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Could Kanye West become a Catholic?
That possibility, which I posed in May of 2018 after a particular video surfaced on Kanye’s computer,sounds less and less unthinkable as time goes on. In 2019, Kanye announced his conversion to Christianity and released the film and album Jesus Is King with his “Sunday Service” choir. (His wife, Kim, and their children were also baptized into the Armenian Orthodox church.) Earlier this year, he released a raw new track and video titled “Wash Us in the Blood” with a more social and sacramental vision of faith and culture. And, more recently, his presidential campaign page includes not one but two prominent nods to Catholicism: an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the tag-line “Creating a Culture of Life”—a phrase coined by Pope St. John Paul II.
No doubt, the rich artistic and philosophical matrix of Catholicism—if someone could draw him more deeply into that world—would resonate deeply with Kanye West. But there are very old (and very stubborn) theological divisions between Protestants and Catholics that he, like any evangelical Christian, would eventually need to confront. And yet it sounds like he’s already started to do that—and with a very close Catholic friend.
In a recent interview, Kanye says the following:
“God was like, ‘Shut up. It is about my Son, Jesus Christ, and it is about what I have given you. My Son has died for you. It’s nothing that you can do more than this.’ And me and Don C be arguing about this because he’s Catholic. I’m like, man, I don’t want to argue with none of my Christian brothers about acts. You know? That’s the whole thing. Catholics are like—these acts that you perform. And we be feeling like, man, we got a special place in heaven. . . . And it’s like, bro: God had his Son die. . . . He’s already paid the price.”
The Catholic friend Kanye is referring to, by the way, is not just any old friend. Don Crawley, a fellow Chicago native and fashion designer, was Kanye’s former manager and label executive, and was also the best man at Kanye and Kim’s wedding. He was even arrested with Kanye in 2008 when the two of them got into a scuffle with paparazzi at LAX.
Continued below.
Kanye’s Theological Argument with His Catholic Friend - Word on Fire
That possibility, which I posed in May of 2018 after a particular video surfaced on Kanye’s computer,sounds less and less unthinkable as time goes on. In 2019, Kanye announced his conversion to Christianity and released the film and album Jesus Is King with his “Sunday Service” choir. (His wife, Kim, and their children were also baptized into the Armenian Orthodox church.) Earlier this year, he released a raw new track and video titled “Wash Us in the Blood” with a more social and sacramental vision of faith and culture. And, more recently, his presidential campaign page includes not one but two prominent nods to Catholicism: an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the tag-line “Creating a Culture of Life”—a phrase coined by Pope St. John Paul II.
No doubt, the rich artistic and philosophical matrix of Catholicism—if someone could draw him more deeply into that world—would resonate deeply with Kanye West. But there are very old (and very stubborn) theological divisions between Protestants and Catholics that he, like any evangelical Christian, would eventually need to confront. And yet it sounds like he’s already started to do that—and with a very close Catholic friend.
In a recent interview, Kanye says the following:
“God was like, ‘Shut up. It is about my Son, Jesus Christ, and it is about what I have given you. My Son has died for you. It’s nothing that you can do more than this.’ And me and Don C be arguing about this because he’s Catholic. I’m like, man, I don’t want to argue with none of my Christian brothers about acts. You know? That’s the whole thing. Catholics are like—these acts that you perform. And we be feeling like, man, we got a special place in heaven. . . . And it’s like, bro: God had his Son die. . . . He’s already paid the price.”
The Catholic friend Kanye is referring to, by the way, is not just any old friend. Don Crawley, a fellow Chicago native and fashion designer, was Kanye’s former manager and label executive, and was also the best man at Kanye and Kim’s wedding. He was even arrested with Kanye in 2008 when the two of them got into a scuffle with paparazzi at LAX.
Continued below.
Kanye’s Theological Argument with His Catholic Friend - Word on Fire
