In a stunning turn of events, the Hip Hop star MIA recently won a Dove Award in the new category: non-Christian Hip Hop. Her song, 20 Dollar, was played in her honor, but incited the audience to run out of the auditorium screaming in fear. Miss MIA, who did not attend the award ceremony, was very surprised to have won, as she had never heard of the Dove awards. Deep breath. Then I woke up. 

I’ve been listening to MIA a lot lately. You heard some of her music in Slum Dog Millionaire. She is a young refugee from Sri Lanka, where her father was part of the Tamil Tiger movement. She and her family fled to London and she eventually ended up in Brooklyn. Her music has coarse edges, while artistically blending cultures, styles, and beats. Her lyrics usually touch topics that are far removed from most of our lives, such as poverty, African war, and the life of refugees. As I sat on the swaying subway with MIA rapping in my ears, I started to wonder. Why don’t churches and Christian radio stations play MIA? Isn’t God all about the outcast? The poor? “The least of these?” Could He be sick of me singing songs in church  . . . about me? Wouldn’t He love for us to be thinking about what He thinks about?

MIA’s haunting song, “20 dollar,” is titled for the cost of an AK47 automatic rifle in Africa. She peers into the life of African refugees on the edge of war:

“So I woke up with my Holy Quran and found out I like Cadillac
So we shooting till the song is up
Little boys are acting up
Baby mothers are going crazy
And the leaders all round cracking up
We goat rich, we fry
Price of living in a shanty town just seem very high
We still like T.I.
We still look fly
Dancing as we shooting up
And lootin just to get by.

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head'll collapse when there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself
"Where is my mind?"

War, war, war
Who made me like this
Was it me and god in co-production
My devil's on speed dial
Everytime I take the wrong direction”

Real music for the real world. A song about the forgotten poor, a way to connect our theology to our practice. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to sing a song about Africa when communion is served? How about 20 dollar as the recessional hymn? We could leave thinking about how to use the sermon instead of how to skewer the Pastor.  

Instead, Christian churches and radio stations play and sing the sickly sweet churchy stuff.  Even the Christian music award has an “oh so sweet name,” The Dove Awards. Ahhh, a dove! How nice! Other dove things include Dove chocolate and Dove soap. Maybe they are called Dove Awards because the Christian music industry has targeted women who like chocolate and use soap. I don’t know.