinent issues were thrown into the ring.

Gospel thoroughbred Pastor Charles Charamba presented a paper entitled: “Effects of Abusive Language, Rowdy Behavior and Violent Conduct by Musicians on Society and Music Industry.”

Pastor Charamba acknowledged the trailblazing accomplishments of Zimdancehall artists and shed light on how the phenomenon can be made a more authentically Zimbabwean experience.

“We don't have to turn this event into a witch-hunt exercise. The practitioners of Zimdancehall must be saluted for coming up with a style that is so peculiar.

Charamba said the import of his presentation was not to pontificate as someone who knows it all but point out ways of growing the genre from the perspective of a fellow artist.

He, however, noted that violence in music destroys nationhood. “It promotes fragmentation along sectarian, tribal or other divides and undermines the sense of unity and common purpose,” Pastor Charamba said.

Charamba also highlighted the threat of cultural bankruptcy. “We destroy the artistic heritage bequeathed to us by the industry’s fore-runners.”

He also cautioned against a culture of lawlessness, hostility and hate which has found expression in Zimdancehall.

He gave the example of the fall of Goliath which he said started verbal warfare only to degenerate into a national crisis.

 Charamba also pointed out that the current direction of Zimdancehall misleads youths and inundates them with negative memes which are not easy to erase.

 “Moses took them out of Egypt but couldn’t take the Egypt out of them. What we instill in the little children may not be easy to retract,” the “Moses, Moses” hitmaker said.

 “Artists are idols emulated by younger generations. We must be wary of negatively impacting them,” he said.

 “We need our conscience to regulate us, but if we stretch the authorities too far, we may find ourselves being unnecessarily asked to account for every song we sing.”

Charamba also pointed out that rowdy behaviour diminishes local musicians’ chances of being invited elsewhere, as few wayward artists can cause everyone else to be tainted with the same brush.

“As the Shona proverb asserts, ‘Mangachena inoparira parere nhema.’ Every player will be incriminated. This closes the door for other people’s opportunities,” he said.

“This diminishes the breath of our territory; some music dealers and air proprietors may shun our music. Wal Mart, for example, seriously regulates all music products brought on its shelves.

“The same conduct is spreading to all genres including church music. We may adopt the same language when conversing with dignitaries, parents and even God,” he said.

 Pastor Charamba urged artists to be creative in a positive way: “Artists are inventors; if you can’t find a word that suits your story, create one, a clean one.”

He encouraged tolerant co-existence and refrain from malice and “beef.” “Don’t take pride in controversy and criminal behavior. Controversy is not a virtue, it’s not a good attribute,” he said.

“It’s better to seek arbitration where there are irreconcilable differences. Don’t reciprocate insults. A gentle answer turns away wrath. Forgive and stay focused.

 “Let’s be guided by both tenets of Christian faith and ubuntu. We don’t have to take pride in being disgraceful,” he said.

He urged artists to shun selfishness and self-glorification and to be accountable not just to their immediate acquaintances but to the community.

He urged society to show love to the young artists, mindful of their backgrounds as some of them have never had the benefit of good counsel.

“Let’s taste what we prepare. Can your mother, son, father-in-law attest to the goodness of your song? Can they listen to it without skipping some section? Can they watch you perform?” he queried.

Charamba also pointed out that it is possible to adopt the essential from the originators of the style while adapting it to a clean Zim perspective.

“Although soccer, for example, is said to have originated from either England or China, it’s interesting to note that it was bettered by latter adopters it such that England hasn't taken the World Cup since 1966.

“We can positively develop this music which originated from the Caribbean to levels that can be appreciated worldwide,” he said.

ZHAKATA'S GOSPEL SOMERSAULT

Leonard Zhakata

Zora music exponent Leonard Zhakata’s latest offering indicates a transition from liberation theology to prosperity gospel.

A closer examination of Zhakata’s popular tracks “Mugove” and “Dhonza Makomborero” point to this theological somersault.

The impression is that the songs either starkly contrast or are two halves of the same jigsaw puzzle.

The older song springs out of a poor man’s anguish and invokes God’s intervention against poverty, inequality and injustice.

The latter, to the polar extreme, is a love letter to God from a persona basking in the overflow of both spiritual and material blessings – a celebration, even, of the answer to Mugove, his 1994 prayer.

