CHRISTAFARI: REGGAE FOR JESUS

By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA.  (ANS) -- GROWING UP

Christafari founder and lead singer Mark Mohr’s mother Margaret described her son’s turbulent teenage years as “pure hell.” (Pictured: Mark Mohr).

just in case you’re wondering who or what Christafari is, the band is recognized as one of the main forces in American reggae and Gospel music. Christafari was nominated for the 2002 Marlin award for International Artist of the Year. The band’s album, “Word Sound & Power,” was also nominated for four Marlin Awards in 2000: Caribbean Group Vocal Performance of The Year, Caribbean Duo Vocal Performance of The Year, Caribbean Reggae/Dancehall Recording of The Year, and Caribbean Album of The Year. (Pictured: Christafari).

But today’s success didn’t come overnight. It was a difficult road for both Mohr and his parents while the Lord was bringing him to where he is today.

Raised by godly parents in a Christian home, for a while Mohr became a drug- dabbling, pot- smoking rebel.

Mohr, who smoked marijuana for the first time when he was about nine or ten, said he was initially influenced toward drugs when he was being babysat by his older brother.

Ironically, although Mohr was “dabbling” in drugs he was also going to Christian camps. The problem was that when he came home he would hang out with the same friends he’d had before camp and he’d be right back in trouble.

Mohr was able to hide from his parents the full extent of his involvement with drugs but they still knew that something was going on. “While I was in the Boy Scouts, I leaned toward kids that were messed up. My parents never knew everything but as a result of what they did know they sent me to drug counseling and AA programs and I also had random urine tests.”

REGULAR REGGAE

In his mid teens Mohr went to Jamaica with his parents, on what should have been an innocent and enjoyable family vacation. That experience introduced him to reggae music, which is pro- marijuana.

Mohr explained that reggae is the music of the Jamaican counter culture, Rastafarianism. Rastafarians worship the late Emperor Haile Selassie (whose previous name was Ras Tafari) of Ethiopia as the black Christ (or the living God for the black race). They use marijuana as a holy sacrament to draw themselves closer to Selassie.

Interestingly, Selassie was not a Rastafarian himself. He was a Christian. As one commentator (www.aspects.net/~nick/religion.htm) writes, “In fact, no one is really sure what he thought of the whole Rastafarian movement. When a group of Rastas went to Ethiopia to honor him, an official of the palace told them to go away! This did not make the Rastas question their belief, it only made it stronger. God is not supposed to know he is God.”

Mohr liked the Rastafarian beliefs. He went back to Jamaica time and time again.

“I started to write songs about it. I thought that I had found the perfect religion. It quoted from the Bible in a way that made me feel comfortable and justified my use of marijuana.”

Not surprisingly, Mohr’s parents were very concerned about their son’s behavior.

GOING DOWN BEFORE COMING UP

Things didn’t get any better. When he was about 15, Mohr ran away from home. He routinely went from party to party, many times spending the night in abandoned houses. Despite that, his parents never gave up on him. As Mohr recalled, “They were like the prodigal parents, always willing to do anything to see me get right with God.”

The fundamental requirement for Mohr coming back home was for him to attend Bible study once a week. As Mohr recalled, this resulted in him “getting filled with the Word” every week.

During his prodigal years, Mohr attended 14 Christian camps at which he rededicated his life. However, it seemed that nothing made a lasting difference in his life. Even then, his parents persisted with their wayward son, ultimately sending him to the J H Ranch, a high adventure extreme camp. Then came the time for which his parents had patiently waited and prayed.

“The Lord met me in an undeniable way,” Mohr told me. “I was surrounded by people I didn’t know with no friends. I was the one rebel.”

While Mohr did find someone at camp with whom he did have a lot in common, and who impacted him greatly, there was one huge difference between the two of them.

Mohr asked him what that difference was and the young man said, “‘The love of God.’ He was what I was but he was someone different. That was the trigger, and the bullet was when the pastor gave the altar call.”

Mohr was immediately and intensely serious about his newfound faith and the camp staff helped him to cement that dedication by encouraging him to read the Bible every day for six weeks. The idea was that if you do something for six weeks or longer then it becomes a habit and much harder to break.

MOHR’S CALL TO MINISTRY: REGGAE FOR JESUS

The Lord began speaking to Mohr even before he came home from that eventful camp. “When I was (there) and I came to Christ I remember saying, ‘God, I don’t want to be some suit and tie missionary,’ and He impressed upon me to start the first Christian reggae band.”

Consequently Christafari was birthed in 1989 with Mohr and a few of his friends.

Mohr was blessed almost immediately with wise advice from a good pastor. “He said, ‘If you’re really serious about that, you need to get doctrinally sound.’ He was a Biola (University of La Mirada, Ca.) alumni and it was natural where to go.”

BIOLA

Although Mohr didn’t finish his degree at Biola, he greatly appreciated his experience while there. He was able to focus on his interests, so not surprisingly in a course on cults he focused on Rastafarianism.

Just prior to the end of his degree, Mohr and his band were invited to take part in a major reggae tour. He and the band were the only Christian artists ever invited to do so. However, Mohr told me that while the tour went very well, one of the most popular artists there tried to kill him.

