You Can't Have Access To Me And Avoid Palestine

Let me make myself perfectly clear. To all my patrons, readers, followers, online acquaintances:

I want my words and actions to be so full of "Free Palestine" that nobody gets to have access to my company, my friendship, my conversation, my art, my talents, my skills, without having to also face Palestine. Without also having to learn about the Palestinian genocide, the Palestinian people's oppression under the Israeli colonial occupation, and without having to contend with my cry for their complete liberation.

I continue to interact with acquaintances and strangers in the online space who see my ample posts about Palestine, but remain silent themselves. They watch and like my songs, art, lectures, and stories, but when it comes to Free Palestine, they do not interact.

Many wish to continue to enjoy my sermons, devotionals, music, art, and writing, while chalking my activism for Palestine up to a character flaw, a tragic case of being misinformed, or a "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree" thing. I've had ample complaints from customers buying my albums, students sending me emails, and viewers writing in my YouTube comments, that I mustn't "be so political" or "keep going on about it". "We like your content, but cool it on the Palestine stuff."

There have similarly been a slew of negative responses at The House, the house church where I pastor. Some wish for me to continue sharing Bible stories but not talk so much about Palestine.

But make no mistake; the core of my beliefs - not just as an artist and a theologian, but as a human being - will always revolve around the values that compel my unbridled support of Free Palestine. 

What you see is what you're going to continue to get. Not just for a little while, either. It's the same values that make me cry for the liberation of The Democratic Republic of Congo. It's the same values that fuel the ongoing anti-racist learning I believe in, the decolonising of Christian theology which I teach, which inform my criticism of capitalism, my support of the Black Lives Matter movement, my advocacy for women and intersectional feminism, my defence of children, refugees, immigrants, indigenous populations, the disabled.

You will never get to comfortably enjoy my work if you wish to avoid Palestine - or any of these other causes. I have absolutely no interest in trying to sell you on a version of myself as artist or producer which hides or minimises this reality. My goal isn't, and never was, to gain online followers at all costs, or to retain your attention by any means. If the numbers go down, so be it.

Let's not play games, you and I. Let's be honest about who we are.

I'd like you to know where you have me, and who you can expect me to be moving forward. I will strive to continue to be as transparent as possible. I ask that you don't delude yourself into thinking I'm someone or something I'm not. I am a person completely in love with the beauty of a liberating king called Jesus. I believe in what he has done, in all he is and will do.

I am for the Palestinians - for land back, for their deliverance from colonial occupation, for their freedom, their lives, their independence.

With me, it will always be "Free Palestine - from the river to the sea!"