Kanye west publishes his new bible

The man who co-wrote a novelty Bible
that replaces the word "God" with
Kanye, in honor of iconic rapper Kanye
West, says his book is not intended to
offend Christians but rather to provoke
thought and broader discussions about
faith and culture.
The Book of Yeezus , which is a nod to
West's sixth studio album, was initially
thought by some to be a hoax when it
appeared for sale online earlier this
week but one of its three authors has
confirmed its authenticity. The book
recently sparked a firestorm of criticism
and one of the authors has spoken out
publicly for the first time in an
exclusive interview with The Christian
Post.
The author, who chose not to reveal his
idenity, defended himself during a
phone call with CP on Wednesday just
days after critics took to social media to
blast The Book of Yeezus as "offensive"
and "blasphemous."
The book, which is described as a "Bible
for the modern day," replaces every
mention of God in the book of Genesis
with the rapper's name but the author
insists that it is not intended to mock
Christianity. He said the purpose of the
book, which retails for $20 via ETSY , is
to "make people think," particularly
during a time when more and more
people are becoming obsessed with
celebrity culture.
Book of Yeezus Author Q&A
The Christian Post: Who published
the book; I read somewhere that it
was three brothers is that true?
Author: Yeah that's true, you're actually
speaking to one of the brothers. We
published the book ourselves, we have
a manufacturer… it's self-published.
CP: Where are you guys based out of?
Author: I live in California but my two
brothers are in Michigan.
CP: For the record, Kanye West had
nothing to do with this book right? He
wasn't involved in the creation of the
Book of Yeezus ?
Author: That's correct, it's definitely a
misconception. We're waiting to hear
from the guy. We have nothing to do
with him. I've never met him.
CP: Are you all Christians?
Author: That's not that relevant, I'd
rather not include that. I do want to if
possible, take this away from us and
make this more about the message and
what the product is trying to get across
more than anything.
CP: Are you all Kanye West fans?
Author: You know, we all appreciate
Kanye's music I think to a certain extent
we all admire him as a popular cultural
figure and that's no small feat for any
individual. To say that we are 100
percent devoted to him in a religious
worshipping way is probably inaccurate
and a great overstatement - that was
never our intention.
CP: How long did this book take to
make?
Author: We're all students, so we've
been working on it on and off. Winter
of last year was the time that I really
started working on the
website [BookofYeezus.com]. I think we
finalized the manuscript around Spring.
It took roughly a year intermittently.
CP: The text in The Book of Yeezus is
the exact same as the text in the
Bible but "God" is replaced with
Kanye, right?
Author: Yes, in addition to that there
are quotes and there's a forward with
illustrations. So it's been stylized a bit
and then there's gold-leaf printing,
gold-leaf pages … it's simple, it's a
modification, it's supposed to be a
minor twist and in doing so a little twist
changes the outcome very much.
CP: A lot of the feedback from
Christians has been negative because
some critics believe that the book is
blasphemous. Do you think the book
feeds into this culture of celebrity
obsession and idol worship?
Author: That's a great question. What it
is is sort of an exposition of the fact
that this phenomenon is occuring in
which we are worshipping celebrities or
cultural icons in the place of our
traditional spiritual icons, if that makes
sense. So we're not casting any
judgments, we're simply shining a light
on this and the fact people are making
their own interpretations and their own
judgements – that was the intention.
We wanted people to reflect on that
part of society, which is not to say that
we believe its good or its bad – that's
open to interpretation and that was the
intention.
CP: Do you think Christians have a
right to be upset?
Author: I think everybody should be ok
being a little upset, there's nothing
wrong with upsetting people around the
world. I don't think any good messages
that are sort of controversial and new
and that contradict an old
understanding of the world have gone
through without upsetting anyone. The
fact that these people have decided to
be upset is their own choice. If it upset
them I'm not going to apologize for it
but of course they have a legitimate
reason to be upset, it makes sense
because it's your faith. If I loved
cookies and someone told me that
cookies are terrible, I would be a little
personally offended if that's a value
system that I own … I would just back
up why cookies are important and in
the end become strengthened and
emboldened by it.
CP: Some people (including myself)
initially thought this book was a
hoax. I wasn't sure if it was intended
to be serious or whether it was
somewhat of a joke. Do you want to
draw people closer to Christianity or
is this just for entertainment; what is
the purpose?
Author: The purpose is that its an
interventionist art piece. Interventionist
art is essentially taking something that
is common or something mundane and
expected and sort of culture jamming it
or placing some sort of modification on
it. Say if you have a normal wall and
you put graffiti on it, that wall has a
new meaning because it's been twisted.
It's not graffiti on a canvas, that has a
different meaning completely. So what
we've done is we've taken something
that is old, ancient and important and
well understood and has its own set of
association and symbolism and we've
added our own twist on it and in doing
so we've given it a new meaning. It
really is more than anything some sort
of art exhibition. My brothers and I we
sat down one day and we were hanging
out and we were having a conversation
about Kanye West and how [he]
positions himself …
CP: He thinks he's a "God" he's said
it before...
Author: Exactly, that's the irony. I think
that a lot of people feel so intuitively …
why so much this hits a nerve is that
people really do feel that irony in that
not only does this guy call himself a
God and not only is he incredibly
egotistical but in a way the irony is that
he's kind of right. Because he has come
to a place where … the role that God
has played in our lives our spiritual
figures have been replaced by media
icons. So the concept at a higher level
is that we have some sort of intuitive
sense or desire towards finding
spirituality and finding reason and
things around us so its a very innate
human desire and also to feel as though
we are individuals who are a part of a
greater sense of purpose or movement.
And so originally, in a traditional sense,
God fit that criteria for us. God was the
natural...sort of naturally emerged to
answer those questions and give us
that innate feeling that was compatible
with that old world view.

By 4western crew ©