Posted on 07/12/2020 5:02:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
It was "a plan by the Devil to have our kids committing suicide at an all-time high." So said Kanye West, the recently declared "Birthday Party" presidential candidate. It's about the best explanation I've heard for the non-coronavirus issues that plague us. There's some serious good-and-evil combat going on, and neutrality isn't a viable option.
"Reinstate in God's state, in God's country, the fear and love of God in all schools and organizations and you chill the fear and love of everything else," West told Randall Lane, the editor of Forbes, in an interview. "Removing God" leads to "murders in Chicago at an all-time high because the human beings working for the Devil removed God and prayer from the schools," said West. "That means more drugs, more murders, more suicide."
Around the time he gave the interview, the Supreme Court was putting the finishing touches on their second ruling in the seemingly endless litigation the Little Sisters of the Poor have gone through. It's all because of a needless mandate that they participate in insurance coverage of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs that are against their religious beliefs. This should have been as clear a violation of religious liberty as it gets. When this all started, back in the Obama administration, a not-Catholic colleague walked into my office and asked why we weren't marching on Washington, given the direct violation of the First Amendment.
But it wasn't that obvious to everyone -- certainly not to the Democratic Party that has made itself an extension of the abortion industry. It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. People opposed to abortion feel they have to vote for a Republican Party that is a mess, because the other party seems to become more extreme on abortion by the day. Take their presumptive presidential candidate, Joe Biden. He's vowed to make the Little Sisters pay. This is the same man who reportedly raised objections to the mandate behind closed doors -- until Planned Parenthood put him in line. And then he was their faithful servant.
On that topic, my candidate for a day, Kanye, had this to say: "Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil's work." Those are words I'm grateful a more mainstream audience may hear and consider.
Every time I pause at Margaret Sanger Square in Lower Manhattan, outside Planned Parenthood, I pray these words of the Divine Mercy chaplet, often through tears: "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." Sanger was Planned Parenthood's founder. While people may work there with the best of intentions, it's a poison in our midst: fueled by death, and contributing to a culture where mass deaths in nursing homes don't even seem to faze us. Black lives matter, as all lives do -- but these past decades, we haven't been acting like that is true. Violence is like the air we breathe.
I don't know if Kanye West is serious about running for president, and I wouldn't actually vote for him. But some of what he's saying is a good nudge for cultural reflection. What is the best use of freedom? Who are we, truly?
Talk of humility is typically anathema in politics. It's certainly not the way of the man currently occupying the White House, nor is it Kanye's specialty. But now is the time for more than a little of it.
Why is it that the Little Sisters of the Poor weren't even a major news story as they won in court again? To many, the idea that there are people of integrity who would give all to serve God is foreign and implausible. The group's years in the courts haven't been about birth control, but the Beatitudes. "Let them Serve" was the slogan surrounding their Becket Fund for Religious Liberty litigation and education campaign.
I'm not sure about some of what Kanye West has to say when he gets talking, but on serving God, he's getting to some of the best of America -- the best of life itself. If he got rapping about the Little Sisters of the Poor, he might talk about love, joy and freedom in the humility of obedience to the Creator. And if we took the words seriously, we might just receive the kind of renewal we seriously need.
If he does nothing more than to get blacks to understand why the Democrat liberals situate their abortion clinics in black neighborhoods, he will have made a significant contribution to American culture.
I agree.
Why raise a question about how serious West is? Did anyone raise this question about those riding in the overcrowded Democrat candidate clown bus? I think the headline is racist! /s/
Pence needs to step aside and let Kanye run as Trumps VP. He would guarantee a huge victory including the house and senate. It would give Kanye a chance to prepare to run in 2024. Question is will Pence’s ego and his own desire for power allow him to do what is right for the party and the country. Kanye would bring in far more voters than Pence ever could.
Kanye's a genius at turning a simple phrase into a dagger. Let's see the 'rats wiggle out of this one.
And then he’d make an absolute mess of things because he’s a bigger wildcard than Trump, unless he agreed to only say things Trump approved, and even then - could he be trusted.
For sure.
He’s raising some interesting points and is quite correct.
And the media is going to end up tying itself in knots, not knowing what to do with him.
If a white person said this, the mockery and derision would be non-stop, and the person’s career would forever be destroyed.
But Kanye is not white and they are in a bind of their own making if they criticize or mock him.
I love it.
And thanks, Kanye, for speaking up and out, and showing the manhood that all too many GOP politicians are lacking.
Very interesting idea.
Not sure how I feel about him being President, but otherwise I think you are correct.
However, if it came down to Kanye vs whoever the dems are putting up, it would be a clear choice. And I would not pull the lever for a dem if they were holding a gun to my head.
The average American has better ideas than career politicians.
Personally, I would vote for Kanye over anyone the Dems would put up.
What this effort by Kanye West may very well lead to, is a vast diminution of the vote for Democrats all up and down the ballot, beginning with those electors committed to Joe Biden & Co. The black demographic will turn out, just not for the Democrat ticket.
People have called Kanye West a “fake conservative”, but conservative is not what West is, no more than Donald J. Trump. Both are populists and nationalists, and not actually acting in opposition to each other.
Nice article, Kathryn Lopez. Thanks!
He can do more good preaching Christ and a clean, productive life than getting too involved in politics. Hope he avoids people who are trying to use him.
I think Kanye and Trump have planned this together. Let’s just keep watching.
For leftists, Ask any Trump supporter who’d they’d support, Biden or West. It would be West, then ask about racism.
The point of the West candidacy is to provide black voters with a choice besides Biden. A black vote for West is in effect a black vote for Trump
They will not vote for Trump but will vote for west
Imagine if they closed every Planned Parenthood and switched them over to heart Care clinics with rehabilitation heart cardiovascular exercise therapy programs.
Since Biden is stealing themes from Trump maybe Trump should echo themes from Kanye.
I’d prefer Kanye with bipolar over pedo Biden with Alzheimer’s.
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