FOREIGN SCENE: Kanye West Defends Bringing "Jesus" on Stage

"God knows where my heart is," Yeezy says.

An actor depicting Jesus Christ at the Yeezus tour opening in Seattle last weekend represented one of the "awesome things" about Christianity and wasn't meant to be disrespectful, Kanye West says.

West, 36, cleared up the misconception in an interview with personalities from San Francisco's Wild 94.9 radio station recently, saying he even consulted with a "pastor friend" before staging the moment. "My girl even asked afterwards, 'Is that weird if Jesus comes on stage like that?'" he said, and then answered, "No, we do plays all the time where people play Jesus."

The right to play Jesus separates Christianity from other religions, West added. "You know, what's awesome about Christianity is that we're allowed to portray God. We're allowed to, you know, draw an image of him, we're allowed to make movies about him. Other religions, you're not really allowed to do that. So that's what's really awesome about Christianity. That's one of the awesome things."

The "Jesus Walks" rapper correlated the live-action ode to Christ with "a moving opera," then scrapped all comparisons stating, "God knows where my heart is at."

Religion and music mixing tends to have controversial results, which Yeezy acknowledged, but his intention wasn't to get a negative rise out of people, he insisted. "One of the things that I wanted to really get across with that message is that you can have a relationship with Jesus," he continued. "That you can talk to Jesus."

culled from BET.com