BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Bianca Censori has filed for a divorce with Kanye West. The separation follows a series of public and eventful scandals.
Kanye and Censori attended the Grammy’s together two weeks ago. Censori arrived in a fur coat but soon discarded it, revealing…well, nothing and everything, while Kanye remained fully dressed. She was quickly removed from the event due to her public indecency. Rumors that Kanye had coerced his wife into the brazen act began swirling, further fueling the gossip mill.
Kanye remained in the spotlight for the next two weeks. Not long after the Grammys debacle, he posted a string of blatantly antisemitic and racist tweets. Whether X removed them or Kanye deleted them himself is unclear, but they have since been taken down.
Following this string of perplexing tweets, Kanye managed to dupe advertisers into promoting a website that sold just one product: a plain white t-shirt with a swastika emblazoned right in the center. For Censori, this was the final straw and, according to her, caused her to file for a divorce.
Responses to Kanye have taken one of two streams—either he is an evil person or a mental illness must be blamed for his misconduct. While no one knows what happens in Kanye’s mind, his actions over the past few years have shown that he was never worthy of the influence he was given. To follow Kanye in his brokenness is a destructive path.
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And yet, just over five years ago, Kanye had become a significant influence among many in the Church for his new conversion. He expressed his fidelity to Christ during a listening party for his new Christian album, “Jesus is King.” Kanye, Kim Kardashian (his wife at the time), and their daughter had already been baptized.
His record-breaking album went on to win Top Christian Album and Top Gospel Album at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, as well as Best Contemporary Christian Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021.
Christians rejoiced, but some took it too far, giving Kanye a level of influence he should not have had as a new convert—especially without knowing the full details of his conversion. Songs like Follow God and Closed on Sunday were widely used by Christian influencers to promote “Christian” doctrine and ideas.
Perhaps they believed Kanye’s celebrity would help spread Christianity. But they failed to test his faith by its fruit. Maybe they also placed too much trust in the power of fame. While God certainly can and does use celebrity at times, His preferred method is to use “what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” and “what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Perhaps the most tragic of Kanye’s recent tweets, misspellings and all,
My name is Ye
And I don’t need to me saved
What you gone wash me in the imaginary blood of Jesus
Hindsight is 20/20, but Christians should have exercised the discretion to see that giving so much influence to a new convert was a terrible idea. Yet, in an age of extreme celebrity and instant internet connectivity, it’s only a matter of time before it happens again.
Whenever a celebrity converts, they often gain significant influence among Christians. We've seen this with Justin Bieber, Shia LaBeouf, Russell Brand, Nala Ray, and many more. I sincerely hope and pray that each of these conversions is genuine. However, the sudden rise in their popularity among Christians and the weight given to their insights on doctrine and piety is, at best, unwise.
In 1 Timothy 3:6, Paul warns that a bishop “must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” He reinforces this in verse 10 regarding deacons: “And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.”
God ordained these officers to be the examples and provide pastoral care to His church. That is not to say that other mature believers should not have any influence, but that God ordained those who have the most influence to be well-studied and proven in the faith.
A celebrity Christian is not an office of the Church, nor should their fame grant them more influence over doctrine and Christian living than any other believer at the same level of spiritual maturity.
In the early Church, aspiring converts underwent a process of catechesis, a period of instruction and personal purification leading up to baptism, at which point they were formally considered part of the Church. This process could last up to three years and involved learning the essentials of the Christian faith, pursuing personal holiness, and living a life of repentance. By the time they were accepted into the faith, the Church could confidently embrace them as brothers and sisters.
Today, most churches no longer practice this kind of rigorous pre-baptismal catechesis. While many still require basic instruction before baptism, most new converts join the Church without having had time to live out their faith and demonstrate a pattern of Christian obedience. Catechesis does not necessarily need to last for years leading up to baptism, but it must happen before baptism, after baptism, or ideally, a combination of both.
It seems almost too obvious to say, but a convert should not be trusted to rightly communicate or live out the faith before they even understand what the faith is!
Yet, Christians often let celebrity converts skip this crucial step of discipleship, quickly elevating them to a level of influence over God’s flock simply because of their fame. The convert often accepts this influence unintentionally, eager to share his newfound faith. But as time goes on, he faces the usual temptations of a new believer with the added weight of influence and fame within the Church, intensifying his trials. And if he falls, great is the fall for both himself and many in the Church.
St. Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome in the late 6th century and a Doctor of the Church, spoke directly to the danger of novices seeking influence—primarily through the priesthood. He writes:
For, since it is written, That one should first be proved, and so minister (1 Tim. 3:10), much more ought he first to be proved who is taken as an intercessor for the people, lest bad priests should become the cause of the people’s ruin. There can therefore be no excuse, no defence against this, since it is clearly known to all how solicitous about diligent attention to this matter is the holy and excellent teacher, who forbids that a novice should accede to sacred orders (1 Tim. 3).
But, as then one was called a novice who had been newly planted in the conversation of the holy faith, so one is now to be held to be a novice who, having been suddenly planted in the habit of religion, creeps on to canvass for sacred dignities. Orders, then, should be risen to in an orderly way: for he courts a fall who seeks to rise to the topmost heights of a place by steep ascents, disregarding the steps that lead to it.1
What is a new convert to do? How ought the Church to advise young believers?
Study in humility. Submit to Church leadership. Resist the pull of Christian fame. Reject influence that exceeds your maturity. Do not stop sharing the Gospel, but do so as the Samaritan woman, simply, without extra commentary. Do this for several years. When you are knowledgeable and firm in the faith, as guided by wise leadership, they may entrust you with greater influence.
Kanye’s story is not unique. It is simply the most recent. Christians must learn from their mistakes. We must not hand spiritual influence to new converts merely because they are famous. To do so means putting the flock of God in significant danger.
Fame does not qualify someone to lead. Influence without maturity is dangerous, both for the one who holds it and for the flock that follows. The Church must practice discernment, ensuring that those who teach and lead are first tested, proven, and prepared for the weight of that responsibility.
Rejoice when the lost are found, but do not let them lead the race before they have learned to walk the faith.
Gregory the Great, “Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome (Books IX–XIV),” in Gregory the Great (Part II), Ephraim Syrus, Aphrahat, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. James Barmby, vol. 13, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1898), 25.
Superb!!!