The Gaga 'Gospel'
I’ve been reflecting on Lady Gaga’s song Born This Way since the single was released on February 11th. The song quickly became a Billboard Hot 100. The song sold 448,000 digital downloads in three days; the most downloads in a first week by a female artist. By March 22, Born This Way had sold over 1,650 million paid digital downloads in the United States alone. No matter what you may think about Lady Gaga and her message, it is being embraced by this generation.
Gaga has a gospel for this generation or as she calls it a “Manifesto from Mother Monster”. It would be wise for us to take sometime to listen, reflect and prayerfully consider what it is that Gaga is saying, why so many are downloading her message, what does that tell us about this generation and how should we respond as missionaries to this generation?
This is exactly what we did this month in our ReachNational monthly staff meeting. We listened to the song, reflected on the lyrics, wrestled with what we could affirm and/or agree with, what raised great concern and how would we respond from a biblical perspective. In considering our biblical response we chose to limit ourselves to the book of Colossians. It was a great exercise of comparing the lyrics of Gaga’s Manifesto for her “new race” to Paul’s description of our Supreme Creator and Savior (Col. 1:15-20), the need to be “reborn” (Col. 3:1-3), our new identity (Col. 2), the new community (Col. 3:4), and the way of life.
Gaga’s ‘gospel’ declares the good news to be that we are “perfect the way we are” and “born this way." With this mindset we are free from any shame or guilt because there is no such thing as depravity. In Gaga’s ‘gospel’ what is celebrated is that everything is permissible and there is no need for a savior.
But, Paul has something very different to say about the way we were born and our response to it. We need to be reconciled from our alienation and enmity (Col. 1:21-22), put off our sinful nature (Col. 2:11), be raised to a new life (Col 2:13; 3:1-3), forgiven (Col. 2:14) and hidden in Christ’s perfection (Col. 3:3). His solution, unlike Gaga’s, is not for us to “celebrate our truth” or simply “embrace who we are” but see and savor Jesus Christ who has the supremacy over all things and through whom has secured for us a new birth through His death and resurrection.
Paul agrees with Gaga that what our world needs is a community of people where there is no prejudice or judgment. The primary difference is that Paul points to Christ as the one who is birthing this new community “where there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, Slave for Free, but Christ is all in all" (Col. 3:11)
I think Walt Mueller has said it well in his own reflection on Born this Way:
“I think Lady Gaga is right. We need more unity and togetherness. We need more compassion. But the unity, togetherness, and compassion we need is not the kind that says all things are permissible. It's a unity, togetherness, and compassion that is built around our shared understanding of our ultimate brokenness in a world where there is right and wrong. . . and a unity, togetherness, and compassion that flows out of our gratitude to the One who came to fix it, make it right, and then send us out to do the same.”
Let’s preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in BOTH word and deed. Our students are downloading another gospel…that in reality is not gospel at all.
How might you use Born this Way or other popular songs like this to create an opportunity to help students engage the culture with the gospel?
Post a Comment
Comments for this post have been disabled.
2 Comments
Christy at April 12th, 2011 6:26pm
Great thiknnig! That really breaks the mold!
Arthur Woods II at April 12th, 2011 1:32pm
Thanks for these Words, Shane. We are currently going through the new DOWNLOAD Series by Walt Mueller with our Students. As part of this series we have been evaluating the messages in various forms of media, including Born This Way by Lady Gaga. I'll be directing my student leaders to this blog to help them lead further discussions with the students in their small groups. Thanks Shane!