Writing for Busted Halo: An Online Magazine for Spiritual Seekers, Helen Lee, a theology student at Fordham University, claims that Lady Gaga is spreading the gospel in her music. She says that Gaga’s new single, “Born This Way,” is “an anthem for the different. The song offers words of encouragement for everyone on the margins of society, including gay people, members of racial minorities, and even the ‘broke.’ She insists that ‘God makes no mistakes.'”
Lee goes on: “Gaga is spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, whether intentionally or not. Her views on celibacy, personal strength and individuality are certainly laudable; and far more compelling is what she has to say about human nature and human suffering.”
And this: “Because Lady Gaga is able to embrace the ugly, and in so doing embrace the beautiful, she has a sensitivity and appreciation for inevitable human suffering. She acknowledges that people struggle constantly with their fallen nature . . . From her attention to human suffering, I’m reminded of the Christian theme of uniting your sufferings with Christ’s suffering. Gaga is demanding that the marginalized be seen as the valuable, beautiful, Christ-like people they are.
“Lady Gaga is eccentric for sure. She can be grotesque. She can be vulgar. But she is a role model of Christian virtue precisely because it seems unlikely that she would be. She has the potential to introduce God to so many people precisely because it doesn’t seem like she is doing so. Lady Gaga is telling a huge, devoted audience that God loves them.”
I would agree that, at least in this song, Gaga is communicating some biblical truths. But to call her a “role model of Christian virtue”? A self-professed bisexual who shows off more of her body than almost any entertainer in history, who says she stays in shape on the “drunk diet,” who walked into the Yankees’ locker room after a game last summer while swilling whiskey and groping her own breasts, who believes she has two souls, who gave the finger to Mets fans, who . . .
Point made. If she’s singing Christian truths, fantastic. But “role model of Christian virtue” doesn’t exactly fit the situation.
