Kanye West's 'Jesus is King' album has fans asking if he's really Christian
Kanye West performing at Lollapalooza on April 3, 2011 in Chile. Creative Commons photo.
(OPINION) Kanye West’s latest album Jesus is King was initially set to drop Sept. 27, with his wife Kim Kardashian hinting to it on her Instagram. It was later pushed back and now has no current release date, much to fans’ dismay.
But that’s only increasing the hype for an album that seems weirdly Christian and reverent of Jesus for a rap artist that has called himself a god and “a close high” to God.
Jesus is King reportedly includes song titles such as “Garden,” “God Is,” “Sweet Jesus,” and “Wake The Dead,” along with a song that mentions Chick-fil-A. (I can’t wait to hear that while eating a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.)
Kanye has been promoting his music nationwide with secret concerts called Sunday Services. A recent pop-up Sunday Service was held at Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral, a predominantly African American church in Jamaica, Queens, for example. It was there that Kanye announced he’s done with secular music, according to hip hop blogger Andrew Barber. “Only gospel here on out,” Barber tweeted.
Now a new Kanye documentary called Jesus is King: A Kanye West Experience” is also releasing soon and being pre-screened at some of these Sunday Services.
His marketing has left people with the burning question: Is he really a born-again Christian or is this just a stunt?
Kanye was raised in Chicago in a Christian home. His parents divorced when he was just three years old. His mother was a professor at Clark Atlanta University, while his father was a former Black Panther, a photojournalist for an Atlanta newspaper, and later in life, a Christian counselor. In an article written by Stefan Preston, Kanye admitted that not being Christian wasn’t an option in his household. It’s “embedded in him,” he said.
So one day, Kanye got an invitation from a colleague to visit the church Placerita Bible Church in Santa Clarita near Los Angeles, according to media reports. Kanye accepted and chatted with one of the pastors, Adam Tyson. In a PureFlix podcast, Kanye admitted to Adam of running from God and falling under the weight of his sin.
Adam started teaching the born-again Kanye, even flying out to Wyoming to Kanye’s ranch to host Tuesday Bible study, a request made by Kanye, Adam said. According to Christianity Today, Adam told Kanye that his Sunday Services aren’t church because they have no preaching, leadership or sacraments. In Adams's words, the concerts were “an opportunity to exalt Christ in local churches.” This advice prompted Kanye to invite Adam to preach at his Sunday Services.
It makes sense that some are skeptical of Kanye’s new transformation. Kanye has caused outrage before among Christians. In 2006, he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine wearing a crown of thorns with the headline, “The Passion Kanye West”. Kanye’s support for President Trump has also confused some of his fans. Recently Kanye held a Sunday Service at the historically African American Howard University during their homecoming, where he asked God to help the predominantly black crowd to stop feeling victimized and love and forgive others. Some criticized the prayer as anti-black and his new-found religion to be just a tool to get back into good graces with black culture.
In an episode of The View, Kim Kardashian explained that Kanye’s Sunday Service was done to promote healing in his life and how “he’d been saved by Christ”. She labels the Sunday Service two things: a music ministry and a Christian service.
During one of his Sunday Services at a Baptist church in Atlanta, Kanye gave a small sermon, uploaded to YouTube by a viewer. “Let’s be specific so we don’t get it confused with I’m just a good person,” Kanye says in the video. “The road to hell can be paved with ‘I’m just a good person.’ You [God] sent your only son to die for us and all you ask is radical obedience to you.”
In a recent episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” Kanye also expressed how he’s grown from his days as a rapper gawking at women.
“I just feel like I just went through this transition of being a rapper, and lookin' at all these girls,” Kanye said. “And then looking at my wife like, 'Oh, my girl needs to be just like these other girls, showing her body off, showing this, showing that... I didn't realize that that was affecting my soul and my spirit as someone that's married and loved, the father of what's about to be four kids.”
Kanye’s transformation makes me think of other celebrities' transformation, such as Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper. We all know Hollywood isn't too excited with Christianity and Jesus. Any celebrity that comes out making claims that being a “good person won’t get you into heaven and that Jesus is the only way to God” might be putting his career on the line. Some churches aren't even teaching that.
When the Jesus is King album finally drops, I look forward to listening regardless where Kanye’s religious journey takes him.
Princess Jones was an intern with ReligionUnplugged and an editorial clerk at the New York Post. She is a recent alumna of Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn., and of the NYC Semester in Journalism at The King’s College in New York.