Christian Entertainment looks at Zhakata’s theological coming of age in light of the complementary messages of the two songs and their corresponding spiritual settings.

While Zhakata maintains that he has always been a Christian who sang gospel music which people circumscribed as social commentary, his latest album “Zvangu Zvaita” is his first overtly gospel effort.

The talented composer who was at the top of his game during the nineties had an obscure patch and last romped to the pole position in 1999.

Since then he has appeared in the media, more often for the perceived political undertones of his music – an interpretation he denies – than for the popular reception of his music, though he has maintained a loyal contingent of fans.

The Zora king’s turning point was his chemistry with Prophet Makandiwa’s UFIC where the man of God reportedly prophesied that God has called Zhakata to be a bishop.

The musician was marked out for pastoral grooming, a development which made him an object of media speculation and popular attention.

Late 2013, a year after the prophecy, he made decisive strides out of the hinterland where his music was eliciting lukewarm reception with a biblically-themed album entitled “Zvangu Zvaita.”

Although Zhakata’s rebound was not an all-out gospel offering as had been anticipated, the album was jam-packed with gospel messages and all the featured songs are allusive to and consistent with the Bible.

In fact each song, be it about prosperity, love or fidelity, locates the place of God for each social phenomenon.

“Dhonza Makomborero,” the title track, has stood out as the crowds’ favourite and has shot to the pole position on Radio Zimbabwe and National FM charts.

Clearly, one of the rich pickings of the year, the song is staking its claim among Zhakata’s all-time hits.

Unlike equally hyped artist conversions which failed to last the distance, whatever Prophet Makandiwa told Zhakata does not look like seed on the dry ground or among thorns if the bishop-in-waiting’s lyrical maturation is anything to go by.

With “Dhonza Makomborero,” Zhakata knocks the door for a seat among seasoned psalmists, owing to its infectious fealty to God.

Before Zhakata had set his eyes on the pulpit, if that is the case, he also had occasional moments of inspiration whereby he intimately invoked the heavens for intervention.

This phase, however, cannot be properly classified as gospel, due to the artist’s ambiguous approach to spiritual questions back then.

There are instances where he was at home invoking ancestors’ help as in “Shungu Dzemoyo;” there must even be wherein he questions the moral certitude of Christianity – the one which partly sounds “shoko parakagunzva hana dzedu takatendeuka rungwananangwana.” My memory is rather hazy on this one.

However, there was a steady outpour of spiritually themed messages most of which dovetail with what is called the liberation theology, that is, a Christian outlook which confronts the problems of poverty and injustice.

There were also intimately spiritual offerings, notably "Segwayana," “Gomba Remarara,” “Kundiso,” “Tarisiro,” but then almost every artist has such moments and much of these are not gospel in the sense of being Christ-centred.

One was recently reworked by popular gospel artist Sabastian Magacha into a rendition entitled “Kwekuturira” as part of his African Praise project.

“Mugove” is an epitome of the pro-poor angle assumed by his music at the time. Close to 20 years on, Zhakata, the bishop-in-waiting drops the stellar, “Dhonza Makomborero,” not so much contrasting but an apparent thematic continuation of “Mugove.”

In “Mugove,” the liberation theologian pleads “Dai zvaikwanisika, Tenzi, maigara matare nengirozi dzenyu, motiburusira Makomborero isu venhamo (If it was possible, Lord, you would convene a session with your angels and send down blessings for us the poor.)”

 Bitterly out of favour with fortune, the persona pleads: “If you have anything in store for me, Father, I request for my portion while I am still alive, Lord; see I am being worn out like a cloth by the rich while I have nothing of my own.”

“Dhonza Makomborero” comes in as an affirmation of this prayer. Zhakata, as it were, celebrates with the Psalmist, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.”

“Things have worked right for me, I used to cry for the face of God; I used to cry for mercy. Now the sacred face has lighted up my countenance, the sacred hand is stretched out to me, O my heart accept with thanksgiving,” Zhakata celebrates.

It’s nothing short of a somersault from the activist for whom complaining was a virtual trademark to a grateful believer.

Possibly, the explanation is that poverty is a permanent condition in this side of eternity but from those who seek and ask and knock, God will not hide his face forever.

