Friday, 22 April 2011

• Riding the Bandwagon: Have We Gone Gaga?

  This evening one of my Facebook friends posted a status that bothered me. This doesn't happen often -- if my mind were any more open about a lot of stuff, my brain would fall out. I tend to walk the line with a lot of subjects, until I've exhausted all of the roads of information to gather an informed opinion about something. Even then my life is tricky, because I believe in the first amendment to the extreme, and this can be difficult to do as a pastor's wife.

  This friend on Facebook posted about Lady Gaga's new video for her song, "Judas." She had said the video was extremely offensive to Christians, and that we shouldn't allow our teens and kids to watch such filth. She said she'd found the leaked Judas video but decided not to link it because the thumbnail for the video itself was "too disturbing."

  Now, I know Christians can get uppity about people being offensive to Christianity and God. When your husband works for a church, you hear it a lot about it. I'm used to people getting extremely upset about things that matter and things that don't matter. I'm also used to the bandwagon effect.

  My immediate wonder about this new Gaga video is what could be that horrible? Okay, so she wears meat dresses for gay rights and wears clothes that look like Liberace and Elton John had a baby for "shock value." She's one of the most open-minded people out there, so much so that I think her brain actually did fall out sometimes.

  But for her to attack Christianity so terribly doesn't seem logical. You don't simultaneously fight for equality and shut out a major group of people, do you? Lady Gaga did go to Catholic school for 13 years, so it's not surprising that this topic will come up from time to time in her performances.

  So I went on a search for this video and came up empty-handed. I couldn't find it -- anywhere. At this point I had to see it. I just had to. I asked my friend if she could just post a link in comment to the video so I could watch it. That's when I realized that she had jumped on the bandwagon. All aboard. No, this time it's okay, because her preacher had said it.
  
  This is when I get upset. Did she see the video personally? Did she formulate her own opinion based on anything other than copying her preacher's status update? How many other mindless copy-pasters did this preacher create?

  I questioned my friend and she promptly posted a link to another Gaga video -- "Telephone," in my opinion one of the most irrelevant wannabe "Thriller" videos ever made. And my friend said it was filth, and that she had copied her status update from her preacher because she figured he had done his homework.

  I'm not interested in the other video. She posted a very strong and very stern opinion about the "Judas" video -- that she hadn't even seen yet. 

  Sure, her preacher had an opinion about the video and he's entitled to it. I do wonder though how he got hold of this elusive video that no one else has seen. He apparently got to see it and must be the only one in the world who has. Now I'm not saying all preachers are wrong or liars. Some of them are, some aren't. I don't know her preacher personally, and I don't have an opinion about him. 

  I also don't have an opinion on the Lady Gaga video.
  
  Because I haven't seen it.

  Curious, I listened to the audio of it with the help of finding the lyrics to the song. The song, if taken metaphorically, is about loving someone who has done wrong, being torn between choosing someone you feel more connected to as a person because they're dirty like you, or choosing the person you know is better for you. Then there's the release of information by Gaga herself that she'll be portraying a Mary Magdalene character in the video who is torn between her devotion to Jesus and her love for the "bad boy," Judas.

  I mean, we are tempted to sin, to choose the darker path. The song can get quite confusing. It almost speaks in different stances as if from three separate points of view: Jesus', Mary Magdalene's and even Judas'. There's also one line that talks about betrayal three times -- in reference to Peter, perhaps? The song, in my opinion, isn't offensive. It's either a metaphor for being with a man who is just no good to you, or an interesting take on the possible struggle Gaga is having between choosing God or turning away from Him -- and if that's offensive, I think maybe Christianity doesn't want any more members, now does it?

  The video is a different story. It could be offensive, it could just be another bandwagon of hate based on ignorance. But I'm not about to have an opinion on something I haven't seen for myself yet. That bandwagon can just drive by; I'll walk, thanks.

  And this, folks, is what's wrong with the internet -- Facebook, blogs, etc. Many people have given up on finding their own opinions about things and have jumped on the bandwagon of click-highlight-copy-paste. This is a plight among the Christian community especially, because we're loud and opinionated. It's okay to have opinions and it's okay to share opinions, but when did we stop thinking for ourselves and start regurgitating Facebook status updates? When did we start copying and pasting things about something we haven't seen/heard/read about yet, and think it's okay to do that?

  Now I know we've been doing this since the dawn of time, but the internet has made it much easier to start a global bandwagon of ignorance, fueled by hate. I'm not upset that my friend trusted her preacher; I'm upset that she put her complete and utter, 100% faith in her preacher and flew on complete ignorance, spreading information without checking for herself.

  If preachers were the absolute truth-holders, Bibles would be printed for clergy only.

  What are your thoughts on Lady Gaga's new single, "Judas"? Do you notice internet "bandwagon" riders especially in the Christian community?

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