Mohr explained that while at Biola he had written a paper dealing with why Selassie couldn’t be the Messiah. He turned it into a booklet which he distributed to all the artists on the tour. All of them had read it.

However, according to Mohr, artist Buju Banton wanted to do more than disagree agreeably. “The guy was very popular but he didn’t like it (the booklet). He wanted to prove himself to the Rasta elders and he tried to stab me. I lunged back every time he lunged forward. Finally the police came. I chose not to press charges which could have resulted in him being deported. I figured he couldn’t begin to understand and receive my God of grace unless I forgave him.”


AFTER THE TOUR: THE ALBUM AND THE SPLIT

After the reggae tour was over, Christafari was signed by Sony Epic. In Mohr’s words, “Things started growing.” However, after recording another album titled “The Valley of Decision,” things started getting difficult. The band split.

However, in retrospect Mohr can see God’s hand working in what back then was a very unpleasant situation. “While it was a tough struggle God used something that was initially construed as being very negative. We had a different approach to ministry (from those who left the band).

Mohr explained that as a result of the split he was able to do the hard core reggae he had always wanted to do and reach the Rastafarians “right where they were at.” The members of the group who left had wanted to stay within the parameters of more mainstream contemporary Christian music.

Happily, Mohr was able to put together a whole new band within about three days of the split. An added bonus was that he also formed his own record label, based upon a business plan from a friend he had made while at school. Mohr has a definite vision for bands that record with his company. “ Rather than having the world see Christianity through blue American eyes, I wanted to have America see the world through a global perspective as Christ created it.”

DAD’S PERSPECTIVE

I wondered what Mohr’s parents had been feeling while their son was going through his teenage rebellion.

Edward Mohr described his son’s rebellious teenage years as being a period when the family “all came closer to God. He was the catalyst ... We had a lot of problems.”

I asked Edward Mohr what he had done to help he and his wife emerge successfully through this difficult time.

He said there were two key things. “We persisted in telling (Mark) how much we loved him and how much we needed him to focus on what God would have him do.”

In addition, Edward Mohr said that he and his wife stood on the Bible promise that as they had raised their son in the word of the Lord that he would not depart from it. “We trusted totally in the Lord and stayed in communication.”

Edward Mohr praised Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson as a “stabilizing influence in our lives. We got all the tapes he had on this subject and listened to them a lot.”

Edward Mohr also had some words of advice for parents going through a similar situation. “When you’re going through the teenage years don’t rock the boat unnecessarily. While you need to hold strong on the major points sometimes you’ve got to give on the minor ones. Of course you have to still hold them accountable.”

MOM’S PERSPECTIVE

Margaret Mohr said that the situation with Mark got so bad that all she could do was to turn him over to the Lord. “I would say, ‘He’s yours, Lord. He’s yours.’”

Mohr said that while she and her husband didn’t tell a lot of people what was going on with their son, that they did tell a few close Bible study friends who she described as being very supportive and prayerful.

Margaret Mohr had some encouraging words for parents suffering through their child’s teenage rebellion years. “Keep praying and believe that the deeds you have sown will not be in vain.”

Looking back, Margaret Mohr said all the struggles and the emotional turmoil were all worth it. “I would do it again. Mark would not have the ministry he does today unless he had been down that path.”

What does Margaret Mohr think of her son now? She didn’t hesitate in her response. “I don’t know anybody who is closer to the Lord than he is. I totally trust him to pray through the circumstances. I have seen him go through so much and come through closer to the Lord.”

BROTHER MOHR

I was curious what had happened to Mohr’s brother. After all, he was the one who had initially “helped” Mohr stray from the straight and narrow. Mohr said after a little while that he turned out good. “He got real bad when he was in a fraternity but at about the age of 23, he became a missionary in Nome, Alaska. When I ran away from home he was begging me to come back. Now he raises money to help fund those in the Lord’s service.”

WHAT’S AHEAD FOR MOHR AND CHRISTAFARI?

A new album, “Gravity,” will be in stores June 3 2003. It’s the band’s first studio release in four years. A portion of the advance promotion describing the album reads like this:

“‘Gravity’ is a musical delicacy stuffed with the Word of God. Most songs contain verse-by-verse Scriptures straight from the Bible. Engineered in a dubwise fashion, the tunes on ‘Gravity’ are replete with incessant delays and eternal reverberations. This masterful production is a continuous therapeutic sonic collage without a second of silence.”

Mohr is very excited about this new project. He told me that while other albums had
taken about three months to put together, this one took over a year and production took place throughout the United States and Trinidad.

“This is more of a solo album. This album is 100 percent me. A lot of it is very autobiographical. We’re in a place of strength and able to do things right. For the first time we will have world wide distribution.”

ALBUM VISION

Mohr told me that he has a broad vision for the album and that it not only addresses Rastafarianism but other belief system also. Mohr said that as a result of listening to the album it is his prayer that people would seek God’s kingdom, that they would be drawn closer and that Christians would get to know Him better.

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Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at reynalds@joyjunction.org. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at assistcomm@cs.com.  

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POSTED: March 25th, 2005, 8:57am

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