Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Lady Gaga vs. (Some or Not All) Philippine Christian Youths



Tonight, Lady Gaga performs in her first ever concert in the Philippines. I passed by SM Arena tonight and judging from the packed entrances of the “SM Corp.’s” newly finished structure droves upon droves of fans came to witness the Pop Diva’s over-the-top show.

As I’ve been living in a weekend-induced coma and I don’t watch local news, or local TV for that matter, ever faithful Facebook provided a news flash:



Sunday night, I had to take a deep breath and tried to remember that the above article does not generally encompass the Christian youth community as a whole because not all Christians are ignorant.

I really wonder if these youths fully understand their actions. Are they marching just because they believe their faith calls for it? Do they actually, as a whole, understand Lady Gaga’s music and the message she tries to send through with it? Are they protesting just for the sake of protesting? Is it possible that some of these kids are just going along in a “mob mentality” sort of phenomena?


I am pointing out that music, like all forms of art, is not what it always seems; it shouldn’t be taken down the literal route. Music has depth and is open for everyone’s interpretations. For the most part, I believe that Lady Gaga’s songs speak of empowerment and equality; sometimes her songs are a bit weird for my taste.

Personally, I think that these protestors are taking things overboard. Why rain on everyone else who enjoys her music? These people are not the devil-worshipping kind that solely listens to her music for that reason.  No, these are people who simply love her and her music, people she inspires and makes happy. So I ask, who are we to dictate what people can enjoy in their life?

In my opinion, these protests are on the shallow end. Perhaps they should delve deeper and see Lady Gaga as a person with her own beliefs, her own faith and maybe they should respect that and see the broader scope of things. She isn’t going out of her way to vilify conservative religions and communities. It’s merely her form of self-expression and sharing her art, her music and maybe making a good difference to someone or somewhere out in the world. Just because someone is different from our norm doesn’t make them a bad person.

People will argue that Lady Gaga gives the wrong impression to younger children and that she’s exposing these kids to the crude and sacrilegious and she must be stop and what not. Here’s a news flash: it is not her job to filter out what she does with her music. Adults who know and understand better should be responsible. Monitor these impressionable kids. They are nobody else’s responsibility but their parents.

I’ve said my piece on this. Protesting and marching be damned, the concert still pushed through. So what are you going to do now (some or not all) Philippine Christian Youths?

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