Liberation theology attempts to fix the world but the disappointments of history points to an inherently flawed civilisation. Prosperity gospel speaks of life enhancement one individual at a time. Possibly, this is Zhakata’s somersault.

Could this not be the reason why, Job, the oldest books in the Bible and one of the most beautiful epics to date, anticipates: “When men are cast down, you shall say there is lifting up?”

It is not given us to change the world in this side of eternity but that does not mean we defer our all our hopes to eternity. To those who believe, blessings are plenty and to spare in this life and in the life to come.

Zhakata’s DVD for “Zvangu Zvaita is tentatively slated for release next month. The tracks “Ishe Anesu,” “Rutendo Panashe,” “Dofo Pahunhu,” “Dollar Boy,” “Chapter Yerudo” and “Wakarimira Vamwe” make up the well-received album.

MELLOW JAMS FROM PASTOR G

Urban contemporary gospel thoroughbred Pastor G’s stellar offering “Unstoppable Rhythm, Worship and Praise” is a fitting milestone for his fifteen years in the fraternity.

The fourteen-track album, which is replete with mellow jams and powerful biblical messages, is a throwback to the early hits which endeared Pastor G with gospel music lovers.

Most of the tracks affirm and celebrate of the beauty of the Christian identity, without reverting to self-praise (an error that must be exorcised from gospel music).

“The Remedy” is already doing well on the charts but I am sure it will soon be overtaken by other tracks, especially “Tatora,” should they get fair rotation on air.

Featured artists Mau Mau, Petronella Gobvu-Sengwayo, Marbel Madondo, Tatenda and Prophecy bring their own flair aboard for an overall rich worship experience.

Born Stanley Gwanzura in 1970, Pastor G, stormed the arena at the turn of the millennium and was consistent with popular hits such as “Tshibilika,” “Handifambi Ndega,” “Zvichanaka” and “My Home.”

He had a stint at Power FM’s fortnightly gospel show “Beats with a Message,” a platform which was also graced by another gospel great before him, Brian Sibalo, during the Radio 3 years.

After taking a min-sabbatical to attend to his studies, his rebound performances with Zimpraise, notably on “It’s All About Jesus” came as a pleasant surprise for starved fans.

And now the giant performer has gathered himself together for a massive comeback, recording a live DVD concurrently with the launch of “Unstoppable” a few weeks ago.

Pastor G, is far from losing his mojo if his latest offering is anything to go by. The album is the work is seasoned from the confectionary as presaged by the opening track “Makeke.”

The album has the marks of a mature offering, with the sound is flawlessly mastered, the vocals effortlessly melodious and the message thoroughly biblical.

One can fall in love with one track, play it on repeat hours on end, pick another favourite, amazed while they had not discovered it earlier and so forth.

Pastor G is one of the gospel musicians who have defined a niche. The consistent quality which runs the tapestry of the album is commendable and an affirmation that homework is mandatory.

Even when he picks hymns from the public domain his rendering of them still mesmerises if just for the quality of vocal and instrumental delivery.

Popular hymns (originally Methodist, I believe) “Mwari Muri Zuva,” “Ndinoshamiswa Kwazvo” and “Hakuna Hama” are seasoned with a confector’s touch and given a whole new feel.

I have previously faulted the recycling of hymns as an excuse for lack of creativity but I deign to retract. New renditions, when well-executed, give hymns a new lease of life.

Oliver Mtukudzi, for one, has done a great job with hymns on “Pfugama Unamate,” “Rumbidzai Jehovah” and at least one other gospel album (apparently both the earliest and the best of the trilogy) which I have been looking for in vain.

“Tatora,” my personal favourite from “Unstoppable,” is a celebratory jam which celebrates possession of the gates and operation under an open heaven.

“Tatora chimzvimbo edu, tatora makomborero edu, tatora iyo favour yedu, tatora. Tapinda mujoy, tapinda mufavour, tapinda tapinda, tatora,” the chorus celebrates tapping into the inheritance of the saints.

I commend music from this realm of revelation because it unapologetically stands on Bible truth instead of griping on a sub-scriptural level of engagement.

Pastor G joyfully announces on the outset: “This is a voice crying out in the wilderness, a clarion call going out to all world-changers, history-makers; all those who want to make a difference. This is the generation that should take back what the enemy has stolen. Tatora!”

