| November 13, 2019 | Gunner Young | campus editor |
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Hip-hop artist Kanye West always finds himself in the middle of controversy. Every one of his recent album releases has had drama associated with them, such as delays, and he tweets he’s going to fix songs that have already been released.
With his new album “Jesus is King,” Kanye’s conversion to Christianity appears more like a cash grab attention-getter rather than a genuine lifestyle change.
Fundamental Christians found issues with Kanye’s previous record, “Yeezus,” because he seemed to juxtapose his name and Jesus’ name, which is considered by many religious people to be blasphemous. Kanye does the same thing on “Jesus is King” and finds a way to tie in his victim complex too.
In the song “Selah,” Kanye compares his haters to Judas, the betrayer of Christ in the New Testament, which is essentially just calling himself Jesus with extra steps.
And since it is clear that Kanye is familiar with the book of Matthew, since the betrayal of Christ which he references is described there, he should know the story of Jesus entering a temple to find sellers commercializing the holiness of God. In Matthew 21, Jesus is angered by those in the temple and drives them out.
Similar to the men in the temple, Kanye is profiting from his lifestyle change and is selling sweatshirts with Jesus’ face on it for $300 on his website, which is something that I believe Jesus would not be too fond of if he were around today.
The Bible also says: “Pray behind closed doors.” The idea of flaunting one’s belief is not biblical, and rappers like Kendrick Lamar, Big Krit and NF believe in the same God that Kanye does without the elitism that he brings along with it. Kanye just uses it as a way to enable the victim complex he has.
The Jesus I envision does not see slavery as a choice, but Kanye does. He will always do whatever it takes to stir up controversy and make money, and in the spirit of profit, Kanye has found a home in Christianity, but his God is money.
