# Rappin' for Jesus
Rappin' for Jesus is a 2013 viral hoax music video in which a fake middle-aged pastor and his wife rap about Christianity while calling Jesus a racial slur over and over. Uploaded to YouTube on February 5, 2013 by Brian Spinney, the clip's straight-faced absurdity and instantly quotable chorus made it one of the most-watched fake church videos of the decade.
## Origin
On February 5, 2013, a YouTube account called Brian Spinney uploaded a music video titled 'Rappin' for Jesus,' with a description claiming Spinney was an Iowan father of two and devoted Christian who had filmed the clip years earlier as a high school project with his pastor at the West Dubuque 2nd Church of Christ in West Dubuque, Iowa[4]. The upload was the only video on the account, and the song ended with a link to the church's website[2].
The story fell apart within a couple of weeks. The Daily Dot found no online record of a pastor called Jim or James Colerick anywhere in Iowa, noting that ordinary small-town pastors show up in Google results almost immediately[1]. The church's own site said the congregation had shut down in the summer of 2004, but a WHOIS lookup showed the domain westdubuque2ndchurchofchrist.org had been registered on January 15, 2013, roughly three weeks before Spinney's YouTube upload[6]. Mary Sue's rap about 'Christian swag' also used a slang sense of 'swag' that only entered common use in the 2010s, well after the video's supposed high-school-era recording[3]. The Colericks were later identified as actors P.J. Waggaman and Elizabeth Ince, confirming the whole thing as a scripted hoax; Waggaman died in 2021 at age 77[3].
- **Platform:** YouTube (upload) / Reddit + WorldStarHipHop (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Brian Spinney (YouTube uploader); actors P.J. Waggaman and Elizabeth Ince played the fictional Pastor Jim and Mary Sue Colerick
- **Date:** 2013
## Overview
Rappin' for Jesus, also filed under the chorus line 'Jesus Christ Is My N****', is a low-budget three-minute clip in which a stiff, middle-aged white man in a plaid shirt raps over a canned hip-hop beat while his wife plays keyboard and joins in on the hook[4]. The verses start off innocent, church youth outreach, hip-hop beat, Christian truth, before the chorus swings into 'that's 'cause Jesus Christ is my n****,' repeated by both singers with total deadpan[1]. Later lines cover Jesus turning water to wine, drug abstention, sagging pants, and Mary Sue's 'little Christian swag'[2].
The joke works because the corny youth-pastor framing makes the chorus land like a trapdoor, and the couple perform it so flatly that first-time viewers spent the first days of virality genuinely arguing about whether it was real[1]. Christian outlets and viral news blogs treated it as a possible real embarrassment for a real church until fact-checking pulled it apart in under a week[2]. The song sits somewhere between a shock comedy sketch and a fake documentary artefact, which is why it kept surfacing in reaction videos and lyric quotes long after the hoax was confirmed[3].
## How to Use
The song is used mostly as a quote source. People drop lines like 'life-changer, miracle-arranger, drink-exchanger' or 'my rhymes are fly, my beats are sick' as a bit whenever the topic of Christian rap, corny youth outreach, or square adults doing hip-hop comes up[7]. The chorus itself is generally referenced obliquely rather than typed out, and clips of the video get reposted as a punchline any time an actual church tries a rap tie-in[3].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Rappin' for Jesus?
A 2013 viral YouTube hoax music video in which a fake pastor and his wife rap about Jesus and repeatedly call him a racial slur in the chorus[1].
### Where did Rappin' for Jesus come from?
It was uploaded on February 5, 2013 by a YouTube account named Brian Spinney, who claimed it was an old high-school project filmed with a real pastor at the West Dubuque 2nd Church of Christ in Iowa[4].
### What does Rappin' for Jesus mean?
The video is a scripted parody of a corny Christian youth-outreach rap, played straight-faced enough that many first-time viewers took it as a real church video before it was debunked[1].
### How do you use Rappin' for Jesus?
People quote lines like 'life-changer, miracle-arranger, drink-exchanger' or repost the clip as a punchline whenever Christian rap, youth pastors, or square adults attempting hip-hop come up online[3].
### Is Rappin' for Jesus still popular?
It is not currently trending, but the original YouTube upload passed 90 million views and the song is still cited as a classic viral hoax more than a decade later[3].
### Is Rappin' for Jesus real?
No, it is a hoax. There is no pastor named Jim Colerick, the church supposedly shut down in 2004 and the church domain was registered on January 15, 2013, right before the upload[6].
### Who is Pastor Jim Colerick?
He is a fictional character played by actor P.J. Waggaman; his 'wife' Mary Sue was played by Elizabeth Ince. Waggaman died in 2021 at age 77[3].
### Who is Brian Spinney?
Brian Spinney is the name on the YouTube account that uploaded the video, described in the video's description as an Iowan father of two and a devoted Christian, though this identity has never been independently verified[1].
### How did people figure out Rappin' for Jesus was fake?
Reporters at The Daily Dot and The Christian Post found no trace of Pastor Colerick online, learned the West Dubuque 2nd Church of Christ had shut down in 2004, and pulled a WHOIS record showing the church's website domain was registered on January 15, 2013[1][2].
### What is the mashup with Bobby Shmurda?
On February 6, 2015, SoundCloud user MajorLeagueWobs posted a mashup of 'Rappin' for Jesus' with Bobby Shmurda's 'Hot N****', which pulled more than 105,500 plays and 3,500 likes in its first five months[4].
## References
1. [https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/rappin-for-jesus-video-fake/]()
2. [https://www.christianpost.com/news/iowa-churchs-youtube-hit-rappin-for-jesus-video-a-hoax-90460/]()
3. [https://genius.com/Pastor-jim-colerick-rappin-for-jesus-lyrics]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rappin-for-jesus]()
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kppx4bzfAaE]()
6. [https://godspam.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-that-funny-christian-video-real.html]()
7. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rappin%20For%20Jesus]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/rappin-for-jesus
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