Eminem, a man of faith

I sometimes wish so much that intolerance and religious activism and fanatism could be banned from earth. A lot of people among those religious freaks still believe that Eminem is a devilish person.
I have spent years studying the Bible,even in Hebrew. I have studied Christianity and Jewish religion. But even during that confused period of my life where I was in deep spiritual search, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to take the right to judge another person as “devilish”.

What you can read on some websites is getting more and more ridiculous. I will show you some replies to Mr T, who is appearently a Christian religious freak. Because he’s a Christian, Mr T thinks he has the right to send Eminem to hell. Unfortunately, I was unable to find his original posting,but his replies to some fans are plain stupid:

http://www.geocities.com/gerbil_2000/feedback.htm

Here is a good example:

“I wish this email did not need any replying to, but since many people take seriously some of the things Suellen said, I think it necessary to respond.
o A man speaks out of the abundance of his heart. Eminem doesn’t need to go “vent” his feelings, he needs to have himself cleansed so that he won’t have any filth to spew.
o Eminem is going to hell because he hates God and lots of other people.
o The Bible doesn’t say not to judge, it says not to judge hypocritically. Suellen judges me, and then she tells me not to judge. That makes her a hypocrite!
o If I didn’t love my neighbor, I would not be warning him about filthy rappers who spread their filth like an infectious disease.
o The Bible doesn’t say #3 at all.
o If “anger and hate is the path to the fiery pit,” somebody better tell Eminem!
Thanks for the email, Suellen.”

He allows himself to judge Eminem and not only the rapper himself, but the huge crowd of his fans:9 million people of different ages, origins and countries! Ain’t that ridiculous? It’s getting tiresome and boring to see how far those narrow minded people are ready to go in their statements:

“Thank you for the compliment, Paul. However, it is most unfortunate that you are a fan of Marshall Mathers. At least 99% of Eminem fans are on the way to hell. I hope you will reconsider your life and remember that on Judgment Day, God is not going to let you off just because you like this site.”

Have you ever seen a photo of Eminem praying? I have. I’m not talking about the part of the “Cleaning Out My Closet” video.
I’m talking about an authentic photo that had been taken before Eminem’s concert and where you can see him talking to God. I would like to share it with you. Check it out:

http://www.shadysoldiers.com/images/emshirtless/emshirtless_07.jpg

Much more than prayers,Eminem’s love for his daughter and for his family members who live with him is more than obvious.
Eminem feels concerned about his daughter’s education:

” So all I can do is be
the best father that I can and try to instill in Hailie
the best values, because I do care about what is said
around her and done around her.”

He also stated that he regularly prays with her.

Mr T and his fellows describe Eminem as a satanistic person and such stupid comments often contribute to a total misunderstanding of the artist by people who don’t know him so well. Slim Shady may be a devilish character, but it is just an ill character, it is Eminem acting on stage. Relax a little, his only wepon is his microphone:

« The fact that a man picks up a microphone,that’s it, you see? That’s what makes him a rapper. It’s not a gun. It’s a microphone »

Whatever Eminem’s evil alter ego may have expressed, Marshall ‘s fight to succeed in life can be compared to Rabbit’s prayer in the “8 Mile song”:

« Yo I won’t tell no lie, not a moment goes by
That I don’t pray to the sky, please I’m beggin you God
Please don’t let me be piegon holed in no regular job… »

The same will, the same faith appear in « Lose Yourself » :

« Success is my only option, failure is not. So here I go, this is my shot, feet fail me not cause this might be the only opportunity that I got. »

If Mr T had taken enough time to study Eminem’s lyrics that he probably considers like a disgusting amount of profanity, he would have found out that there is a certain mystique in what Eminem says in some of his songs. Eminem has given people the keys to fight when they feel too weak. Take a look at the lines of « Till I Collapse » :

« Sometimes you just feel tired, feel weak
When you feel weak, you feel like you just wanna just give up
But you gotta search within you, try and find that inner strength
And just pull that shit out of you, and get that motivation not to give up
And not be a quitter no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face… »

Moreover, Eminem’s whole life story is one of the best examples of faith you those integrists could find if they weren’t so blind and narrow minded.
However, some other Christians didn’t systematically condemn Eminem. One of them, Matt Fontaine, made an interesting comparison between Eminem and Jesus, what they have in common and their differences :

“Jesus is popular for the same reason Eminem is: because he says what he sees, clearly and without bowing to the rules about what can be said, about which languages are legitimate, about who and what you can talk about how.
In this way they can speak directly to people’s hearts and not just to their masks of privilege and social propriety. Eminem is also the opposite: he legitimatizes the appropriation of suffering as entertainment by those who are comfortable, who then get the frisson of ‘real life’ without ever living it or suffering through it or doing anything about it. They can be ‘down’ without walking through the actual desert; they can have the pleasures of heroism without any sacrifice. This is me, too.
Anyway, them’s the ‘thoughts out of school’ of a worldly Christian. Keep up the good work,
matt fontaine “

As far as I’m concerned, there is some truth in his statements. Who could deny both men speaking their minds, both also being rebels?
Christian rapper KJ 52 also offered a more positive perspective. He showed some compassion and some respect towards Eminem.
Another point of view on Eminem by a Christian woman (who listens to his records and who likes him) has been debatted on the following website:

http://www.kimimela.com/archives/000068.html

Mr T’s intolerance and misunderstanding of Eminem goes so far that he actually thinks the rapper is a rapist.

If Marshall was the evil man Mr T is talking about, would he have taken time to pray for his ex wife Kim during his European Tour 2003 ?Would he have felt concerned by his ex wife’s problems ?

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/EMINEM%20PRAYS%20FOR%20KIM

Marshall Mathers is a completely different person in real life than the image his evil alter ego displays: he is a responsible father to Hailie and a good big brother to Nathan. He loves his family.

In a former interview given to Lang Whitaker, Eminem points out people’s hypocrisy when they preach against him:

“ People who don’t know shit about fucking hip-hop will take it the wrong fucking way. It’s like they refuse to see the fucking comedy in it. To me that shows me that I’m hitting some soft spots, for them to take my shit that seriously. It’s like back then when they was younger, they were doing this shit and they don’t want to admit it now. Everybody wants to fucking preach, man. “Don’t do this and don’t do that!” Then they go home and they do it. They say, “Stop porn, stop porn!” Then they go home and they beat off to a fucking porno mag under their bed. They want everybody in the public eye to see that they’re so fucking righteous.”

He’s so right about it. I wish Pharisean Mr T could read his statement. It wouldn’t surprise me if he started an anti- porn campaign while hiding some porn magazines at home!

After years of Bible studies, what I have remembered most is to show compassion and love to other people and that’s the main message that you will find in any religion. But you don’t even need to belong to any religion to apply to this.

Mr T, nothing allows you to jugde Mr Mathers, but I will give you two main reasons:
-first if you believe in God, you should know that only God can jugde. You have no right and also no power to send Eminem nor his fans to hell.
-second, I doubt you have ever walked one mile in Eminem’s shoes. If you had, this would definitly close your dirty mouth.