Over this past weekend, I noticed signs appearing around San Clemente advertising the “OC Smoke Show”—an upcoming event just north of us in San Juan Capistrano, featuring rappers like Lil Jon, Bow Wow, and Soulja Boy.
We need to be clear: this is not the culture of San Clemente. This is not the culture of a community that values families, stability, and decency. This is the degenerate culture of the ghettos and the Hollywood gutter, and it has no business being promoted in our neighborhoods.
The Message We Are Importing
We are being told to welcome acts that built their careers on lyrics that destroy the fabric of society. We are being asked to ignore the reality of what this “music” promotes:
- Lil Jon: Known for tracks that glorify a lifestyle of drunkenness, vulgarity, and the objectification of women.
- Soulja Boy: Famous for lyrics that promote a culture of gang affiliation, illicit sexual activity, and the devaluing of human life.
- Bow Wow: Part of a mainstream industry that pushes the normalization of drugs, crime, and the rejection of all moral authority.
This isn’t “art.” It is a glorification of rebellion, violence, and vice. When you bring this “music” into our town, you are not bringing culture—you are bringing the exact ingredients that turned Los Angeles into the urban nightmare so many people moved away from to find peace in San Clemente.
A Warning
A lot of people moved to San Clemente to escape the decay, the crime, the gangs, and the spiritual filth that define the modern urban sprawl. Yet here it is, advertised on the street corners of our own city.
If we sit by and allow this to be normalized, we will lose the very things that make San Clemente a place worth living. The Bible is clear about the kind of influence we should tolerate in our presence:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
— Ephesians 5:11 (KJV)
We should be appalled. We should be grieved that these signs are posted where our children walk and our families live. We are not Los Angeles, and we must fight to ensure we do not become it.
What Kind of City Do We Want?
The people of San Clemente need to be vigilant. Christians are regularly attacked by the world that hates order, hates decency, and hates the God of the Bible.
We need a return to the moral standards of God’s Word. We need fathers to protect their homes, we need churches to preach against sin, and we need a community that is repulsed by the idea of a rap show in our vicinity.
San Clemente doesn’t need the “OC Smoke Show.” San Clemente needs the light of the Gospel.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…”
— Psalm 33:12 (KJV)
