Gaga “Born This Way”

Posted on: 02/7/11 6:03 PM | by Jonathan McKee

For someone typically so immersed in mystery, her lyrics are crystal clear on this occasion:

I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track baby
I was born this way

Lady Gaga has posted the lyrics to her upcoming song, “Born This Way.” The message of the song is hard to miss. So we dove into the lyrics and provided our two cents in our new Youth Culture Window article, Born This Way: The Theological, Moral, and Scientific Revelations of Lady Gaga’s New Song.

I wanted to let you– my blog subscribers– know first. Our entire EZINE list will receive an email tomorrow morning!

Here’s just a snippet.

If we were to sum up this song’s message, we’d say, “Lady Gaga believes homosexuals are born that way, so let them live that lifestyle because they cannot help it.” As lovingly and respectfully as we can, we must say, there’s a lot about this song, and its message, that’s intrinsically wrong and internally incongruent. Just take a look at some of the key lyrics in this song to see for yourself.

For starters, Lady Gaga encourages her listeners to “just love yourself and you’re set.” Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as that. Honestly, we sometimes wish it was! But it’s simply not. If a guy goes around shooting other people – but loves himself – is he “set” by cultural standards? Just ask anybody impacted by the actions of Jared Loughner. You’ll get a resounding “no!”

Is the woman who displays wrathful anger to everyone a perfectly capable benchmark for civility…so long as she loves herself? Is the kid who steals from others (to sustain a drug habit) off the hook because he loves himself? Nope and nope.

Although a healthy self esteem is a good thing, I’m not “set” just because I happen to love me. Neither are you. Neither is Lady Gaga.

CLICK HERE FOR THE WHOLE ARTICLE

I’m eager to see your comments on the bottom of that article!

Last week I asked for your prayers as David and I worked on this article. Thank you for your prayers and the emails/comments of encouragement. It’s a delicate subject in today’s “politically correct” world. Frankly, much of that is our (Christians) own fault because we’ve been unfair to homosexuals in the past– holding them to an even higher standard than the rest of us sinners.

That opens up a whole nother can of worms. So… you’re getting a double-whammy this week. We also posted another article from David and I: Coming Out of the Closet…and Into the Church: What Should the Church Do About Homosexuality? This article tackles the issue of homosexuality for the sake of youth leaders and adult mentors who need to provide answers to the questions that our teenagers are asking us– questions like, “Isn’t homosexuality okay now? Can’t they NOT help it?” Adults need to be able to answer these questions and provide a Biblical basis for compassion AND the unchanging truth of the Word of God.

Happy reading!

4 Replies to “Gaga “Born This Way””

  1. Hi Jonathan and David,

    Thank you for an excellent article on homosexuality – sensitive but strong and based on the Word, something so tragically missing in the Church today and so brilliantly timed for us!

    My husband and I recently joined the Youth Ministry team in our church (South Africa, Grade 7 students) and we’ve been looking online for resources – we can’t wait to start exploring those you’ve made available. And we’ve been sensing the impending discussion about homosexuality…

    Blessings,
    Pippa

  2. I spent a good amount of time today reading your and David’s articles on homosexuality. Thank you for speaking the truth in love on this topic. For what it’s worth, I subscribe to Seventeen magazine to try to keep up with some youth culture and they have a two page spread in their current issue called “is it more than a girl crush?”, geared at “answering” questions about confused sexual identity and clearing up rumors about being gay. I’ve found that I get just as frustrated at what these magazines are pumping to our youth as what TV, movies and music do.
    Thanks again for your hard work and for helping us as leaders be better equipped.

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