Like a Pagan

Madonna's schtick is getting old.  Shock and outrage can only go so far before it becomes just plain offensive.  Nowhere is that more clear than in her live performances where she has resorted to exposing herself, using foul language, and having strange interactions with her audience.  Not that such antics are all that unusual anymore, but Madonna is a pioneer of such unbridled-adolescent-acting-out-as-entertainment fare.


Now she is picking on Pope Benedict.  While performing  a song called "Nobody Knows Me" (does anyone really listen to this stuff?) a song dedicated to homosexuals who are "persecuted", she shows video of anti-gay protesters, then a video of her own face changing into the pope's with anti-gay protesters flanking them on both sides, then various shots of young homosexuals who have committed suicide.


The message?  It's pretty clear.  She is tying the pope to "hate speech" because he supports natural law and will not give approval to homosexual marriage or homosexual acts for that matter.


Madonna has a long history of using religious imagery.  In her original tart-covered-with-cheap-baubles incarnation, crosses were a prominent part of the virtual hardware store that hung around her neck.  One of her albums was titled Like a Prayer.  She has staged mock crucifixions as part of her shows.  She claimed once that she wanted to be a nun when she was a little girl.


But Madonna's latest attempt to outrage isn't as outrageous  as it is shameless.  Those protesters she displays are from the Westboro Baptist Church--famous for showing up at funerals and taunting the bereaved.  And they HATE the Catholic Church.  They picket Catholic Churches and call them "whorehouses".


Pop music's crumbling tart has had the nerve to dress like a nun, invoke God in her supposed "faith" in Kabbalah and named her daughter Lourdes.


There's only one thing that gets to people like this:  When the public no longer consumes their auditory waste and stops buying tickets to their concerts.  Madonna fears being irrelevant more than anything else.


And she is irrelevant.  Her "art" contributes nothing to making any of us closer to God.  People like her have tried to harm the Church before and the Church continues to endure.


The Polish people get it.  Their Catholic Youth Crusade is trying to stop a show scheduled for August in Warsaw because it coincides with their day of remembrance for the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis (Madonna likes to use swastikas too).  In an online petition, the group writes that Madonna "is attacking the Catholic faith... offending Jesus Christ by burning crosses and wearing a crown of thorns."


If your kids are listening to Madonna, here's a great teaching moment.  Use it.  And when you do, be sure to delete the MP3's, throw out the CD's and tear down the posters.  This woman's voice and image deserve no place in any Catholic home.


If enough people stop listening to her musical fecal material, maybe she'll go away.

Stand Up and Fight!