Arrested Development’s Speech Calls 1st Century Church ‘Un-American’

Speech Thomas, the leader of legendary hip-hop group Arrested Development, believes that the 1st Century church established within the books of the New Testament would be considered very “un-American” if it existed in the modern world.

“I must say I’m a very Americanized person,” said Speech on the Band Vs Artists Podcast last week. “And the [1st century] church [was] very un-American. I don’t mean that in a negative sense like anti-American. I don’t even know if the 1st-century church would recognize the church in this century.”

The Grammy-Award winning rapper and minister was discussing poor race relations within the modern church on the podcast. He then said that Christians might benefit from following the 1st-century church’s example by completely separating themselves from the cultures prevalent in America in order to solve many of its problems.

“It was a very separate from the world type of experience that you read about when you look at 1st Century Christian literature. When some of the leaders talked about the issues that infected them in their time which are very similar to the issues that infect us, their response to it was total separation,” said Speech.

“I’m not suggesting that this is an easy solution, I just think that this is the true solution that will truly separate believers from non-believers and help non-believers see what it looks like to follow Jesus,” he continued.

Speech believes that if the church sheds much of its outside influences such as political affiliations, racial bias, and the pride that goes into being American, then it would be able to operate in a manner that truly allows it to focus on itself mirroring Christ.

He said that if Christians followed the example of Jesus in making themselves nothing then we would see radical change within the church. Christians’ plight to fit into culture and communities is hurting the church more than it’s helping in his opinion.

“I get all of those attempts. I think that they’re noble in that we’re trying. At the same time I think the true solution is shedding all of those things,” Speech said.

Listen to the podcast below:

Speech burst onto the music scene with his alternative hip-hop group Arrested Development in the early 1990s and won two Grammy’s back in 1993.

The group still performs and releases music today and is best known for their hit “Tennessee.” Aside from the band, Speech pastors in his home state of Georgia.

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