(Photo, L to R: Joe Story and JMink)

Q & A: Joe Story – We Are Watchmen

Joe Story shares the vision of We Are Watchmen

By Sarah Komisky

From billboards to magazines to the everyday treatment of women, many ladies in our culture today are feeling the impact of the culture’s exploitation, objectification, and devaluation of women. This is where Joe Story and JMink (the men of We Are Watchmen) have stepped in. Desiring to step up as protectors and defenders with respect to women in our society while also speaking up against the world’s agenda on issues like abortion and human trafficking, these men are inspiring others to step into the role God called them to. Here is their story told by one of the “Watchmen,” Joe Story.

Share a little bit about your personal story coming to Christ? 

Joe Story and JMink came together from opposite ends of the societal spectrum to meet in Christ. Joe came from a secular household in New York, lived a very worldly lifestyle and was actually saved on the way to jail in the back of a police car! Meanwhile, J was raised in a godly household and lived a dedicated, honorable Christian life from an early age. Our stories are classic examples of how God uses vessels from all walks of life for the purpose of His Kingdom. To see Joe Story’s testimony, click here: wearewatchmen.org/media

How did “We Are Watchmen” come about and where did the name come from? 

In Scripture, God calls us all to be “watchmen.” There are several aspects to being a watchman. It means protecting the church from outside perils, inside threats and being God’s voice to the culture. It’s this last component which American Christians struggle with the most. We’ve become impotent and complacent and over the past century, have completely ceded our Judeo-Christian culture to Secular Humanists. As a result, what once was the greatest protection of individual liberty and opportunity in the world, the nation that sent more missionaries throughout the globe than all others combined since the first century, has murdered sixty-million babies by abortion, completely abandoned its constitutional form of limited government, racked up eighteen trillion dollars in national debt, and has driven God out of the public square. Today, on average, less than 25% of Evangelical Christians vote in national elections, so on that front alone we’ve basically given our seal of approval to our national decline into the moral swamp by our apathy. Edmond Burke said, “All that’s needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Abraham Lincoln said, “I tremble for my nation when I reflect that God is just.” Without repentance, judgment is at the door. We Are Watchmen is our effort to proclaim the truth of God in every dark area of our decrepit culture. Through music and message we are trying to inspire a movement. Our part is to stand in the battle. The results are up to the Lord. Are you with us? 

How do you use hip-hop to speak Gods truth? 

Hip-hop is a good medium of communication for several reasons. The genre gives room for as many as three mini-sermons in one song (one in each verse). Hip-hop is also the preferred genre for inner city youth and if this nation is going to be reclaimed for God, the movement is going to come from the hundreds and hundreds of young people rising up and demanding truth in an era of lies. Inner city youth need to be educated and secular humanism is stealing their economic opportunities and disproportionately murdering their generation through abortion, and hip-hop is a great way to communicate that truth.

Talk about “W.A.R,” why is it important for people to understand what they believe and to be able to defend their faith? 

W.A.R. stands for “Watchmen Apologetics Resources” and it’s about using Christian apologetics to defeat the false worldview of secular humanism and reestablish Christian theism as the dominant worldview in America. We live in a biblically illiterate culture today in which the highest seats of influence (academia, government, and media) generally dismiss Christianity as disproven and arcane. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, it’s not enough to simply point to biblical solutions to the problems caused by anti-biblical actions; we must aggressively reestablish trust in foundational tenets of Christian faith, intellectually. W.A.R. is an effort to equip church leaders and youth pastors to take truth into the public square in the form of practically applied classical arguments for the existence of the Christian God.

I know a part of We are Watchmen is to address current issues in our culture today. How was being apart of Ignite the Night important to you? 

Ignite the Night was super-important to us because sex-trafficking is a gross, mega symptom of the disease of godlessness we are fighting on behalf of God and the tragic victims to eradicate. As a nation, we are exchanging religious liberty for sexual liberty and the most unacceptable results are the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of underage children who are literally being sold into slavery on the now hyper-dangerous streets of our country. Seeing as how sex-trafficking is also so inextricably connected to the abortion holocaust going on in our nation, it would be difficult for us to imagine a more important cause. 

Share a little about the song, “Not For Sale.” Why are you passionate about advocating for those who are trafficked? 

Not For Sale uses the stories of trafficked women in the first two verses and concludes in the third verse with a summary of the problem (“We’ve committed the fallacy of liberalism with morality / Tragically replaced faith in God with sexuality / Nationally, we rapidly plunge down / The gravity of our sin ravages our nation with maladies like sex trafficking.”). The song is intended to bring awareness to the absolutely brutal plight of modern day slavery that has ensnared the lives of many ordinary women (and men) in America today. People have the wrong notion that sex trafficking and human slavery is much more of an issue overseas in third world countries and that a huge mistake. The removal of God from the public square creates a vacuum for all sorts of wickedness we see manifested in culture today and the weakest among us are those who get exploited. The Bible has a lot to say about God’s heart for the widow, fatherless, and orphan (basically, the vulnerable of society). He fights on their behalf and those who take advantage of them will have to answer to Him.

Since this magazine is for young women, why do you think it’s important for men to step up as protectors and spiritual leaders? To take on the role as “watchmen?”

Absolutely, one of the tests of a real man is if he protects women from harm. Society today has so flipped everything on its head through the PC agenda that it’s now seen as sexist for men to stand up as defenders of women. Anytime God’s creational order is usurped by the humanist agenda it results in chaos and suffering. In our culture, women used to be protected and cherished. Today they are exploited as sex objects and even expected to behave in sexually aggressive ways that put themselves at serious physical and spiritual risk. The issue, of course, is godlessness. According to God’s order, men are to be watchmen over the more beautiful, yet more fragile sex, protecting them physically and spiritually from harm. Natural law (the order about God revealed to every human heart) as well as Scripture couldn’t be clearer on this issue. A man that shirks from this role relinquishes his manhood.

How do you think God has called you to defend purity in our culture today?

Purity is a vital component of God’s will for any culture. Sex within the boundaries of traditional marriage is a wonderful, heavenly gift to humanity that results in blessing. Any other use of sex, from the most seemingly harmless to the obscenely perverse, leads to the curses of disease, disorder, and destitution. It’s on us to educate people that biblical boundaries on sex are there to keep us from harm, though the devil has persuaded us God has intended to keep something fabulous from us. We believe God has called us to defend purity by demonstrating it is the much greater and ultimately more satisfying way, which is actually quite an easy point to make. 

What is one thing you want readers to know who read this article?

That the root cause of sex slavery, sex trafficking, etc. is godlessness at a nationally embraced level. Those who feel moved to fight on behalf of the exploited must be involved in the fight to turn America back to Judeo-Christian principles. This means getting involved politically, voting biblical principles and declaring the whole counsel of God in the public square. Without these steps, we’re just fixing leaks in rotten wood.

What’s next for We Are Watchmen?

The official release of our first record: We Are Watchmen Vol. 1.

Like us for more!: https://www.facebook.com/wearewatchmen

Find out more and join the movement at: wearewatchmen.org