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via Praise Detriot:

Award-winning gospel artist Marvin Sapp has partnered with R. Kelly on a new track called, “Listen.The song is full of oversimplified Biblical metaphors and Black church idioms. The call and response between Kelly and Sapp seem to be as much about their own testimonies of struggle as those of the listeners. The duo sings about evil, the devil, and what it means to be “under attack.” Yet, one evil is lurking behind the melody listeners should not readily overlook. Kelly is an alleged child rapist. Several young women have accused Kelly of sexually assaulting them, and I will always believe survivors.

RELATED: R. Kelly Pisses Me Off

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone published a timeline of Kelly’s sexual indiscretions, beginning most notably in 1994 when Kelly married the late singer Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time of their nuptials.

Kelly’s list of sins, evils if you will, are long seemingly. And while I am not in the position to cast the proverbial first stone, it is important to note Kelly has not publicly reckoned with the wrongs he has been accused of committing. Even as he remains a public icon—whose hit song “Step in the Name of Love” from his 2003 album, Chocolate Factory, still keeps Black folks on their feet at family cookouts—he has failed to publicly account for his wrongdoings.

However, as writer and sexual assault survivor Tarana Burke has observed at Atlanta Black Star, “There have been enough [think pieces] written, as well as exposés and articles and timelines about the horrendous sexually predatory behavior of Robert Sylvester Kelly. I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about them. The girls. The Black girls who he has stalked, preyed on, manipulated, terrorized, abused and discarded for the better part of two and a half decades.”

Given Kelly’s behaviors, what does it mean for Black church leaders to continue to stand with and work alongside him and other [alleged] rapists? What does that say about Black churches? What does that say about the theological understandings and the cultural practices maintained within some Black churches? What does that say about the Black church’s treatment of women, girls, vulnerable children, and queer, gender nonconforming and transgender people?

 

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‘Listen:’ Marvin Sapp & R. Kelly’s Gospel Song Does More Harm Than Good  was originally published on praisecleveland.com