The Lead

"Lady Gaga is a Kierkegaard in fishnet stockings, who can play piano and guitar," according to Rodney Clapp writing in The Christian Century.

Stefani Germanotta was an awkward teenager, at least as she remembers it. Her peers bullied her for being ugly, for having a big nose and giant eyebrows. They teased her for her laugh, for her love of theater, for her penchant for constantly sing ing, for the way she wore her makeup. They made fun of her tan and her hairdo. "I used to be called a slut, be called this, be called that. I didn't even want to go to school sometimes," she says. ... Despite the stratospheric levels of her success, she hasn't forgotten being a misfit. "It wasn't until I put my music out into the world that I was able to look into myself and honor my own misfit and honor the reality of how I was treated when I was a kid, not by my family, but by my peers in school, and how it affected me."
Consequently, Lady Gaga's message to her devoted fans is that it is all right for them to be "little monsters." Others may regard them as too fat or too skinny, or harass them because they are gay or otherwise different. But as their Mother Monster, she reminds them that they have real worth. In concerts she tells them she was (and is) a misfit, but look at her now. She promises them that they, too, may one day stand on a stage at Madison Square Garden and soak in lapping waves of applause. She shares her fame and herself with them—Lady Gaga is always "on" for her public—and regards her fans as "at least 50 percent, if not more," of her person.

In turn her fans not only adore her but begin to re spect themselves. A 15-year-old boy writes representatively, "I am an extremely devoted little monster, and I'll be a little monster for life. . . . At every concert you've said that you want to liberate us, and that is what you've done. Your songs have taught me not to listen to haters and be who I am, because, baby, I was born this way!"
...
Kierkegaard was at pains to defeat all prettification and accommodation of the gospel, to remind those who would call themselves Christian that Jesus when he lived on this earth was widely despised and rejected, treated like a monster. And if that Jesus is the Jesus who calls us to be like him, even to be a part of his body, then Christians are the original little monsters. Lady Gaga is playing a variation on an old song.

Addendum 7.20.2001 - Gaga and Bono - Congregation Resource Guide.

Comments (15)

Her "Monster Ball" concert, which can still be had on HBO is fabulous. What does it suggest to us about how we share the good news? Are we willing to ally it with the Gaga vernacular?

Posted by Michael Russell | July 19, 2011 12:39 PM

Starting Friday, I am co-leading the Junior High II summer program at Camp McDowell in Alabama. We are calling the program "OMG, Y'all!" (On a Mission from God, Y'all!), and focusing on how our entire lives are to be spent on mission.

To explain what it means to be created in the image of God, we are using Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" - if that doesn't get the message across to rising 7th- and 8th-graders, I'm not certain what will.

Lauren Stanley

Posted by laurenstanley | July 19, 2011 1:08 PM

I'm not sure I'm ready for a Gagacharist (...don't go there. Please.) but there's definitely more to her than meets the immediate glance or the quick appraisal: this is decidedly not "Material Girl 2.0," despite some superficial resemblances. I track the blog Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga (http://gagajournal.blogspot.com/) for generally good, fun and occasionally brilliant commentary on her work.

Posted by Jan Nunley | July 19, 2011 1:38 PM

There is a big difference between Christ and Gaga that is missing from this commentary. Christ did not suggest that "to just be ourselves" was the ultimate goal. Christ never said 'just go about being yourselves and everything will be alright'. That was never his teaching. His teaching to his disciples was to give up ourselves; to ignore our own devices and desires and focus on those things that God would have us do.

Quite frankly, I'm rather appalled at this casual comparison between Christ and Gaga that the Episcopal Cafe has so obviously endorsed.

Posted by Ttollerton | July 19, 2011 1:51 PM

I once heard a Gaga-inspired sermon that could have been titled "Born Again This Way." Maybe a theme for next year at Camp McDowell?

Posted by Lora Walsh | July 19, 2011 2:25 PM

@ Jan Nunley: too late!

Gaga Mass

*LOL*

JC Fisher

[@ Ttollerton: you're SO concerned. So Very (joylessly) Concerned. Um . . . what's your agenda?]

Posted by tgflux | July 19, 2011 3:17 PM

@tgflux - I have no agenda here. I just notice a big difference between Christ and Gaga. The notion of 'just being ourselves' suggests that being a Christian is easy, which is a fallacy. Being a Christian is hard, and involves self-denial, obedience, and meekness. I don't recall any of those themes offered by Ms. Gaga.

And, thank you, but I am EXTREMELY joyful. Thanks be to God.

Posted by Ttollerton | July 19, 2011 6:01 PM

@Jan Nunley: I think there was more to Madonna than meets the eye too. YouTube the video for Material Girl and you'll find it's actually ironic and anti-materialist. I've always experienced Like a Prayer as a call for authenticity and listening for God's voice.

We meet God in strange places and hear good news from all corners. Why shouldn't Gaga or Madonna be able to communicate these things, being made in God's image as we all are?

Jason Cox

Posted by Jason Cox | July 19, 2011 10:28 PM

Reporting a story is not endorsing it, Ttollerton.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | July 20, 2011 8:37 AM

@AnnFontaine

Respectfully, let's be careful here. Episcopal Cafe is not a news agency with the goal of objective journalism.

Posted by Ttollerton | July 20, 2011 9:49 AM

With regard to the points raised by Ttolerton, I'd point out that the comparison is to Kierkegaard, not Christ, and that there's good theological precedent that part of what God wants from/for us is to be our FULL selves, in relationship to one another and God. That's significantly different from saying "Do whatever you want," and I don't find it at all a stretch to say that discerning in ourselves between the desires of "the world" and more Godly desires is part of our task in life.

I hear Gaga's "Born this way" song as a corrective to false self-loathing (not self-denial) that is pushed on [especially young and especially LGBTQ] people by cultural pressures around them. Resisting messages that don't respect the dignity of every human being also strikes me as theologically sound.

What do we make of "Love thy neighbor as thyself"? Is the point to transfer a false self-love back to its appropriate object: our neighbor? Or are we called to love ourselves in the process as well? Being a Christian may not "be easy," but it is a yoke that many of us find light, by the grace of God. Lady Gaga may be surprised when Jesus thanks her for feeding him when he was hungry, but good for her if she's giving some care to those who have been used to feeling like the least among us.

Posted by Benedict Varnum | July 20, 2011 2:15 PM

Benedict Varnum, I agree!

Posted by Annelanewitt | July 20, 2011 2:23 PM

Whatever the merits of LG's music or message, it seems rather absurd to compare her to Kierkegaard. It is significant, I suppose, that the source article never bothers to quote the man, especially since his sense of the demands of the gospel made even marriage questionable.

Far from celebrating his (very few)readers as being fine as they were, he challenged their easy acceptance of the status quo, and he bitterly condemned a church establishment more concerned to bless the good life than to preach the rigors of the way of the cross.

It will be a while, I think, before any pop artist presents us with an album entited "The Concept of Dread," or announces the "Sickness Unto Death 2012 World Tour."

Posted by rick allen | July 20, 2011 3:38 PM

There actually is a song called Sickness Unto Death by a band named Typhoon, about whom I know nothing.

Posted by Jim Naughton | July 20, 2011 3:51 PM

And a song called Dread and the Fugitive Mind, by Megadeath. The ringtone, which I know that you all will want, is here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/megadeth/dread+the+fugitive+mind_20091475.html

Posted by Jim Naughton | July 20, 2011 3:56 PM

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