It is a statement that influence is changing hands; an affirmation of the Bible prophecy that the mountain of God will be exalted in the last days; an end-time manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.

The title track “Unstoppable,” which merges personal testimony, biblical exhortation to hold on to faith because God always ultimately and a colloquial catch-phrase “I am unstoppable, zvaabho, zvaabho.”

Tracks “Ndinovimba Nemi,” “Wengoni,” “River,” “Greater,” “Worship Medley” and “Heart of a Lion” make up the rest of the album.

"MUSIC FROM THE HOUSE" OF DAVID

LDC Choir in action

The House of David, one of the twin ensembles of Sam Manyika’s Mainsound Music stable, shares the worship ethic of its namesake and flagship psalmist King David.

The group’s latest offering “Music from the House” is a refreshing worship toolkit, jam-packed with applicable biblical messages.

Subtitled “Heavenly Download,” the album has the marks of wholesome gospel music – artistic edge, doctrinal angle and spiritual impact.

Sharon Manyika Machingura, Martha Zindana Mangisi, Udzu Paradza and Vimbai Mazendama deliver the vocals while Wanda Zonke’s saxophone underlies the whole effort with a jazzy signature.

The album features eight tracks all written by Pastor Manyika except for one by Udzo Paradza and a chorus in the public domain.

Just as the essence of action in Brazil right now is playing to score, the opening track “Zvinoendesa” reminds Christians that the essence of religion is praying to make heaven.

The song reminds Christians that having a good church, a range of posh rides, an anointed pastor and wealthy fellow congregants are all legitimate blessings to be cherished but not qualification enough to enter heaven.

One must individually have a note of conviction, without hiding behind pastors, denominational attributes and material possessions, that they are saved and going to heaven.

“Mupedza Nhamo” urges constant prayer as the way to stay firewalled from trouble and as the secret for basking in the power of God.

“Ndiye” emphasises the centrality of Jesus Christ to the gospel message, commendably so because there is no gospel apart from Jesus, no salvation without his cross, no remission of sins without his blood and no portal to heaven except his name.

The track points to Jesus as the all-sufficient enabler for peace, crossing over to destiny, victory over life’s challenges and continual rejuvenation for greater exploits.

“Richawa” recalls the David-Goliath story to show that no challenge is insurmountable as long as one is backed by the conquering Lion of Judah.

“Pembera, pembera parigwa mukono zvinotyisa zvaenda,” the song celebrates victory over the devil, disease, poverty, disgrace and tribulation.

In “Zvose Ndinoita” the persona declares unsparing commitment to the whole duty of saints, including the exercise of spiritual gifts, the study of God’s Word, tithing and giving, just he used to be committed to sin – small houses and all – before coming to Jesus.

“Hande” urges an entrepreneurial spirit among saints. It beckons the listener out of the comfort zone to prosperity, intimating that the “pillar of cloud” is one the move and the listener can only remain behind at their own peril.

Udzo’s song “Sevamwe” is a challenge to self-examination as to whether we are still in the faith. The song warns against holding on to a form of godliness while forfeiting its power and commends the listener to go back in time and weed out all the “lying vanities” devouring their blessings.

House of David’s sister ensemble, The Living Word Deliverance (LDC) Choir, is also on point with a recent live DVD entitled “Songs of Deliverance.”

Songs of Deliverance

I failed to establish which is the better project between the two because both offerings speak life to the soul like wholesome Christian must do, convicting, challenging and reawakening the listener to greater spiritual possibilities.

Also outstanding about the music is a consistent commitment to quality. The presentation is impassioned, painstaking and, altogether, worth the effort.

In addition to House of David vocalists, LDC features gospel thoroughbred Stanley Gwanzura (Pastor G), who staged his own live recording at Seven Arts last weekend, and Ruben Malgas.

Fifteen tracks, including “Let My People Go,” “Kana Ndichiona Ropa,” “Pane Amboona Pharaoh?” “Ruzha! Ruzha” and Sharon’s breakthrough track “Wakakosha,” all performed live, are featured on this offering.

The project is a “musical excursion that follows the deliverance and exodus of the children of God from Israel,” Pastor Manyika explains.

“As the story unfolds, the beauty of the music makes us experience the whole experience of the love and determination of God in fulfilling His promises to His people,” those that he chose to be His own,” he says.

