Category: Religion & Spirituality

Kanye West’s New Promotion of Christianity

Brad Harrison

Do you know the middle name of Kanye West? It’s Omari, that means Gof is the highest. Therefore it’s absolutely in tune with the producer designer and rapper’s new promotion of Christianity. While he is in the tour, he started promoting the new album Jesus is King. During this time, West started to profess his belief and commitment to his faith and it seems to be both a redemption as well as promotional tour.

Kanye West seeks to visit the mega church of the prosperity and meet the pastor Joel Osteen. Joel was caught in the controversy to open the church doors to the Harvey Hurricane victims.

Kanye West’s colorful professional life saw multi folds in his career. Lately, on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, West gave a lecture to someone for wearing a black lottery winner regarding the importance of luxury consumer products. But on the contrary side, West himself gifted his eldest daughter a $62,000 worth tiara when she was about one year old. Such contradiction never ceases to chase him, spoiling his reputation.

When his album was supposed to signify black cultural and their religious tradition, like the samples of black church like James Cleveland’s God is, his album displays the gospel of white missionaries. While his entire life was spent in challenging these conventions through every way of his artistic life, West now poses a contrary mood.

While several people are criticizing him or making fun of him, his fans re already in a dilemma for not having any answer. But let’s not be carried out with these thoughts and discuss it from a simple perspective. West is filthy rich and his incoherent ideas are not contradictory to the general approach of rich people. They can afford to be so incoherent and contradictory because they don’t always have a particular ideology to stick to. For him, promotion is the ultimate thing as it is his profession. His efforts are thereby colored with his profession. And this Jesus is King is only a testimony of relying on the free market liberal trade. Thereby he stands as opposed to the black liberation theology.

Though it affects his fans since they are ordinary people who believe him to be an icon, but that doesn’t mean his stance is affected. And while people are wasting time discussing his mask and hypocrisy is exposed, that little matters to him. Some even attacks him for his apparently racist approach toward his own clan, but little does he bother since he belong to the “white” world in every way other than skin color.

Honestly, the promotion of Christianity is less about Christianity of Jesus and more about Kanye West. But given an artist, this is part of his job. Conventional people raise voice: Can God be used for promotion? Isn’t it an attack on the religious sentiment? But we have not yet received any answer from Kanye West himself. There is some cryptic and confusing explanation in the itnerview with Zane Lowe below.

What’s your take on this matter? Feel free to comment below and air your thoughts.

Famous Religious Figures Today

Brad Harrison

We often take certain things for granted. Like religion, where we feel that certain religions are born, they then grow and later on get decayed. However, when someone starts a new religion, we take it as a cult, something that hinders our way of life and thoughts.

Most of the religions are like faith. We have to treat its traditions and teachings as sacrosanct and timeless. Well, the same thing can be said about the religious leaders of these sacred religions. Today’s religious figures or gurus are more involved in creating a peace and understanding the human values.

These new religious figures provide guidance in living a happy and peaceful. Well, their achievement is what encourages each of their followers and onlookers to know the importance of their teaching.

Famous Religious Figures

Below are the five current religious figures who have paved a way and created a dynasty that rides on their success and teaching. Let’s check these great ones –

  • Tenzin Gyatso – 14th Dalai Lama

Born as Lhamo Thondup, Tenzin is the current Dalai Lama. Do you know that Dalai Lamas are one of the significant monks of the Gelug schools? This is one of the newest schools of the Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India due to the Tibetan uprising. Currently he is a refugee in India but has traveled all around the world. During the international visits, he has spoken a lot about the welfare of Tibetan people, economics, environment, women’s right, nonviolence, etc.

In addition, he is the recipient of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and even Time magazine has named him as one of ‘Children of Mahatma Gandhi’.

  • Pope Francis

Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church. He is even considered as the sovereign of the Vatican City State. Do you know that he is the first Jesuit pope who is from the Americas? Also, he is the only pope from the Southern Hemisphere and even the first one to visit the Arabian Peninsula.

Now throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been recognized for his emphasis on God’s mercy and his humility. In addition, as an international Pope, he is often concerned with the welfare of the poor and supported the interfaith dialogue.

According to him he feels that the Church needs to be more open as well as welcoming. He is a strict non-supporter of unbridled capitalism and Marxism.

  • Bechara Boutros al-Rahi

Bechara Boutros al-Rahi is the 77th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch. He is also the head of the Maronite Church and was made the cardinal on 24th November 2012 by the Pope Benedict XVI.

Boutros al-Rahi has often supported and shown deep interest for love and communion. He always strives to establish a complete and sincere dialogue with the Muslim community all around the world. For him, it is always striving to create peace and building a future together with the Muslims through common life and cooperation.

As per him, his predecessors struggled often with the insistence for freeing both the national decision making and the land of Lebanon. But he is striving to work for the reconciliation in the Mount Lebanon and work on the church reforms.

  • Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar is a famous spiritual leader and guru in India. Often referred to as ‘Sri Sri’ or Gurudev or Guruji, he started the Art of Living Foundation in 1981. This is a volunteer-based NGO that provides social support to various people. He established the Geneva-based charity organization called the International Assocation for Human Values in 1997. The basic work of this charity agency was to engage in relief work and rural development. Also, it aims to foster a global value all around the world.

According to Shankar, spirituality is what enhances human values like compassion, love, enthusiasm, etc. He feels that it is not limited to a single religion or custom. It is open to all people. In addition, he even feels that spirituality and science are compatible as well as linked, where both springs from the basic urge to know.

  • Jaggi Vasudev

Simply and often referred to as Sadhguru, Jaggi Vasudev is an Indian mystic, yogi and a prolific author. He started the Isha Foundation which is a non-profit organization that provides yoga programs all around the world. Through his foundation, he is involved in environmental and educational initiatives and even social outreach.

As an author of multiple books, most of them have appeared in The New York Times Best Seller list pertaining to the various categories like religion, health, faith and spirituality. In 2017, he was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan which is considered as one of the highest awards given by the Indian Government for his extensive contribution in the field of spirituality.

The above five universal religious figures are famous not only for the religious positions they hold. They have made a great change in the lives of various people and are striving to make the world a better place to live.

Hillsong and “Modern” Christianity

Brad Harrison

Hillsong which has been pejoratively referred to as a “hipster megachurch” is one of a handful of large Christian churches that utilize modern forms of online media and social media to connect with and attract a younger demographic. Carl Lentz is a pastor who gained some attention for being the pastor of Justin Bieber. Without sharing an opinion, check out the video below to get an idea of the experience of “modern Christianity.”