Lady Gaga's Real Sin...

The Catholic church has taken umbrage with Lady Gaga over her yet-to-be-released video called "Judas."  Naturally, I have not yet seen footage of the video, but it is reported that she is depicted as Mary Magdalene, friend of Jesus Christ and one of the only people noted to minister to Jesus.  The video also, among other things, apparently depicts Jesus Christ as a black man.

Catholic organizations and other religious groups have lambasted Lady Gaga for the video (that they have not yet seen either), attacking her personally and the video generally, calling her untalented and the video racist and a publicity stunt.

Now, I am not rushing to the aid of Lady Gaga.  She has many, many people who love and adore her and she has handled controversy well in her run.  I think she'll be okay.

The criticism aimed at her in this instance is unfair and unwarranted.  Since Christianity has been recognized as a religion in the first century, artists, religious and otherwise, have depicted Christian religious figures.  Some of them have done so with the Catholic church's blessings.  Some, have even been commissioned by the Church to render such depictions.  And as you can imagine, and as we have seen, those images are carefully controlled and advance a theology consistent with the Church and its teachings.  But, when someone advances an image of Christian religious leaders that they don't agree with, they personally attacked by the church.  Ask Dan Brown or Madonna how this works.  Better yet ask Mel Gibson how this works.

For instance, I remember when I was younger and attending Catholic grade school, I watched the movie version of "Jesus Christ, Superstar."  The movie portrayed Judas, who the scriptures note, betrayed Jesus, as a black man but Jesus and all of the other figures as white.  This depiction is not only historically inaccurate, but fueled by an undercurrent of racism.  The church didn't take to arms about that depiction which was inaccurate.  In fact, I remember watching it in school more than once. 

The video may turn out to be disturbing and wrong on many levels.  I'll wait until I actually see it before I attack it.  But, it seems to me that Lady Gaga's only sin in this instance (other than her shoe choices occasionally), is that she has depicted Jesus as a black man, which is more historically accurate than the long-haired Jesus, or the blond-haired Jesus we have seen the church sanction over the years.