Dear Kanye, Please Stop Grabbing the Mic

I’m sure most people get the reference, but in case you were in a cultural bubble, in 2009, during the MTV Music Awards, Kanye West went up on the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, grabbed the microphone from her, and made his own speech about how Beyoncé should have won instead. It was an instance where someone asserted himself and his own voice when it wasn’t granted to him to speak. The reason why this event comes to mind is that this seems to be repeating itself over and over again in his “Sunday Services.”

You see, the voice of teaching in the church is to be handed down from the elders who must be qualified to teach. They are also qualified by their long-term conduct as older Christians who have lived out Christianity for some time, learning and applying that biblical teaching to their lives. Hence, those who are young in the faith, new converts, people who have not done this yet, are not qualified. In other words, God doesn’t give them the mic to speak. They are to be humble and learn and grow, and one day, after they have gone through the fire of all that it means to be a Christian, they may be qualified to teach. Until then, if they take the mic, they are in sin; and one who is in sin can be used as a mouthpiece for the devil as much, if not even more so, as a mouthpiece for God.

Paul lays this out in the qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy 3:6. A qualified elder, as a teacher of God’s people, “must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.”

Kanye is neither qualified to teach due to lack of biblical knowledge, nor is he qualified to teach due to his being a recent convert. He is in danger of spreading error when wrong and in danger of being spiritually destroyed due to arrogance even when right. 

I want to say that I don’t have any problem with Kanye sharing his testimony and the basic gospel, as long as he understands it well; but he should not be teaching anything about Christian doctrine and who should be considered Christians and who should not. He shouldn’t be teaching anything upfront at all. He should humble himself and let qualified teachers teach both for the sake of possible error and for the sake of closing all opportunities the devil has to corrupt him through self-worshiping arrogance.

I also want to say that I have a great love for this new believer, as I am a teacher and have a love for all new believers, desiring them to learn and grow in Christ. My hope is that he can finally give up the limelight, and not repeat the error of his former arrogance when a pagan that he seems to be repeating in his new life as a Christian. So if I had any advice for this young convert, I would simply say, “Dear Kanye, Please stop grabbing the mic.”