Jesus IS King and Kanye Could Prove It

Last week Kanye West (husband of Kim Kardashian West; breaker of internets, purveyor of justice, server of looks, mother of babies) dropped his highly anticipated new album, Jesus is King and needless to say it is lit. 

The album has been met with overwhelming praise from Kanye’s fan base. A gospel based album, the track list features incredible creations including my personal favorite, This Gospel (very close second or maybe even tied to Hands On). I could not more strongly recommend this album to anyone interested in hip hop or gospel music. 

The media tore this album to shreds. In terms as cynical as possible – they reported that Kanye was no one to look up to, and the album wasn’t worth listening to. The New York Times referred to Kanye as a “heretic by nature” in their headline about the album. The Washington Post said he had “lost himself” in finding God. Their extreme criticism which is wholly out of balance with audience response should come as no surprise at all. 

The thing the leftist media fears most is losing the ability to control the way we think. The thing they least want us to have – is faith in something else. If we, a generation so unchurched many thought we’d never return, believe in God again, then what else might we believe in again? Being kind to people? Charitable works? Might we lose our feeling of burn-out and have hope in something greater? Might our communities get healthier? 

I have news for the New York TImes and the Washington Post – we are all heretics by nature. And we are all lost. My father is the father of a wildly flawed daughter who had to find church again through her hangovers and her complacency (and I don’t mean my sister). He is also a minister who works every day trying to bring my generation back to the pews. But as skilled as he is and as much as he cares, nothing he or a thousand pastors do could have more impact than Jesus is King and Kanye West this week. 

Kanye has given me hope that we might come back. We might just find God after all and realize that finding God doesn’t mean we aren’t lost sometimes.. It doesn’t mean we won’t ever be heretics. It means we can put our faith in something that is bigger than today. We can weather storms. We can, with God, try to do good. 

This movement can’t be stopped by the New York Times. Minds are open now. Hearts are ready to be filled.