LDC is bent on identification and projection. Viewers are tipped to locate themselves within the Mosaic odyssey and remaster confidence to make it to the end as God helps them.

“Herein we can identify with the deliverance story and with the never-changing, everlasting God of deliverance,” says Pastor Manyika.

INTELLECTUAL CERTITUDE IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

What's So Great about Christianity

A thread of secular-themed perspectives has flared up in the public arena to short-circuit Christianity’s claim to relevance in modern society.

Sceptical authorities, across the disciplines, are approaching Christianity from a combative angle, to diminish the faith into a residue of primitive dispensations.

Secularist notables such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Fredrick Nietzsche and Charles Darwin, have emerged as the poster-boys of the “post-Christian enlightenment.”

The gangly coalition has diffused incredulity to a point where secularist outlook is the new mainstream among laboratories of culture, while Christianity is fast becoming a preserve of extremists and isolates.

However, besides its sustained mojo outside cultural elites, Christianity boasts a rich intellectual tradition which merits closer recognition in the creative arts, criticism and apologetics.

Some of the most enduring influences in the annals of literature, John Milton, Samuel Johnson, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, T.S Eliot, G.K Chesterton and C.S Lewis, wrote overtly to “justify the ways of God men.”

In the realm of apologetics, Lee Strobel, Carl Wieland, Ray Comfort, Alister and Joanna McGrath and others have demonstrated that Christianity is far from the intellectually bankrupt syllabus of errors that it has been branded to be.

Had great minds such as Joseph Addison, Blaise Pascal and Isaac Newton lived today, they might have been labelled the black sheep of science and philosophy, owing to the near consensus that the God hypothesis is anathema from academia.

The few apologists still holding their own are lone criers, out of pitch with the symphony of their time, but it would be grossly prejudicial to muzzle them on a “truth by numbers” mob justice clause.

D’Souza’s apologetics toolkit “What’s So Great about Christianity” is an example of the growing inventory of articulate and forceful refutations of the “God is dead” hypothesis.

“What’s So Great about Christianity” is an unsparing examination of the arguments and rhetoric underlying the secularist ferment.

The achievement of the book is its commitment to open inquiry. Open inquiry not only promises rich academic pickings but acknowledges that both believers and non-believers may be on different levels of the same ontological ladder as honest truth-seekers, hence deserve equal attention.

So instead of tapping into indoctrinatory mode and riding roughshod over alternate schools of thought with more dogma than reason, D’Souza engages atheists on their own terms (but does not allow them to leave to leave the boxing ring with nosebleed).

The book short-circuits such simplistic and overstretched assumptions as “Christianity is obsolete,” “an intelligent person cannot believe the Bible” and “Christianity has been disproven by the Bible.”

However, De’Souza’s problem statement paints a bleak picture of Christianity’s functionality in the contemporary laboratories of culture.

“No longer does Christianity form the moral basis of society. Many of us now reside in secular communities, where arguments drawn from the Bible or Christian revelation carry no weight, and where we hear a different language spoken in church,” D’Souza observes.

“Instead of engaging this secular world, most Christians have taken the easy way out. They have retreated into a Christian subculture where they engage Christian concerns.

“Then they step back into the secular society where their Christianity is kept out of sight until the next church service,” he says.

D’Souza’s prefatory alarm faults today’s Christians for being one more bunch of post-modernists who live a gospel of two truths; the religious truth reserved for Sunday and the secular truth which applies the rest of the week.

The problem with such a comfort zone is that it belies the self-sustaining convictions and institutes of Christianity and shirks the responsibility to “contend earnestly for the faith.”

Christians have embraced with relief Gould’s peace brokerage, the supposition of “Non-overlapping magisteria” (NOMA), which divides the public arena between reason and faith.

NOMA rules that the secular society relies on reason and decides matters of fact while the religious community relies on faith and decides on matters of values.

Christians’ acceptance of the pact and a generally pacifist disposition in the realm of debate has not spared the faith a series of polemics from atheists and agnostics unapologetically bent to antagonism.

“The God Delusion,” “End of Faith” and “God is Not So Great” are among the aggressive anti-faith polemics which seek to dismiss Christianity at all costs.

