By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News -
Iconoclastic rapper Kanye West praised Israel’s kibbutz movement on a hip hop podcast on Friday, saying that Christians should form their own family-oriented communities.
During an eclectic conversation on Drink Champs, West said that American society has become too individualistic and that working together in an interdependent model is healthier for people.
Citing an example from his own life – that his mother had to “separate” from him at a young age so that she could make more money – West said in order to find success in the U.S., many people are forced to leave home.
“Society is set up to have people go away to college…and in between your hometown and where you have to go to school, there’s a bunch of liquor stores, a bunch of strip clubs, a bunch of malls,” he said, listing temptations which he said pose danger to families and a sense of community.
“We need Christian kibbutz, we can have communities,” he said, posing a solution.
When the hosts of the podcast asked West if he was referring to community centers, West clarified that he was talking about full-time living arrangements.
“Jewish people have this type of circular community… it’s like where they live, and where we need to live, where the grandparents can take care of the kids,” he said.
“It’s better to have a grandparent taking care of the kids than a nanny taking care of kids — hired love. You get what I’m saying? That we move as a community, and as a community, we will not fail.”
It’s unknown if West has visited a kibbutz, but he has traveled to Israel on multiple occasions.
In 2015, West and his now estranged wife Kim Kardashian baptized their daughter in an Armenian church in the Old City of Jerusalem.
After rising to the top of the hip hop world, earning Grammy awards and signing lucrative deals to design clothing and footwear, West has recently become very religious.
He has largely abandoned making secular music, leading a gospel choir and releasing an album named Jesus is Born.
Image: Jason Persse, CC BY-SA 2.0 <;, via Wikimedia Commons
