In November 2019, I wrote a column with the most surprising of titles, “Welcome To The Family, Kanye.”

Music mogul Kanye West reportedly made a profession of faith in Christ, and the reactions around the world ranged from celebration to utter shock to cynical disbelief.

In that column, I wrote the following words:

“If it is Kanye we have gone all in on, we are yet again missing the point. It is Jesus and his ability and desire to save that we are to be going all in on. If he is received with open arms by Christians and then later recants and becomes worse than ever, it would still have been right to receive him with open arms since that is what the Lord wants to do anyway.

“The most telling part of all of this, though, is what it says about the prayer life and soul-winning efforts of many believers in our day. You see, the only way someone could be surprised at Kanye West getting born again is if that someone has not been praying for him to be saved and has not believed that God could do it.

“So, welcome to the family, Kanye. I have been praying for you and will continue to do so as you strive to grow in the Lord.”

I bring those words back up again because I want Mr. West to understand my heart for him before he potentially reads words he will not care for at all in this column. And I do hope that he reads them; the issue is large, and his responsibility is as well.

Multiple news outlets in the past week have reported that Mr. West is on the verge of starting a porn company. While producing purportedly Christian music on the one hand, he seems to be preparing to serve up utter filth on the other. So, please bear with me as I write to him as much as to everyone else in this column.

Dear Kanye, I hope and pray that you are well. You do not know me and likely never will; I am a certified nobody from nowhere, a small-town pastor who somehow ended up being blessed with a syndicated column. But please know right off the bat that I am not your enemy; I am your friend, whether you know it or not. As such, the words of Proverbs 27:6 are very relevant, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

If I wound you here, it is because I genuinely care about you and everyone else. So here goes. Your plan to produce pornography is wicked, horrible, and damaging. Don’t do it.

The Jesus you claim to follow had something pretty important to say in Matthew 5:28, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Pornography defies these words of Christ. Anyone producing a product designed to incite people to look and lust is becoming a merchant of darkness rather than a producer of light.

There is no more sacred gift that God has given humanity than the intimate union of man and wife. And that is the only place at all that such passions should be aroused and allowed. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” In Psalm 101:3, David said, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” Looking at wicked things sticks to a person’s mind and heart, and anyone making the wicked things for others to look at is profiting off of that paradigm.

In Job 31:1, Job said, “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” In Romans 13:14, Paul said, “Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” You will not find a single positive word about porn or anything of the sort in Scripture and countless commands and principles that stand against it.

From nearly 30 years of marriage counseling, I can tell you that porn produces nothing but wreckage in lives and homes. It eventually makes it nearly impossible for a man and wife to have actual intimacy. It ruins trust. It makes people feel inferior and unable to compete for attention against the polished yet utterly fake product they are up against. It makes children hate the parent who destroyed a home by their refusal to control their wicked desires. Your idea to produce porn could not be more harmful, even if you included a live rattlesnake with every subscription.

What is it that you want? If money is the goal, as I strongly suspect, then you are about to become the living embodiment of 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

You are more than welcome to contact me if you would like to discuss this issue; I would be delighted to speak to you about it. In the meantime, I will be praying for you now, as I have been since 2019.