Holy rappers

Christian Century, August 22, 2006

HOLY RAPPERS: Hip-hop worship services are cropping up across the country. Noticing the ubiquity of rap in his neighborhood in the Bronx, Timothy (Poppa T) Holder, a white, middle-aged minister, created a hip-hop mass for Trinity Episcopal Church and developed a hip-hop version of the Book of Common Prayer.

His take on the 23rd Psalm: "The Lord is all that, I need for nothing. / He allows me to chill. / He keeps me from being heated / and allows me to breathe easy ... / And even though I walk through the hood of death, / I don't back down, for You have my back" (Newsweek, July 31).