By: Shane James O’Neill
Kanye West and Porn
Two years ago during an interview, Jimmy Kimmel asked Kanye West if having daughters had changed the way he views women. This was a good question, considering Kayne had just released a song talking about his fear that his daughters will one day be objectified.
After a thoughtful pause, Kanye answers the question, “Nah I still look at porn…”
Kimmel and audience could only laugh at the ridiculous irony — while fearing that his daughters would be reduced to their appearance, Kanye was doing that very thing to other women.
Related: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Fight Against Pornography
Who is Kanye West??
Kanye West is a rapper, songwriter, composer, record producer, just as he’s an entrepreneur, having created his own fashion industry. The guys has 21 Grammy Awards and has sold over 140 million records!
To say that Kanye is a lot things seems like a silly understatement. He’s lived most of his private life in the public — as we can see from his comments on porn during Kimmel’s show. But the way he wears his life on his sleeve is just as loud now that he’s a Christian.
With his recent gospel record Jesus is King, a lot of people have been wondering if this new found religious zeal will last. And I think one of the most helpful ways of answering this question is by looking at how Kanye is striving to live in the light. I don’t mean “the lime light,” least there be any confusion. By light, I mean what Scripture means: being seen, in good ways and in repentant ways; living in vulnerability towards truth (check out John 3). And that’s what Kanye has been doing, living vulnerably.
His current comments about his porn use are so very different from the comments he gave years ago:
“I drowned myself in my addiction… for me Playboy was my gateway into full-on pornography. My dad had a Playboy left out at age five and its affected almost every choice I made for the rest of my life. From age five till now having to kick the habit. And it presents itself in the open like it’s okay and I stand up and say, ‘No it’s not okay.'”
Kanye and C. s. Lewis
I’ve always liked the poetic sound of “east of Eden”. It is used to talk about the human exile from Eden, that we’ve left true humanity, true love, true affection, true longing, for something outside of its boarders, something strange, alien, forcing ourselves into slavery, and into brokenness.
C. S. Lewis says that at the fall of humanity, when we were exiled east of Eden, we became “a new species” and “sinned ourselves into existence.” What Lewis is saying is that what we call “human” now is something different that what was once human.
I hope that sinks in some, because it’s a weighty thing to consider. I try and lift the idea from time to time and always find it to be just as dense as before. It’s fun to consider what we once were in eden, as a practice in holy-imaginings. But the fun experience turns into a sober one rather quickly when I consider how different I am from what humanity could have been — the longings I have that should never have existed, and the evil around me that never should have been invented.
Yet, even then we are given a window of hope by considering what we were meant to be, because that gives us, again, a holy-imagination for what we may one day be — when the earth is made new, along with our bodies and our desires. It also helps us to intentionally move toward what Jesus has made us (and is making us); a new creation.
West of Eden
East of Eden. I do like that phrase. Its poetry gives me a kind of poetic hope for Kanye. West is the opposite direction of east (did you know that?). And I see in Kanye West a striving to journey back, out of exile and into redemption, into reconciliation. All of culture is journeying east, and Kanye is moving west.
Of course, that’s just a fun play on words. I get that. And yet, I can’t believe names are arbitrary. We see too much prophetic emphasis upon names in Scripture, too much theology is given through names, to believe that God isn’t sovereign even in naming us.
But taking that too far begs the question: is Kanye West our guide to the New Eden? And how should we look upon his life?
Jesus through Kanye
Kanye West isn’t our guide, but we are allowed to marvel as Kanye follows Jesus. At the end of the day, Jesus is The One who went to the eastern ends of the world so that He could get us and bring us to His home, and lead us on a path that has all but disappeared with the passage of time — a way back to being truly human. Now, we get to watch Kanye follow after Jesus, practice being human, and we get to learn.
As Jesus said, the road He leads us upon is both narrow and hard. That’s the significance of testimony. It helps us to read the signposts as we journey on the Jesus Way.
But there are testimonies of wrong roads, just as there’s testimony of Jesus’ road.
When Kanye says that porn has touched every part of his life and desires, I don’t get to lie to myself and say that only happened to him but it can’t or hasn’t happened to me. If I believe that lie then I’m merely being the creature that was sinned into existence at the fall of humanity. By looking at Kanye, as he follows Jesus, I get to learn how to better follow Jesus.
The journey back west doesn’t make all the bad go away, nor is it easy. But it is good. And anyone who starts on the path is promised to reach the destination — a land where we can be truly human, a long where we will be truly known. That makes the journey worth it.
So, yes, there are remarkable things to learn from the testimony of Kanye’s life. And we could all do well to practice many of the ways He is walking after the Messiah — in his testimony of porn, by his vulnerability, and certainly by his proclamation that Jesus is King.
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Shane James O’Neill is the Editorial Director for Proven Men Ministries. He is currently working on a graduate degree in apologetics at Liberty University’s Rawling School of Divinity.