Hi my name is Jason and I watch too much trash TV. I know that I really should be spending more time in prayer and deepening my spiritual life. Unfortunately more often then not the spare time I do have usually consist of watching an hour or so of mindless TV. That being said I try to find God wherever I can, that’s where Glee and Lady Gaga come in.
Recently we’ve been going through our DVR and catching up on all of our shows. A recent episode of Glee focused on each of the different character’s flaws or things they wished that they could change about themselves. This all culminated in the kids singing Lady Gaga’s anthem “Born This Way”. Now you might be asking yourself what could this possible have to do with God or the Catholic Church? My answer is everything!
Now admittedly I’m not the target audience for any of this, but I’ve noticed that the underlying theme across almost every episode of Glee and most of Lady Gaga’s songs is acceptance. I also remember what it was like being a teenager and that longing for acceptance. Pop culture today is filled with the message of self-love, but self-love in a selfish way. The following is a quote from The Guardian in a recent interview with Lady Gaga:
Lady Gaga refers to her recent Monster Ball tour as “a religious experience”, becoming for many, an alternative to organized faith. But she goes on to clarify, “it’s more like a pop cultural church”…Yet she insists: “It’s more self-worship, I think, not of me. I’m teaching people to worship themselves.”
Generation after generation we continue to fall into the same traps and we as a Church continue to fail to look at what “they” are doing right. When people drink the message expounded by shows like Glee and artist like Lady Gaga, they may be satisfied for a little bit but ultimately remain thirsty. Our message, the message of Jesus Christ and his bride the Church can quench their thirst with the living water and they shall never thirst again, but we have to bring them to the well. Right now we are losing the battle and we will continue to do so until we are willing to step outside our comfort zone and meet them where they are.
Blessed Pope John Paul II pray for us…
