Propaganda - Precious Puritans Lyrics

That song sounds a lot like Cubbiebear’s “Contra.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr6k92zjQPo

Don't worship heroes.
There's only been one Hero in history, and He isn't back quite yet.
Everybody else, no matter what their ideals or good works, is a fallen human.

There is none righteous, no not one.
Remember that.

Most of the people we quote and admire in our bibles have done far worse than the Puritans (Abraham, David, Paul, Lot etc. *Note they also owned slaves) , so by that logic we should disregard their teaching. All knowledge is from God so any knowledge a person has has nothing to do with the person, the Glory is to God who grants wisdom and knowledge to wicked people like you, me and even the puritans.

A Biblical slave and and American slave are two different types of slavery,
2 Paul did not do worse than the Puritans, Saul did, but when God stepped in, Saul became a knew man in Christ, so who he was before Christ is irrelevant. The difference is that the Puritans and many others claimed to be in Christ when they were strictly disobeying God, and that is the difference. If it was before they were saved, then they have been forgiven, if it was not, then it is something to be concerned about.
After Paul got saved by God, everything that he did, he did it "unto the Lord."

Surely Me. I disagree with u on the fact that all the puritan Christians stopped being rasist after they God saved. Some did, the writer of Amazing grace got converterded and God called him out on being a slaveship capt and he left. Then he wrote amazing grace BUT then u have people like Luther. He gets converted, starts preaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and the reformation exploded over europe, but Luther was extremely antisemitic even After getting saved. What I'm saying is don't suggest that "ppl got saved and they were all better" or that they weren't still racist. By saying that this is true we attempt to make a very dirty history, cleaner. No my friend. Ppl are a sinful wicked mess, thus "God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines".

And that very thing. Ppl being a sinful crooked mess but God still saves them. That is what makes the Gospel of Christ awesome.

@Spiro Trance that still doesn't change the fact they set up a work based punishment system where you would be put to death for heresy according to puritan doctrine.

Puritans may not have been the best, but they were bad christians, as bad as inquisitors. There are far better christian groups like Anglicans, presbyters, Lutherans, etc, to learn from then Puritans.

Even the stuff you could praise them for, they were an offshoot of Calvin, which I recommend over learning from Puritans. We do not go back to puritan society, since not even Baptists hold up to puritans

I clicked on this when I saw Kevin's name!! I love hearing him playing the cello in this!

Harvest Fest 2016!!!!

Thank you Propaganda for blessing us with your musical gift!

Continued blessings and protection to you and your family, in Jesus name.

THE ALLITERATIONS

God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines.... what an awesome and insightful line.

this is poetry free verse

Set to a musical rhythm and beat, known as rapping......

+Throne Thrower this isn't exactly rap its spoken word which doesn't require rhymes but it can have rhymes the content is exciting and the tone is inspirational and mainly serious

love it. Hard to face how these men, with feet of clay and brilliant theology could be so blind to their racist hearts

And their system of punishing their own brothers

What a clown...

If u don't like propaganda then y r u listening to him he is singing of God so u should keep Ur comments to Ur self

Oh, precious Bruno! (Romanos 3:23)

_Precious humanity._ "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory."  Romans 3:23

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always brother.

No human, or humans should be held up on a pedestal.

Except Jesus

In high school, I remember the puritans were portrayed as egocentric, prideful, hateful, tyrannical Pharisees who were against anything good. Later, in my own studies in theology, I began reading these guys without realizing they were supposed to be part of the same group that were so "evil" and mean. Once I took history in college, I was read up enough on them to question the professor, especially on his presentation on Jonathan Edwards. He ended up agreeing with pretty much every point I made, which confused me. After class, he told me this. "Like everyone else, the Puritans were not perfect. They had a lot of things right and they got it, but they also had many flaws and did things wrong." I guess my final contention was, "Why do educators portray them as only mean-spirited and evil while dismissing everything else that was pretty good?"

I like this song, because it reflects on both sides, the good and bad, but at the end points to God as the one who is gracious and merciful enough to save and use fallen people for his greater plan.

