If there’s one thing which drives me mad more than anything else, it’s hypocrisy. People who say one thing yet do something quite different themselves. And I particularly despise it when they use the banner of religion – or should that be misuse it? – in order to cover their tracks when they do it.
Enter stage left Terrence Parker. Now, there’s little disputing that Parker has a huge amount of talent. His DJing skills are quite exemplary and have been since he emerged from Detroit in the 1980s. He also understands that as a DJ, you need to stand out above the rest – DJing using a modified telephone instead of headphones has always been his way of doing it – and it also helps he’s made some fantastic records over the years.
Terrence Parker is also quite a religious man. Many of his records, with all those piano and organs, have something of a gospel feel about them – and I don’t deny some of his music is positively infectious. Religious messages frequently appear on his tracks, and the song titles themselves often also have some kind of religious reference in them.
And I must emphasise at this point that if religion is something which helps you in your life, that’s excellent. Anything which helps build up character, make you stronger and see you through the tough times in life is a good thing. But when you declare yourself publicly to be a religious person, it inevitably means that people will start to ask whether how you live matches up with your publicly stated views.
On the biography on his official Facebook page, Terrence Parker simply states Philippians 4:13. On checking the Bible, that verse reads “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. Does this include scamming people by taking cash in advance for gigs and never turning up to do the work?
This is an allegation which Parker has ran away from for many years. Indeed, he has only ever acknowledged the numerous claims against him once, back in 2019. He posted this…
No update has ever been posted on how he’s getting on. Indeed, when this blog first wrote about the subject, Parker responded by blocking this blog’s Twitter account – as if that would somehow make the difficult questions disappear.
I decided last night to ask one of the people to whom Parker remains indebted to several years after taking the money and not doing the work – what did he think of this flashing of religious credentials? After I agreed to his condition of anonymity, he replied with “If this c**t seriously thinks he follows the teachings of the Bible, he’s even more barking than I first thought”.
Ouch…
I don’t think there is a chapter in the bible on financial planning. The dude wrote a note acknowleging his wrongs, which is pretty decent. Maybe he’s loaded, but I doubt it. And frequent missed bookings imply health problems, mental or physical. He sounds like he’s a bit of a mess. And practicing faith helps some to stave off self-hatred.
He certainly should have stopped using his advance money… in advance.
But he believes in jesus. He supports jesus like some support arsenal. Spreading the faith is a core tenet of belief. It doesn’t, or shouldn’t, imply that the person spreading the gospel is holy. No morethan an arsenal scarf is a statement of the wearer’s skills on the football field.