Barrett Wright is a Christian and an avid hip-hop fan, but recently he’s been wondering if those two passions are compatible.

Christianity and hip-hop are “two big cultures that are dominating today,” but many hip-hop songs mention lifestyles that “diametrically oppose Jesus and morality,” said Wright, pastor of First Baptist Church in Scottsville and a religious studies graduate student at Western Kentucky University.

“We really can’t ignore these two influential forces,” he said. “One has had clout for many years: religion. But hip-hop is really gaining steam.”

Whether it’s possible to be a Christian and love hip-hop was recently a topic of discussion at Western Kentucky University’s Baptist Campus Ministry, where Wright is an intern.

“I was thinking about what we could do to bring this conversation to the forefront,” Wright said.

So he organized the lecture “Can You Love Jesus and Hip Hop?” on Tuesday in WKU’s Grise Hall Auditorium. He hopes the lecture will lead to forming a campus group he plans to call “the hip-hop circle” that will dig deeper into the topic of Christianity and hip-hop.

“I’m trying to continue this conversation about hip-hop and religion,” Wright said. “We want to keep these talks going.”

To give the lecture, Wright brought in Julius Bailey, a philosophy professor at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, who has written several books about hip-hop, philosophy and culture.

Bailey believes hip-hop addresses the search for meaning in existence, which appeals to African-Americans because “for the African-American community, who have been rendered invisible, this quest of identity is not a new quest,” he said.

“Hip-hop is unafraid … to engage in the ugliness of the experience,” Bailey said. “… Hip-hop says ‘I see hypocrisy.’ Hip-hop attempts to say ‘the fundamental ethos of this culture is truth telling, the fundamental ethos of this culture is keeping it real.’ ”

Bailey was originally drawn to hip-hop because of the medium’s openness and honesty, but he sees many current hip-hop artists release projects that are not authentic, but “literally cookie-cutter projects,” he said. “This is what the label wants, this is what the people want.”

“If you’re not going to be as authentic as you can be, if you’re not going to rub up against traditional values … then we are a decadent country putting out decadent art,” Bailey said.

“Art has to be consistent with the way I want to live my life,” he said. “Any art that doesn’t uplift, it denigrates. Hip-hop in its very nature is subversive against a culture that denigrates. If your art is doing the same daggone thing (as the culture you’re denigrating), then you’re a parody of art.”

He believes that art should be something that uplifts, shapes and self-actualizes listeners.

“I’m not a hip-hop head, but I love the people and the culture that creates it,” Bailey said. “I’m going to give it the attention it deserves, but if you’re not going to create it in a way that uplifts, then I need to dismiss your art, bro. We need to be critical about the very thing we ingest.”

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Laurel Wilson on Twitter at twitter.com/FaithinBG or visit bgdailynews.com.