You sound like you missed it

Oh my word! This hits hard.. and did you know Kevin Olusola is the guy from Pentatonix?

Dare to Share Seattle. First Propaganda siting for me :P

whoa. just changed my entire perspective. genuinely.

Emily Thomes same for me when I first listened!

This dude is spittin flames.

Spittin 🔥🔥

Didn't even rap. Just talked over music how lame.

it's called spoken word

Did you listen to what he was saying?

it's called poetry, spoken word.

natebun24 I know this comment is 4 years old... But wow. Someone probably only listens to music without substance.

He's right, never has one generation  gotten it right. I didn't know Michelangelo was gay.

you know Jesus did really look like those paintings... WOW 

"didn't"

Lets just stick with "we don't really know for sure"

http://guardianlv.com/2014/05/what-jesus-really-looked-like-prepare-to-be-shocked-video/

+Seth Cusson What do you mean we don't know? We even know Jesus's real name: Yeshua Ben Yosef. He was described as being short and dark with a scraggly beard.

he is saying that their theology was wrong and was use to Justify enslaving people

not the first part, but the second part.
"There's not one generation of believers that has figured out the marriage between proper doctrine and action". 2:43
...it's the action he's aiming at in this song. What he thinks of their theology isn't mentioned, though we can assume his pastor(s) think the Puritans were dope. And he hasn't written a song to disagree on *that* point.

My one regret in life is that I missed propaganda when he came to my city...

Yeah I like this song too.

i hope not!

You know how a lot of rappers just use a lot of words that sound "smart" and in the end, it just doesn't make any sense?
Well, this dude clearly made his point while using a beautiful vocabulary at the same time.
SICK!

Well, regardless, I do appreciate being corrected on slavery in the North. I knew there was some, but I did not realize it was so prevalent. But, we will just have to disagree on the theology stuff. :)

As a Calvinist, I will obviously have to just agree to disagree. We aren't going to pretty much agree on anything I guess aside from the fact that the Puritans certainly shouldn't be idolized by anybody.

And that they should die with history as the worst christian group

Who do you consider deep then?

Oh, no, you think Fanny Crosby is deep, don't you. :)

Wow, you are not very smart if you think the Puritans aren't deep. Have you read Edwards? John Owen?

Don't know anybody saying let's become a theocracy. There are fringe Christian Reconstructionists out there, but they are not the Puritan movement.

And again, I don't know anybody who puts the Puritans on such a pedestal that they were perfect. So, this whole song is pointless. Nobody is perfect, so again, what's his point? That he hates Puritans?

How can a creative expressing himself in his chosen artform be pointless? I noticed how many comments you made...hi passionate you are about thi subject. Please don't invalidate a good song because it touches something within you don't like. Explore that instead. Consider that he wrote that song first for himself and then for anyone else who needs to do similar introspection an to enlighten anyone more ignorant than yourself on the topic

It is a response to the wonderful movement increasing interest in the deep theology of the Puritans, yes. It's amazing how applicable they made complex concepts. Nothing like reading the Puritans to understand just how bad sin is really. Those reading the Puritans read for the good theology, not bad things like slavery. So, how is his song relevant? Of course everyone is imperfect, every single group, including the blacks who gave their brethren to slave traders but escape any of the blame.

Until Propaganda bothers to indicate that all people are imperfect, including the people who gave the white men the slaves by theft or other method, it's hard to care about his pointing out one imperfect group of people, people who make mistakes. Yeah, Puritans weren't perfect, but that goes for everybody. You have made your point that slavery was something that happened in the North.

All this is character assassination. Does not really matter what people hundreds of years ago did in a different time. Propaganda doesn't care in this song that fellow blacks are responsible for turning over the slaves to the whites, so I really don't care if Edwards owned slaves, which he did. So what?

Certainly some did own real slaves, but many did have indentured servants, who were not slaves. Regardless, slavery was not the center of the economy like the South.

I would have no issue if he would not have just said that instead of pointing out one group to focus on, a group that as a whole did not own slaves (there were some who did, but it was not like the southern plantation slavery).

