More Christian or Less Christian

                             

In this week’s lecture, we watched two musical videos of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, both of them are Christian, and they all attempts to make their music more or less with Christian content. When we look at the popular culture and Christianity today, people no longer just talking about whether you are a Christian or not, but about whether you are a good Christian, whether you understand the faith correctly, or what we can say that whether you are more Christian or less Christian.

“Judas” is a very controversial artifact, Lady Gaga interpreted her faith in her specific way. In this video, Gaga depicted herself as Jesus’s girlfriend but fall in love with Judas who finally betrayed Jesus, but she persists on choosing her love which is Judas. This video has been fiercely against by Christian communities, they think it is a misinterpretation of the bible and it will mislead the society. In this case, we know for sure Lady Gaga is a Catholic Christian, she is pious, but her attempt to interpret Christianity is denied by Christians.

              

Meanwhile, in the musical video “Pray” of Justin Bieber, most students thought the charity content is too intentional, his action makes it looks like a show. Then there emerges the question whether Christians should use their faith for commercial purposes, whether charity should be connected to commodity.

In my opinion, the Christian content represented in both musical videos shows the complexity of Christianity in popular culture today, Christian singers interpreted their faith in many different ways. Lady Gaga has her specific understanding of bible, meanwhile Justin Bieber interprets his faith by adopting the most basic way. Do they devalue the Christianity? Do they misinterpret the religion? I think they offer different possibilities how Christianity could represent in popular culture nowadays, and provide a chance for audiences to experience something more than just music and at the same time more than just Christianity.