Rap sensation Kanye West’s transition from “I Am God” to “Jesus Is King” shocked the nation. In 2013, West released his album, “Yeezus” and encouraged people to call him by that name. A definite change has occured.
Since the beginning of 2019, he’s spent every Sunday leading pop-up church services called “Sunday Service.” The service included worship led by him and others, along with prayer. It became a social media sensation, and the talk of the release of “Jesus Is King” came soon after.
West released the album on Oct. 25 and since then has received serious backlash from critics who call the album “fake,” “unfocused” and “weak.” Accompanying the release of the album was the release of West’s documentary by the same name, receiving similar reviews.
In John 15:18, Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” Followers of Christ understand that being in the world but not of the world comes at a serious price.
Christians are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ and support one another in love. Kanye West is not perfect, but neither are we. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Because of his fame, we’ve all seen the things he’s done that make people question the authenticity of this album. It’s no different than we. We all sin; we all make mistakes. We just have different circumstances, and we’re lucky that our mistakes aren’t posted all over social media.
Since he has such a far-reaching platform that places him at the center of the public eye, why not use it to glorify God? Imagine how many people he’s reaching that maybe haven’t even heard of Jesus before. Isn’t that our job as Christians; to go and make disciples? To reach the lost?
West’s name hasn’t always been cast in the best light, but we cannot silence this era of his fame. As Christians, we should be supporting the fact that he is using the platform he has to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Most of the world knows West’s name, and now we can say that most of society probably knows the name of Jesus, too.