Dear Sir,
I was disappointed with how Kanye West’s declaration of faith was reported in the November issue. This is a man who has said that after a lifetime of serving the devil he now has freedom serving Christ, quoting John 8:36 on the second track of his album Jesus is King.
However, instead of praising God for how He has worked in West’s life and celebrating his tour where the gospel will be clearly and faithfully preached to thousands, the article comments that technically no Bible was physically opened (although the Bible was directly quoted multiple times), and that he has ‘ “deified himself” with religious proceedings’.
I understand that we should be cautious before having full confidence in anyones declaration of faith, but I wonder whether, at your own baptism or testimony, if you expected people to ask: ‘Is he really a Christian?’ We don’t know if anyone will be faithful until their death when they declare faith, but we don’t meet them with a sceptical, ‘let’s see’ attitude. Instead we should celebrate their recognition and acceptance of Christ! Publishing ‘Kanye West declares faith’ (Praise God!), would not have had to mean a full endorsement of all his possible future actions and would have been much more in line with how we normally accept new converts.
Certainly I feel that we need to be careful to understand that, although we are told that there are signs of a true believer for us to look for and be discerning, it is not ourselves that decide whether or not someone has come to know Christ. There was a sense that West would not be accepted as a Christian until he had met certain expectations from the Evangelical community (i.e the physical opening of a Bible at ‘Sunday Service’ which, it is helpful to understand, is his musical tour), which to me seemed to be over what the Bible demands.
Overall I just felt that the article came across as far too negative. I wonder what Kanye West himself would think reading the article, having stuck his neck out in a huge and bold way for Christ. I’m not sure he would feel that well supported by it.
Thank you for your continued work with en, I find it a very helpful resource for myself. Please do let me know if you feel I have interpreted things poorly or show me where my view may not be correct. The title of the letter is intended to be thought-provoking, but I hope that it does not come across as disrespectful. I apologise if it does.
Yours sincerely,
