-
(Photo: Ignition PR)“I’m in Love With a Church Girl” movie still with Ja Rule and Adrienne Bailon.
Ja Rule, born Jeffrey Atkins, appeared on the popular radio show “The Breakfast Club” on Thursday to promote his new memoir, Unruly: The Highs and Lows of Becoming a Man, a new MTV reality show with his family, and other projects. The bulk of the interview, however, centered around religion.
Ja Rule, who previously shared being raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, revealed that what turned him off from the religion was how his family members shunned his mother once she was disfellowshipped from the faith community.
“I found that rather odd,” he said. “I was living with my grandmother at the time. My mom would get me on the weekends and stuff like that. And then they were like, ‘You’re not gonna be able to go with your mom on the weekends anymore.'”
“I didn’t understand it like that. And I was like, ‘Well that’s not gonna fly, and I’m leaving here and gonna live with my mother,'” the rapper said. “We were kinda like the black sheep now. Nobody was dealing with my mother, and that was crazy.”
He explained how the familial breakdown affected him in the long run, saying that seeing how much his mother was hurt by being shunned by her own mother and brother gave him a “sore taste” in his mouth about the religion.
“But then ironically, when I blew up (with his rap career in the 1990s) and started making money and became Ja Rule, everybody could come and speak to my mother,” said the multi-platinum recording artist.
“Instead of me being bitter about it … I was just happy to see my mom happy again to have her family, her mother, back in her life, her brother back in her life,” he added.
When asked by one of the DJs if the Jehovah’s Witnesses teachings he was raised with affect him today, the 38-year-old rapper said, “Not really.”
“You know, when I went to jail and came home, I kind of reconnected with God by doing the I’m in Love With a Church Girl movie. So I was going out to different churches, like a church tour. … I kind of reconnected with God in a different way, because I was going to these churches. … ” Ja Rule explained. I’m In Love With a Church Girl was released in December 2013.
“They were great churches, but I didn’t feel like they were talking to me. Until I went to Hillsong right here in the city, and a pastor named Carl Lentz came out on stage and he started preaching. The rapper went on to share how surprised he was to see the Irving Plaza concert ballroom transformed into a worship setting.
“You walk into the church and it’s dark in there, the disco ball is still in there and you see the lights and you’re like, ‘This is different.’ And you get in there and start to look at everybody around you, and they look just like you,” he said. He added that what he witnessed convinced him that the leaders are sincere when they tell people to come as they are.
“Then the pastor comes out, Carl Lentz … tatted up. When I saw him, he had some (Jordans) on, jeans, a T-shirt. He came out and he started preaching, and I felt like he was talking to me,” said Ja Rule.
“I got saved at that church, me and my wife,” he revealed, adding that he encouraged his wife to take the step with him. “We went up on stage, we got saved and it just gave me a good feeling.”
Ja Rule said he eventually sought guidance from Lentz about his new commitment, and how he was not going to suddenly start producing Gospel records. “He told me, ‘Ja, take baby steps, walk in your path,” said the rapper.
Ja Rule, who dropped a few expletives during the interview, was then asked for his opinion on Ma$e, the rapper born Mason Betha who retired from the industry on more than one occasion to pastor a church, still rapping about “the stuff he raps about.”
Ma$e released a new single titled “Nothing” in May for his upcoming album, Now We Even, and left a few fans confused with his sexually-suggestive lyrics.
“I’m confused. He’s confusing me,” said Ja Rule. “I don’t know how to take it because I’m like, ‘Is that allowed?’ I don’t know.”
“I’m not sitting here saying I’m … the great godly man. I’m not the authority to really speak on these situations,” he continued, admitting that what he has been witnessing from the rapper-pastor doesn’t “feel right.” Ja Rule repeated that he found it confusing, and that he “wouldn’t play with the Lord like that.”
The Queens, New York, rapper went on to admit that although he made a decision to get saved, he was not yet “ready to go all the way” and was still going to make his music in a way that feels good to him.
He went on to point to Jamie Hector, popular for portraying Marlo Stanfield on the hit HBO series The Wire, as an inspiring example of “a church dude” that navigates his professional career without jeopardizing his Christian faith.
