The Gospel according to Gaga
“I don’t make music because I want people to worship me. I make music because I want people to worship themselves.”
That’s how Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, the woman Forbes named the #1 most influential celebrity in the world, framed her ambition. Last year she earned 90 million dollars. She has amassed 32 million Facebook fans and 10 million Twitter followers. She’s put Oprah in the rear-view mirror.
The World knows her as Lady Gaga.
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir
There’s nothin’ wrong with lovin’ who you are
She said, ’cause He made you perfect, babe
So hold your head up, girl and you you’ll go far
Listen to me when I say
I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way.
Thats the gospel of the most influential celebrity in the world today. It stands in direct opposition to the gospel of the most influential person of all time. He began his message with, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.”
The kingdom of me is at hand. Accept and believe the good news.
“I want people to worship themselves.”
So why can’t she just be Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanott?
…there is a fine line between self acceptance and self worship in these words. As much as I dislike her message the words quoted here could easily be read as words of encouragement to someone that otherwise has a diminished identity.
Our Faith offers an identity for those without…our identity becomes grafted into God’s through Christ. Here, Gaga has entered the loop of decadence by omiting Christ from identity. She has place self as god…which the world observes with every generation.
What’s I find most profound here is that she willing accepts the premise of the flaw and teases out her own “joke’s on you” absurdity in the process…a sort of “I’ve already out-thought you all” defense.
…I also want to add that we’ve heard this song before.
http://youtu.be/5eKAVVe1rXQ
Personally, of all the people currently alive, I think that Stefani would be one of the most interesting to get to know. Note that I said Stefani, not Lady Gaga. Her public persona is not the real her, but you can tell that she is amazingly blessed with talent and intelligence. And I get the impression that she knows that these are blessings from God, not chance or self-born skills.
That said, I am not a huge fan of Lady Gaga. As I heard in a church podcast last week, she is an amazing artist and musician, but her lyrics stink. (I paraphrase, but it came from Jeff Dietz at First UMC Carrollton’s TRUTH youth series.)
Great question JD.
Francis Frangipane refers to Paul’s Damascus Road as the “de-mask-us” road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTb11Y-C_ss
Just imagine the potential evangelist who could be slumbering deep beneath that mask. Stranger things have happened. It is hard to kick against the goads.