The best way to get around the hostility is not retreating deeper into oblivion and ceding free ammunition to sceptics. Nay, man to man, fire for fire, argument against argument.

There is no room for ambiguity and pacifism (in the realm of debate not warfare, lest I play into the hands of gleeful literalists) in Christian thought.

Christianity is by its very nature a clarion call to controversy. The Great Commission is a mandate of universal evangelism (based on specific not ambivalent claims) which does not come with a guarantee of safe sail but anticipates hostility, reproach and tribulation.

Dostoyevsky

The first fortress no atheist can dismantle in this debate is the fact that science’s assignment of a definite beginning for the universe in time and space inevitably points to an intelligent first cause.

“If every effect in nature has cause, what is the cause of nature itself? Is it even remotely reasonable to suggest that nature created itself? If for a single instant there was nothing in existence – no matter, no universe, no God – then how could there be anything at all?” queries D’Souza.

It rationally follows that the world was made and someone made it even though, on the level of empirical enquiry, we may not be able to determine what kind of creator made the universe. That creator and intelligent first cause Christianity calls God.

“Our world looks so physical, yet we can know with scientific certainty that it was the result of a force beyond physics…Science has discovered a reality which it had previously consigned to the domain of faith,” D’Souza says.

Observes Gerald Schroeder: “Theology presents a fixed view of the universe. Science, through its progressively improved understanding of the world has come to agree with theology.”

D’Souza attributes the “survival of the sacred” to the fact that some of the most important ideas and institutions of modern life emanate from Christianity

Atheism is more of a death-knell than a stimulus to such key values such as relief and elevation for the suffering and the preservation of the family institution.

D’Souza’s book is, however, needlessly flawed by his erroneous classification of Christianity as a Western religion.

Western Christendom has, through subservience into an instrument of political expediency, done more harm than good to Christianity.

Complicity with, participation in and perpetration of unforgivable atrocities such as the Inquisition, crusades, slavery and colonialism shows that the Westernisation of Christianity did more to manipulate, pervert, contradict and undermine than to advance the faith.

Christianity has a universal import which cannot be compartmentalised into narrow demographics as to do so forfeits Paul’s rainbow manifesto that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There still remains to answer atheists’ charge about Christianity being a menace to civil peace – a charge buttressed by the foregoing atrocities.

Thankfully, Dostoyevsky wades in just on time. His novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” tells a story of the grand iniquistor, in which Christ himself appears before the tribunal, only to be recognised, thrown into prison and told to “go and never return again.”

“The reason is clear. Christ’s teachings are those of a peacemaker. They are the very opposite of the persecutions and violence that has sometimes been perpetrated in the name of Christianity,” D’Souza says.

CODE-SWITCHING GOSPEL WITH SECULAR ENTERTAINMENT

Frank Edwards

The blending of gospel themes with secular lingo, beats or genres to enhance reception has divided opinion in Christian circles.

The development has raised eyebrows among those who fear that the co-opting of “outside influences” compromises gospel purity.

However, code-switching the Bible and secular patterns of expression is in vogue, with proponents arguing that to gain broader appeal, Christian artists must unpack their message in the “language” that most people understand.”

Our question, therefore, is whether this latest form of artistic license, which gospel ministers are indulgent of in the name of evangelical capital, is good or bad for the message?

Does code-switching factor in valuable add-ons or does it distort the essential import of Christian works of art?

There is a danger of approaching the problem from one extreme and readily playing down other views.

So we will desist from assigning one-size-fit-all interpretations to the phenomenon and painstakingly zero in on each case as it dictates.

On the question of genre, is it wrong for someone to praise Jesus with rap, dancehall, rock or jazz – mediums which some have branded as repositories of satanic influence?

Let’s face it, some of these mediums have been used to glorify crime, drugs, violence, sex, nudity and profanity in clear violation of the Bible.

Is Frank Edwards, the genius behind Rocktown Music, then justified to “Rock n Roll” for Jesus justified?” Should Chris Tomlin’s invite to “God’s Great Dancefloor” or Solly Mahlangu’s call to “Praise Him in an African Way” heeded?

Should we “cycle” along to Pastor Charamba’s gospel sungura or wiggle to Sabastian Magacha’s latest rhumba offering.

