This Sunday, Kanye West‘s highly anticipated service at Joel Osteen‘s Houston megachurch went down just as many expected: as a perfect mix of celebrity narcissism, privilege, and fundamentalist Christian certainty.
During a conversation with Osteen, West talked about what led to his recent religious conversion, but before he got into the meat of his story, he chided the audience for daring to distract him while speaking for God.
“I know that God’s been calling me for a long time,” West said as the crowd cheered, “and the Devil’s been distracting me for a long time.”
“And when I was in my lowest points, God was there with me and sending me visions and inspiring me,” West continued before recounting how he was sitting in the hospital after his “mental breakdown” conceiving ideas about building a church and making a gospel album, adding that the Christians around him at the time were too “beaten up by society to profess the Gospel to me.”
As West continued to speak, an enthusiastic person in the audience broke his concentration, prompting the born-again rapper to take a moment to address the person directly.
“Excuse me brother, I go into these streams of consciousness when I’m talking, and when you’re speaking in the the middle of it, it distracts me,” West said as the audience sat silent. “I really appreciate the support, but I would like for everybody to be completely silent so I can let God flow through me as I speak to you guys.”
Watch the clip below. You can watch West’s full remarks here.
Featured image via screen grab