I was a history major, but I appreciate you for bringing up one case to try to defeat the argument with this artist's historically incorrect information and hatred of white settlers.

What do you mean the artist is no Lecrae? "Lecrae" is no lecrae. Don't pedastool these people. This is the same guy that records songs with secular artist..so yea he's just as flawed as the artist your criticizing. How ironic is it that that's the whole point of this song. "Worship Christ Only" only he is precious!

I am African and have studied African history for 12 years now. 1st, Africans did not steal slaves. In raids they stole livestock like cattle and some went to the extreme of stealing another tribe's women. They did not steal men because of the fear of being outgrown or deceived. They did not want to be overthrown or killed 'from inside'. Secondly, what you are taught in your system is wrong. thats why you need to do your homework before you criticize propaganda for being "OFF"

all i know is Esau is Isaiah in Swahili..

The ideals of "Puritans" are still alive today my friend. However, most are blinded by the white supremacist lies they are taught to ever understand the world they live in. One question "Who is Esau and how does this man relate to the White-man's world we live in? If you can answer that then you know the end game.

hmm, would you quote the Psalms to the surrounding gentile nations of modern day Israel? I would.

@roywaggoneer

This man has a degree in intercultural studies and a teaching credential. He can teach 12th Grade History. :)

Stellar. And for the folks complaining about Puritans not owning slaves, it is you who need the history lesson. Slavery outgrew from indentured servanthood.

he said slaveships..... nobody was talking about founding fathers

This "artist" is no Lecrae. Frankly, the point he is trying to make about God using sinners is completely lost in how horrible this song is. The historical errors are immense. The Puritans were not southern slaveholders. Dude, they settled Boston, not Virginia. The man needs to go back to third grade history class. Furthermore, the Puritan Samuel Sewall is known for writing a famous anti-slavery tract. Simply amazing how OFF the song is. By the way, slaves were stolen by other African tribes.

The song is explained at the end. The quoting of Puritans bothers him just as much as when he is quoted. He sums it up saying, "I guess God really does use crooked sticks to make straight lines."

I understand the song. He could have made a song about Christ instead of a song about the puritans. This song brings down sinners for doing bad things. It doesn't really build up, or show the characteristics of the Spirit. He shows anger toward people who sinned 300-500 years ago. The puritans have nothing to do with Propaganda. God can deal with sinners. Our job is to forgive them.

You missed the point.

The meaning and takeaway of the piece lies behind the meaning and history of the final line, "God really does use crooked sticks to make straight lines." The line (or something very close) was first stated by a white Puritan but made more famous by an African-American pastor. Prop is not condemning the puritans but saying we should all be pointing to God's glory and our own weakness.

Gj criticizing... ofc you could try CREATING your own art rather than breaking someone elses down... just saying

Not all puritan owned slaves.

He's saying that the puritans were sound in theology but they owned slaves. They he points at his own life and said that he is just as sinful as the puritans so we need to understand there's nothing wrong with quoting puritans or propaganda we just need to know that they are sinful men or " crooked sticks made straight lines"

I love the puritans.

Christians who do research. Love it

keep speaking the truth bro YAHWEH Bless.

Epic Beards.....smh

A lot of churches quote the puritans like they were precious, when they brought slavery and that crap over with them. Or at least i think that's what he's saying. Amazing song. Love that last line!

I know where he's coming from. But I don't see how this song is doing any good.

no he is not talking about the founding fathers. search google for a breakdown of the song and you can find a couple of explanations of the song.

Uuuuhhh....lol yes he is

Uh, what are you talking about? Who is quoting Puritans? I hope you're not referring to the American founding fathers, because not a single one was Puritan. In fact, Puritan culture died out essentially with the Salem Witch trials, nearly one hundred years before the Declaration of Independence was even penned. Get at me.

Too raw!!!

white boys with epic beards lol

I'm in love with this poem!

Props going for the jugular

Whole album is sick!

album of the year... and it free but worth the buy

so grateful to God that this is happening!!!!!!!