“I’m not knowing what’s cool and what’s not cool,” Ja Rule admitted of his new faith walk. “I just want to make sure I do the right thing. I don’t want people on my Twitter being like, ‘Man, I thought you were a holy roller.’ I don’t want people to misconstrue what I’m doing here. I’m taking baby steps and I want to get closer to God. I feel it’s something that you should do in life.”
He went on to say, “I’m a very spiritual dude and I feel you should have your one-on-one with God.”
Questions: [from the Blog Editor]
-
Is he saved?
-
He made a decision and dragged his wife on stage as well
-
Just as he made a decision earlier in his life, now he makes a decision for Jesus?
-
But he’s not ready to go all the way!
-
His pastor Carl Lentz told him to ‘take baby steps’ and go his own path?
-
Ja is still going to make his music in a way that feels good to him?
- He still wants his professional career without jeopardizing his Christian faith?
-
Ja Rule realises he wants to get closer to God, and feels it’s something that he should do in life
- You see he’s a very spiritual dude and feels you should have your one-on-one with God.
So the real question is, who is ruling who?
Ja Rule recently encouraged rapper DMX to seek God in order to combat many of …
-
Ma$e New Song ‘Nothing’ Sparks Mixed Reactions
Mason Betha, known in the hip-hop world as Ma$e, has released a new song called …
-
Mase Trying to Save Rappers’ Souls?
Mason Betha, pastor and founder of El Elyon International Church and Mason …
-
Has Christian Hip-Hop Finally Arrived?
Christian hip-hop has made some notable inroads in the last few years, …
-
Pastor-Rapper Mason Betha’s Church Denies His Wife Twyla Betha Was ‘Banned’ for DUI Arrest
Original Source:
Coercion Code - "Dark Times are upon us" 
when a church becomes like the world in everything they do, and the way they present the Lord to the lost, what else do you expect is going to happen. Nothing more than what is happening. This guy is just a product of todays churches. Where people are taught more to walk their own path , and not the Lords. There is no talk anymore about suffering, carrying your cross etc. .In fact in these types of churches the word sin is a dirty word. He can continue to make music that feels good to him if he wants. That is his prerogative. But like we all will, he will have to give an account to God for it. Growing up in what I did, caused me to be involved in a whole lot of sin. Which some was not easy to give up, when I first became a christian. And yes I struggled. But I can’t use my past as an excuse to keep on sinning, and walking my own path.My Lord paid a heavy price indeed for my pardon. I have yet to see any christian or person who grew up singing in the church, continue to walk solidly with the Lord the way the bible teaches a person too, if they enter or continue a career in the music, movie etc industry., And its because that industry is totally owned and controlled by the illuminati for satan. It’s the biggest industry outside politics and the financial one, that satan has his minions in , to train and use to win the world for him. The bible is clear we can’t serve two masters. So everyone of us has to work out which master do we really want to serve and be a child of.You only also have to look at all the celebs of this industry, who have confessed to growing up in a church, and see what they are dabbling in , or have dabbled in, the way they dress, what sort of songs they sing, and vids they make, and what sort of values and beliefs they end up having ,that totally contradict the bible To see what that industry does to a persons heart,mind and soul, and their relationship with God. Satan wont allow anyone to make it big in his industry, if they are going to continue to truthfully serve the Lord. He will let them rave on they are still a christian, or they still go to church. But he will make sure, they aren’t really living the christian life the way the bible says. So if you want to make it big in that industry, you have to sign on the dotted line, that whilst u may claim God is your number one God still, in reality satan has your soul ,and it’s he who is paying your paychecks, and making you famous. So you must pay the piper back somehow,someway. And when satan requires you to pay him back for all he has given you, it will end up costing you your life, and you will be paying for it for the whole of eternity.
So true…I’m reminded of the great crowds that followed the Lord Jesus in John 6.
By the time he got to saying he was the bread of life v48, and then John 6:56
“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
Then withn a few verses in John 6:66
“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
The followed him no more? Why? What did they understand that we don’t? : (