Atlanta pastor defends church dancing to Chris Brown and Lil Jon music
theGRIO REPORT - An Atlanta pastor is defending his church's decision to include secular music into their Anniversary service....
A video posted to Facebook recently went viral showing the congregation of The House of Hope Baptist Church in Atlanta getting down to secular music.
The church received heavy public scrutiny via social media, so much so that the pastor, Dr. E. Dewey Smith Jr., decided to address why his congregation sometimes dances to nonreligious tunes.
Smith says that the church recently adopted a multi-generational theme and began to creatively acknowledge and highlight each generation throughout the year.
“We decided to have an annual moment of ‘fun’ for our church that would highlight each generation. Since I am a comedian by nature, I endeavored to determine how we could have one fun moment annually amongst the generations of our ministry,” he said.
“Since 2007, at the end of our Church’s Anniversary … we would highlight each generation by finding music that was unique to each generation. We would find music, secular and sacred, that was popular during the times of each generation. The secular music would have to be non-violent, non-misogynistic, non-vulgar, non-profane, non-degrading and non-sexual in nature.”
The pastor went on to detail how each anniversary weekend, the church asks each member to dress in the color of their generation.
“The “Builders” (those born 1945 and before) are asked to wear black; the “Boomers” (those born between 1946-1965) are asked to wear brown; the “Busters” (those born between 1966-1983) are asked to wear gray; the “Bridgers” (those born between 1984-2003) are asked to wear red; and the “Blossoms” (those born between 2004 and the present) are asked to wear blue,” Smith said.
Watch the below video to see the pastor’s explanation of allowing secular music in his church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu_NsT8SZ4w
Play at 27:30 to see the congregation dance to Jermaine Dupri’s “Welcome to Atlanta.”
Play at 28:15 to see the congregation dance to DJ Snake & Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What.”
Play at 34:49 to see the congregation dance to “Let it Go” from Frozen.
Play at 35:30 to see the congregation dance to Chris Brown’s “New Flame.”
Play at 43:30 to see the congregation dance to Pharell’s “Happy.”
Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.
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