{"id":354,"date":"2011-04-25T11:02:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T15:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/?p=354"},"modified":"2011-04-25T11:02:52","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T15:02:52","slug":"shocking-how-lady-gaga-and-others-in-the-media-market-christian-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/04\/shocking-how-lady-gaga-and-others-in-the-media-market-christian-outrage.html","title":{"rendered":"Shocking! How Lady Gaga and others in the media market Christian outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time to ignore them.<\/strong> This Easter season seems to have brought forth its usual (perhaps a bit more than usual) number of attention seekers hoping to use the holy day to piss off Catholics (and Christians in general) and, thereby, promote themselves into the ranks of so-called edgy<\/em> artists.<\/p>\n

But the routine is getting old and starting to appear more pathetic than bold. Hence, The Wrap headlines:<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga’s Easter Marketing Plan for ‘Judas’: Tweets, Leaks, Sacrilege<\/a><\/h1>\n

From the article: “Judas,” with its release originally scheduled for the Tuesday of Easter week until the leak accelerated its release by four days, is provocation on a different level.<\/em><\/p>\n

A love song of sorts to the man who Christians believe betrayed Jesus \u2026 sitting at number one on the charts this week\u2026 and accompanied by a video in which Lady Gaga plays Mary Magdalene \u2026\u00a0 Well, it’s all but designed to draw the kind of attention it got from Catholic League president Bill Donohoe (sic), who said (before he’d heard the song or seen the video), “She is trying to rip off Christian idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Some music critics weren’t much kinder — Caryn Ganz calls it “a noisy, directionless collage of half-finished ideas” — but Lady Gaga’s not selling to the Catholic League, or to music critics.<\/em><\/p>\n

She’s selling to her 10 million Facebook friends (she was the first living person to hit that milestone), her 9,458,015 Twitter followers, and the YouTube fans who made her the first artist with one billion views.<\/em><\/p>\n

And for those fans (monsters, she calls them), a little controversy only serves to stir up attention and rally the faithful.<\/em><\/p>\n

But Lady Gaga’s not the only one with the M.O. of fueling her career with Christian anger.\u00a0 Hence\u00a0 Deadline.com headlines:<\/p>\n

Hollywood & Religion: More Controversy To Come If New Films Anger The Faithful<\/a><\/h1>\n

The trend, if that’s the right word, has understandably aroused the ire of Media Research Center President Brent Bozell<\/a> who, in noting Showtime’s heavy promotion of its new series The Borgia<\/em>s made this observation:<\/p>\n

The spirit of Lady Gaga also came alive in April in “The Borgias,” the new Showtime miniseries that dwells playfully on an adulterous, murderous pope \u2013 a Spanish mobster in papal vestments. (It\u2019s what Showtime considers \u201creligious\u201d programming.) There\u2019s no historical doubt that Rodrigo Borgia (who became Pope Alexander VI) was flagrantly immoral, with seven illegitimate children, one of whom he named a cardinal. He was a terrible pope and a medieval Judas \u2013 and the perfect vehicle to sully today\u2019s Catholic Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

By contrast, Showtime had too much reverence for the Kennedy family to accept the miniseries “The Kennedys.” New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley joked “fortunately for Showtime, there don\u2019t seem to be any thin-skinned Borgia descendants with powerful friends who can lobby network executives.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But, of course, The Kennedys <\/em>(while focusing on a famous Catholic family) did not become a television hot potato because it might offend Catholics.\u00a0 The icons being skewered (and protected) were not religious but political.<\/p>\n

In any event, it’s become pretty clear that offending Catholics, Christians and believers in general has, as The Wrap headline suggests, become part of the marketing strategy for some in the media — who spin such anger into supposed proof of hipness and a supposedly cutting-edge willingness to push the envelope.\u00a0 We believers, unfortunately, too often play into the strategy.\u00a0 There’s genuine wisdom in turning the other cheek. It really is time we stop playing the game and, in fact, change how the game is played. Some thoughts on that tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. 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