In an interview published this week, entertainment mogul Kanye West opened up about his faith and why it’s important for Christians to speak out.
The 42-year-old rapper, who said he’s “definitely born again,” explained to GQ magazine’s Will Welch the difference between weighing in on an issue and being judgmental.
Everyone has sin, West told Welch, noting part of becoming a Christian is accepting the fact other believers will hold you accountable for your actions — something he said many critics don’t seem to understand.
“They think that all of a sudden you believe in Christ, so we’re not even supposed to speak up,” West said. “And if we speak up, people will say, ‘Oh, you’re being judgmental.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, now, because I’m Christian, I don’t even have an opinion any more?’ I’m Christian and I still have an opinion. But my opinion is based on the Word.”
At another point in the conversation with the GQ writer, West said he’s proud of the fact that his Sunday Service events are places of “no judgement.”
“I feel that the church that most people grew up on as kids had a negative environment. The greatest thing for me, as someone who’s given their life to Christ, is knowing that other people have that as an anchor and a form of healing,” he said of his events.
West credits those unique services to helping him with his own Christian faith.
The entertainer, who is married to socialite and TV personality Kim Kardashian, said those who are not in service to God are “in service to everything else.”
“To live inside of sin, it’s going to cost you more than you can pay,” West said. “You don’t want to continue to sin with no repentance. I understand that people feel that I’ve made some cultural sins. But the only real sins are the sins against God, and you don’t want to continue to sin against God.”
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West also revealed he will be voting for president for the very firs time in his life in November, and it is fairly clear he will be voting for President Donald Trump.
“I will not be told who I’m gonna vote on because of my color,” he told the Welch. “I’m definitely voting this time. And we know who I’m voting on.”
There were plenty of critics who argued West’s career would plummet after he publicly supported the Republican leader in 2016. For West, though, that was a nonissue, because he’s “not gonna be told by the people around me and the people that have their agenda that my career is going to be over.”
“Because guess what: I’m still here! ‘Jesus is King’ was No. 1,” he added.