Is it fitting Tinashe Magacha takes to the podium to “rock dem tunez” using the same genre Seh Calaz uses to glorify the abuse of bronco and “chamba” for cheap applause from ignorant youths or the same beat Platinum Prince uses to promote sex outside marriage?

My answer is an emphatic “Yes!” Like it or not, art is battlefront. It may not be a magic bullet but its influence can only be gainsaid at our own peril.

We need custodians of tradition in the form of conservative gospel artists but we also need to reclaim territories currently in the devil’s control through Christian soldiers like Culture T.

Yes, we need joyful noisemakers in plenty. Only that they must be seen to be “loading every rift with ore” as John Keats puts it.

 In as much as the problem with most secular performers is their wrong message, Christians must weigh in with the right message – even the gospel, which is “the power of God unto salvation.”

One of the problems with code-switching is that it sometimes brings along the unwanted baggage. There are so-called Christian movies, for example, which accommodate nudity and profanity for the purpose of giving sin a more graphical or empirical demonstration.

Such works often appear to tell their message inversely. They ostensibly point to what is right by harping on sin hours on end just to show its ultimate wages in the denouement. From such turn away!

Why should viewers be forced to scrounge for a few morsels of food in a garbage dump? Whether the food is wholesome or palatable is neither here nor there once it is laced up with toxins in the garbage dump.

Going through lewdness, blasphemy and nudity in a movie just to get to the “Halleluiah moment” in the closing scenes is a self-negating formula.

It inadvertently promotes some sins to decampaign others which makes mockery of the biblical math: “10 -1 = 0.”

The same goes with appealing to popular but desperately compromised secular works to reinforce or endorse a Christian message.

A respected pastor recently came under fire for quoting from Chris Brown’s “Loyal” – a song whose lyrics are not only dirty but also grossly derogatory of women.

While the pastor was preaching a biblical message on relationships, his resort to the song was a negative game-changer, wrong spice for the right dish, because what is wrong cannot endorse what is right without insinuating justification for both.

We come to the issue of influence. Without doubt the domineering influence imposes its language, just as we are stuck with English from a historical mistake called colonialism.

Few weeks ago, a charismatic denomination called swept a crusade across my neighbourhood under the banner “Batai Munhu Jehovah Revival.”

The catch-phrase was of course popularised by Suluman and Jah Prayzah’s duets. Acquaintances known to me as party animals attended and possibly had life-transforming experiences.

Some of the songs which were belted from the distant-booming public-address system included a reworked political song by Cde Chinx, in this context rendered “Vaporofita vakanganisa? Aiwa havana kukanganisa!”

In the run-up to Judgement Night 2, Suluman remixed his father’s song into a Judgement Night jingle.

While there is nothing wrong in all this, my attitude is that Christians can be more influential than that.

Why should the church adopt and adapt a song when “the world” has exhausted the flavour out of it in pubs and rallies? These things ought not to be so brethren.

It is alright for patrons in Chikwanha bottle-stores to dance along to Mathias Mhere’s sungura-like psalms and think carefully about what “Number Busy” means when they are alone in moments of conviction.

But it is unbecoming for Christians to “spread butter” or “chicken dance” in church lest they end up considering the less orthodox dances which I tremble to mention in a family paper, let alone these sacred columns.

On a summative scores, Christians must always remember that influence diffuses from the region of higher concentration and roars from top to bottom like a waterfall. We must run the sector and drop the firsts, not the other way round.

FAMILY VALUES IN CHRISTIAN MOVIES

Fireproof

A secular assault is threatening the family institution on every front. Rotten fibre is closing in on family values through the arts and other keynote social engines.

Billy Graham tells of an endgame in this morality war whereby the “world’s sewage system” is out to contaminate Christian thought.

When one considers the neck-break speed at which mainstream Christian denominations are rubber-stamping situational ethics and biblically incompatible practices such as co-habitation, abortion and same-sex unions, it is clear that the church is losing its mojo.

“Much entertainment is slanted to those who feed on violence, sex and lawlessness. It seems that some diabolic mastermind is running the affairs of this world and that his chief objective is to brainwash Christians and to get them to conform to this world,” Graham says.

Christians are ceding ground chiefly because they are using a one-drug-treats-all formula to fortify society against new and more lethal moral diseases.

The solution is plain. Christians must toughen up, upgrade their strategies, buckle down and fight the secular agenda, argument for argument, text for text, medium for medium.

