Most days when I arrive at work, I make my way into my office, grab some coffee and sit down at my iMac. I always take a few moments to scan the days news articles. This morning I came across an article about Lady Gaga. She had some interesting thoughts regarding Christianity. Here is what she told Lindsay Parker with Yahoo! Music:

“I struggle with my feelings about the Church in particular….in terms of religion, I’m very religious. I was raised Catholic. I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. I’m very spiritual. I pray very much. But at the same time, there is no one religion that doesn’t hate or speak against or be prejudiced against another racial group or religious group, or sexual group. For that, I think religion is also bogus. So I suppose you could say I’m a quite religious woman that is very confused about religion. And I dream and envision a future where we have a more peaceful religion or a more peaceful world, a more peaceful state of mind for the younger generation. And that’s what I dream for.”

Here are a few observations that we can make from her comments:

1. She struggles with her feelings about religion, and particularly the Catholic Church.
2. She believes in Jesus and God.
3. She is spiritual.
4. She prays very much.
5. She believes all religion hates, speaks against or is prejudiced against other racial, religious or sexual groups.
6. She thinks religion is bogus.
7. She admits she is ‘very much’ confused about religion.
8. She dreams of a day when we have a more peaceful religion, world and state of mind.

Here is what concerns me, Lady Gaga is very popular. (I have no idea why…but she is.) I’m not actually concerned that she is popular, it concerns me that for only that reason alone, people will trust her opinion. Now if people want to dress, talk and sing like her, then that is their personal choice that I take no exception. What I think is bad, is when people will trust her theological and philosophical thinking.

I know what some of you are thinking: ‘Who is this guy to say that we shouldn’t listen to her thoughts on theology and philosophy?’ Well I think I have a few logical reasons.

First of all, her comments are self-refuting. She says she is religious, believes in Jesus & God and she prays. But then she says that all religion is bogus. Why would I put any validly into a person who says: ‘I think X is true’ then in the next sentence says ‘I believe X is false, dishonest or fraudulently imitating’. Something cannot be true and false at the same time. This is called the Law of Noncontradiction; X cannot equal non-X.

Secondly, she believes (or thinks) the following statement is true: ‘there is no one religion that doesn’t hate or speak against or be prejudiced against other racial, religious or sexual groups’. I disagree. I’ve been a Christian for quite some time now and I know of no orthodox doctrine of the Church that is prejudiced against racial groups. Now let me qualify, there could have been (and probably was) a particular Christian or Christian subgroup that did do this, but orthodox Christianity doesn’t.

But what about the statement that religions hate or speaking against other religions or sexual groups?  Christianity does do this. This one is a little bit more abstract and a bit harder to explain…

Basically, I see a fundamental error in her thinking. Lady Gaga is saying that ‘we should not hate or speak against other religions or sexual groups’. (I agree with Ms. Gaga that we should not hate other religions or particular sexual groups & since I follow Jesus & I think that is what he taught.) But I think her error is she believes that she is being neutral.

See, she is basically saying that we shouldn’t force our view on others. But she isn’t following her own rules. She is telling others they ‘shouldn’t’ speak against other religions or sexual groups. Well, according to orthodox Christian doctrine, we are to speak against conflicting worldviews such as Mormons, Muslims, homosexuals and pedophiles. (Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Peter 3:15; Remember I’m not saying we should hate them but do it with gentleness and respect.)

But here is what bothers me, whatever worldview you hold, you hold it because you think it’s true. In other words, you hold your particular worldview because you think that is how the world really is…you think it’s reality. If your worldview says that ‘we should not speak against someone else’s view’ or ‘force your view on others’ then why is she ‘speaking against’ the orthodox Christian view. She is telling the masses what to think. She is telling them what they should do. She is not neutral. She is forcing her view on others, thus her worldview commits suicide.

I guess it’s like Lady Gaga said: ‘I suppose you could say I’m a quite religious woman that is very confused about religion.’

I couldn’t have said it better myself.