The search bar on my “Windows” laptop typically displays a theme for each day, whether it’s “National [This] Day” or “World [That] Day,” and sometimes it will display the name of a famous artist, scientist, politician, or other person that contributed something major to modern Western society. Recently, the person that came up was a 20th-century black American musician with the stage name “Nina Simone.” She was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, and passed away in 2003 from breast cancer.
You can read the full Wikipedia biography here, but as I
was reading through it, I felt moved to highlight a few things from her life:
Waymon was born and raised in the Methodist church, where
her mom was a preacher. Her talent at the keyboard was discovered super-early
on, not unlike, say, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and was subsequently enrolled in
piano lessons to develop her skills. Despite many different challenges along the
way, she went on to have a modestly successful career as a musician, as a pianist,
singer, and composer/songwriter.
But despite that success, and especially despite her full immersion
in the church growing up, she made several key decisions in her life that drew
her away from God, and despite reaping many of those consequences during her
time here on earth, it doesn’t appear she ever repented or even considered
repenting.
Waymon adopted a stage name (“Nina Simone”) so that her mom,
who was a devout Christian and concerned about her daughter being influenced by
the world (especially by fame), would not be able to detect that she was indeed
taking gigs that may not have been honoring to the Lord. Her Wikipedia biography
even had this to say: “Knowing her mother would not approve of her playing “the
Devil's music,” she used her new stage name to remain undetected.”
[As an aside, I do believe that most if not all musical styles
are neutral. Whether I play classical or jazz or blues or rock, I don’t believe
the style matters. What does matter are two things: 1.) the lyrics, and 2.) the
venues in which such music is being performed. I would add a third thing as
well: with whom one is performing the music. I say this because I’ve come
across the phrase “the Devil’s music” to refer to any kind of popular music
that was outside the church especially in the 20th century, and I think
the term gets thrown around a bit too loosely. After all, there are way too many
churches these days where they honor God with their lips but their hearts are far
from Him, and other cases where it is they who play “the Devil’s music”! I say
this to address bluntly that far more spiritual discernment is needed before calling
something a thing.]
Another key moment in Waymon (aka “Nina Simone”)’s life was
when she wrote the song “Mississippi [blasphemy redacted]” in 1964. Wikipedia
calls it “her “first civil rights song”. Composed in less than an hour,
the song emerged in a “rush of fury, hatred, and determination” as she “suddenly
realized what it was to be black in America in 1963.”” I’m sure that a topic
like this is much easier to view in hindsight in 2025 than it would have been back
in the 1960s, but looking back (with aforementioned hindsight) it is clear that,
for many, the outrage at Jim Crow-era racism turned into hatred and revenge. I
even commented on some of what I was seeing in 2020 in the aftermath of the Derek
Chauvin vs George Floyd incident as going way beyond understandable and
acceptable outrage. But it started in the 1960s. And the writing of this song
(and the entire album on which it was released) put her on a trajectory of bitterness
and hatred, under the deceit of pursuing “social justice.”
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19, NKJV
Regarding our country’s history of slavery, unjust
segregation, and any other form of racism, below is what God’s Word has to say regarding
what we need to do, concerning the above and any other situation of injustice.
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14, NKJV
God is just, and He cares about injustice. But we have done
a terrible job of allowing God to be judge and to administer justice His way.
The Bible is littered with what He has to say about injustice and how to
administer justice:
You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’ Deuteronomy 1:17, NKJV
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. Deuteronomy 10:17, NKJV
You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Deuteronomy 16:19, NKJV
Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. Acts 10:34, NKJV
For there is no partiality with God. Romans 2:11, NKJV
And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. Ephesians 6:9, NKJV
Another area was how Waymon handled her private life. She regretted marrying her first husband and ultimately divorced him. (There doesn’t appear to be any incident of adultery occurring that sparked this.)
But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Matthew 5:32, NKJV
She married her second husband who was abusive, but her
response to his ongoing abuse was, even after fleeing him, to take it out on her
(their) daughter, straining their relationship to the point that she left her
nothing in her will when she died.
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, Exodus 20:5, NKJV
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:7, NKJV
‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18, NKJV
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, Deuteronomy 5:9, NKJV
A significant part of Waymon’s legacy unfortunately is that
she continued patterns of abuse, heaping bitterness upon bitterness. She let
herself become deceived by aspects of civil rights (which did on the whole need
to happen) that were more marked by seeking and pursuing vengeance (aka Malcolm
X) than by being the offering/sacrifice (aka MLK Jr). Her breakout song
involved profaning the name of the Lord. She went into music to be a classical
pianist; she unfortunately never quite accomplished that. She wrote music
supporting what she thought was for civil rights, only to be hooked on the
anger and hatred and vengeance (in the name of social justice), only to be left
behind once the same people who supported her work fled and began protesting
the Vietnam War instead. She married two different men without putting them
through a proper vetting process (one was a beatnik; the other was an abuser)
and ended up replicating on her daughter what her second husband (and daughter’s
father) had done to her.
God gave Waymon 70 years, which is a lot longer than many of
her contemporaries, including Billie Holliday, Janis Joplin, et al. But she
never repented and therefore was never saved. Her daughter, on the other hand,
is still alive. I know not whether she is continuing any of the same sins as those
of her mother (or her father, for that matter), but there is still hope here.
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Ezekiel 18:20, NKJV
For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2, NKJV
And there is still hope for you as long as you are still
alive.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9, NKJV
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