‘No Church in the Wild’: The Youth’s Unrecognized Spirituality Between Beats and Rhymes

Might be a hard pill to swallow, but the rapper who reminded us that Jesus walks with pimps, hoes and crack dealers makes a timely revelation: There is “No Church in the Wild.”

One of the most talked about songs off Kanye West and Jay-Z’s recent collaborative LP Watch the Throne, people are calling the newly released single “No Church in the Wild” an “existential rejection of organized religion.” That it most certainly is. I personally can’t stop singing the chilling hook to this song. Like many young people today, West is critiquing organized religion. That doesn’t mean however that neither he nor they have given up on hope and meaning.

This song foreshadows the reality of a growing rise of religious non-affiliation in our country, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press. The USA Today recently reported that nearly one in five Americans are religiously unaffiliated — the highest number yet.

These trends are even more apparent among young people. I’ve experienced this first hand on the ground interviewing youth in Portland, Ore., for my current survey project Remaking Religion.

Over the years, I have worked with countless urban youth afflicted by issues of gang violence, homophobia and class inequality. They’ve lamented that they don’t feel accepted in dominant institutions — the school and the church included. With no place to go, many of them turn to the arts to craft meaning and find a cathartic release.

Hip hop is one of these powerful outlets in society today.
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