*This song and album contain heavy explicit content
Your Truth and The Truth
Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers’ opening track, “United in Grief,” begins with a woman’s voice insisting, “tell them the truth,” followed two lines later by a slight variation of the line: “tell them your – [truth].” Lamar juxtaposes “the truth” and “your truth,” perhaps implicitly acknowledging a difference between “the truth” and “your truth.” As the album jumps into themes of trauma, identity, and gender transition, the word “truth” comes up again and again. Lamar raps “My truth too complicated to hide now” on “Die Hard,” states “This my undisputed truth” on “Purple Hearts,” and relates that his transgender cousin was “living his truth even if it meant see a surgeon” on “Auntie Diaries.”
The distinction framed by Lamar between “the truth” and “my truth” is a legitimate tension that should be acknowledged. Because each person has an understanding of reality that is limited by their experiences, capacities, and biases, we each hold a view of God, the world, and others that is only partially true. No two persons’ experiences are the same, and as our experiences shape how we see the world and what we believe, it is critical that we recognize the limitations of our own perspective and try to understand the perspectives of others. Attempting to understand the perspectives of others does not mean denying that there is Truth and it does not mean agreeing with everyone’s perspectives. It does, however, allow us to learn from one another and humbly recognize the limitations of our own perspectives.
True to his style of lyrical role-playing, Lamar’s lyrics both support and question the concept of “my truth.” Exploring his own traumatic past, Lamar recognizes that he must come face-to-face with the reality of how personal and subjective experiences of trauma damaged him and those around him, truths “too complicated to hide.” On “Auntie Diaries,” Lamar takes the position of an LGBTQ+ advocate, standing up against a religious authority figure to support his cousin “living his truth” as a transgender person.
Conversely, on “N95” Lamar calls out anyone who sees their own truth as the only truth, asking, “Where the hypocrites at? What community feel they the only ones relevant?” While ‘hypocrite’ is often an overtly religious term, Lamar could be using the term to criticize any community, whether religious or non-religious. Lamar is noting that when personal truth becomes the primary factor that identifies an individual or community, it becomes exclusive rather than inclusive. A common line of logic in today’s culture is that the subjectivity of “my truth” is far more inclusive than saying that there is “Truth.” However, the implication here is that because personal truth claims shape personal identities and communities, “personal truth” can be just as exclusive. The supposed inclusivity of welcoming all personal truths may be inherently divisive. As an example of how elevating personal truth over all other truths can cause division, it is the LGBTQ+ community that has criticized Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers—for the song intended to be in support of the LGBTQ+ community, “Auntie Diaries.”
Identity and Division
“Auntie Diaries” narrates Lamar’s journey into accepting transgender persons and the transgender lifestyle. While the song is meant to support transgender persons, it has drawn mixed responses. Some transgender persons find the song inspiring,3 but others, such as a Vox writer who reviewed the album, find the song transphobic.4 Vox cursorily notes that the song is meant to be about trans acceptance, then goes on to berate Lamar for not handling the issues carefully enough.4
What is interesting about the Vox review of “Auntie Diaries” is that the author seems to have little awareness of the fact that, in their call for Lamar to be more inclusive and sensitive, they are making an enemy of an ally (a stark contrast to Jesus’s statement that anyone who is not against him is with him [Mark 9:39]). It is not enough that Lamar agrees with the ideology, from Vox’s view he has still failed to say the right things in the right way. Lamar is excluded from being seen as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community because how he expresses his personal truth is not closely aligned enough with the personal truths of certain members of the LGBTQ+ community. While LGBTQ+ advocates aim for inclusivity and to protect persons who have often been harmed by those in power, the subjective and individual view of truth that underpins the ideology actually blocks the inclusion of anyone who disagrees with the ideology (or, as in the case of Lamar, even some of those who do agree).
Jesus and Inclusivity
The message of Jesus is inherently inclusive in a way that any ideology dominated by personal truth claims cannot be. Before saying more about this, we should acknowledge that the lives of Christians and Christian communities do not always reflect this. Lamar’s questions, “Where the hypocrites at? What community feel they the only ones relevant?” could justifiably be leveled at many Christian communities, past and present. In the climax of “Auntie Diaries” after a confrontation between Lamar and the family’s pastor, Lamar declares, “The day I chose humanity over religion/ The family got closer, it was all forgiven.” Lamar’s point is that he felt that loving people and following the religious truth he had been taught were mutually exclusive. Although there is tension between how to love people in a broken world while also loving God (and Christians often fail to do both simultaneously), followers of the message of Jesus do not have to choose between humanity and Jesus.
The example of Jesus is to love sinners and outcasts. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10-17). Jesus’s fraternization with those he was ideologically unaligned with is in stark contrast to something like Vox’s response to Lamar, indicating the inclusivity of Jesus’s life and message. As Christ-followers, we can and should—in fact, must— actively love those with whom we disagree. Often, this message for Christians comes with the implicit (or sometimes explicit) condition that the sinners we share our lives with should at some point come around to seeing things our way, rejecting their old beliefs and sinful ways. But while many of the people Jesus met were compelled to follow him, there is no indication in Scripture that all of the sinners he shared a meal with repented of their sins and followed him. Jesus’s mission in the world was to call sinners to himself, but acceptance of Jesus’s invitation was not the criteria that determined how Jesus treated sinners.
Jesus claimed that his teaching was the Truth—that he himself was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Jesus’s claim to Truth and his call to love can draw into unity those who disagree with one another, and is more inclusive than any ideology driven by personal ‘truth’ alone. Yet, in a broken and complicated world, it is not always easy to follow Jesus’s example.
Loving the Other
The question of how we love others is challenging and does not look the same in every situation. Here are a few thoughts on how we can strive to follow Jesus’s example in loving others, regardless of their chosen identity or ideology.
First, acknowledge the complexity of ideas and people. Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is a complicated work of art and a short article cannot do it justice. In this article I have tried to fairly present some of the themes of the album, but by no means have I given a full representation of the album. To judge the album by this article would be a mistake. Similarly, people are complicated works of art and cannot be given full representation by their ideologies or chosen identities. To truly appreciate and love people as Jesus did we must see past the “what” they are to the “who” they are.
Second, maintain the tension between “your truth” and “the Truth.” While unapologetically standing for the message of Jesus, to love others well we need to understand their experiences and perspectives, recognizing their pain, their joys, their confusions, and their sorrows. Although there are many places to disagree with him, Lamar nevertheless has some advice worth listening to when it comes to loving others. Lamar raps on “Auntie Diaries,” “to truly understand love, switch position[s].” Switching positions does not have to mean agreeing with another person’s perspective; but seeing things from multiple perspectives may be crucial to understanding and loving a person. While it may be difficult, holding the tension between Truth and an individual person’s experience is one of the things required to love people who are not like us.
Finally, keep learning who Jesus is and what it looks like to follow him. When we are secure in our identity in Christ, we are free to love others and ourselves as Jesus does. Read the Gospels, meditating on who Jesus is. Learn from wise people who reflect Christ’s character in their lives. Find ways to build or deepen relationships with people who are not like you and may disagree with you. Following the example of Jesus is not easy, there is no formula for how to do it; but it is the responsibility of Christians to strive to be like Christ.
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