Film, music and the Internet have emerged as outlets of choice for anti-family crusaders bent on marking down standards of decency and permeating society with nudity and profanity.

Instead of passively complaining about on Sunday retreats and assimilating back into the compromised system for the rest of the week, Christians must put the same mediums to effective use in the service of the gospel.

Fortunately, a growing section of Christian artists are waking up to this realty and responding in kind, lately through overtly Bible-oriented movies.

“Monumental,” “Courageous,” “Time Changer,” “Genius,” “Gone Back Home,” “Woman Thou Art Loosed” and “Fireproof” are among the swelling inventory of movies for the family cabinet.

“Monumental,” a fairly recent 80-minute documentary starring Kirk Cameron, decries the collapse of society and rallies Christians to get off the defensive and get on the offensive, art-wise that is.

 “Everybody is telling me the world is going to hell,” Cameron opens his documentary in-between flaming interludes to which warn viewers as to the urgency of the situation.

“Morally, the family is falling apart: divorce, teenage pregnancy, teenage suicide, drugs, alcohol. You go on to a local high school and what was once morally unthinkable and shameful is now not only normal but celebrated,” Cameron says.

Although American in context, the movie is universal in significance. It makes reference to moral conditions which have run rife in most countries and declares that “our families are worth fighting for.”

Cameron points out a major drawback which has restrained Christians from taking action against decadence. The notion that Christians must confine themselves to the spiritual scheme of things has rendered Christians terminally ineffective and left society in the monopoly of secular thought-leaders and shape-shifters.  

“I have friends in church who tell me that the worse things get, the better, really. It is because it means that the end is near and that Jesus is returning: ‘Don’t worry that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, just get out of the hand-basket. It’s part of the plan. It’s meant to be that the whole thing is going to burn,’” Cameron says.

“Really? Because I have kids in this world, I have friends in this world who have kids and I want a great future for them. And are supposed to just let it go? But if we just take our hands of the wheel and just let it fall off a cliff, aren’t we creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

“So I turn on the news and find that most people are playing the blame game, the right blames the left, the left blames the right, governments blaming big business, business blames big government, Hollywood blames the church and religion and the church is blaming the media for all of the problems,” says the father of six.

Cameron points out that with everybody blames everybody else, there is no clear voice, giving a solution on how to get out of the mess.

He then shouts out the loud and clear call to action. He shows that Christianity came and created liberty and responsibility for that freedom is in our hands: we either champion the Bible unapologetically in every social sphere or we suffer the consequences for shirking our evangelistic mandate and straying from the faith.

“Courageous” is a must-watch for fathers, especially with Fathers’ Day having freshly elapsed. The movie demonstrates the need for paternal responsibility under the subtitle “Honour Begins at Home” even as fatherhood is under threat from adverse world-views such as radical feminism and sodomy.

The key men in the movie are police officers who show commendable commitment in their fight against crime and in the service of their nation. Sadly, some of the characters’ commitment is confined to their profession.

At home, they become altogether different personalities, detached and irresponsible. That is until a series of events connive to make them realise that home is their foremost port of call.

“Fireproof,” starring Cameron again, is one of the more influential Christian movies. It copies on the blueprint “Never Leave Your Partner Behind” from fire-fighters and pastes it on husbands and wives.

Caleb (Cameron) leaves like a fellow tenant with his wife and shuns her to navigate “trash on the internet.” The young family is dysfunctional and on the brink of collapse till the firefighter’s father comes along with a revolutionary “Love Dare” formula.

“Gone Back Home,” from a Nigerian Christian drama ministry, Mount Zion Film Productions, is targeted at Christian youths, some of whom concede grave mistakes when confronted off-guard with sexual temptations.

A young Christian couple gets unduly close before marriage and the girl conceives. Worried about his squeaky-clean record as a youth leader, the man convinces his girlfriend to abort and she dies shortly after going through abortion.

The movie guides unmarried youths to avoid sensual proximity and keep their relationships under the watch-care of godly elders till they are procedurally wed. It also comes down hard on double standards and abortion.

The movie is part of a growing range of productions by emerging Christian film-makers in Africa. Hopefully, Zimbabwe also develops a viable Christian film industry, especially with new gospel channels coming aboard.