Why Lady Gaga shouldn't be called a Satanist

It’s obvious that Lady Gaga thrives on the shock factor of her stardom. But the Lady’s always in control: everything is a planned, schemed action. Everything is part of a show — purposefully meant to amuse.

While some fans were going gaga over Lady Gaga’s arrival in Manila, a few hundred other Filipino youths were crying outrage. Conservative religious groups picketed outside her concerts, organized public vigils and repeatedly called for a ban on the two-night concert — probably praying for the so-called lost souls who have found joy in her music. The protestors rallied, claiming that the pop sensation’s lyrics were anti-Christian.

Specifically, local religious groups found her song Judas blasphemous, in which Lady Gaga sings, “I’m just a holy fool, oh baby it’s so cruel, but I’m still in love with Judas baby.” Lady Gaga has been quoted saying that the meaning of the song is “an analogy about forgiveness and betrayal and things that haunt you in your life, and how it’s the darkness in your life that ultimately shines and illuminates the greater light that you have upon you.” Lady Gaga is known mostly to stir controversy, but this tactic sometimes sheds light on some things that she believes in and fights for.

Definitely, she is no stranger to being talked-about or lambasted, but I think this is where she gets the last laugh. In everything that she does under the limelight, she seems completely aware that it is all part of an act. In her interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, she constantly talks about the “sociology of fame,” noting she has actually studied the way celebrities before her rose to fame, and this is something that she has applied to her own life.

Though she seems to satirize the entertainment industry as a whole, she does not disregard the fact that her fame comes with an amount of influential power, and this is something she has used primarily for good.

A strong believer in equality, Lady Gaga was one to speak out against the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” US military policy, fighting for equality with the LGBT so that they could have the right to fight for their country, if they wanted to.

Bullied teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, took his own life after being taunted at school for being gay. Before he died, Jamey posted a thank you to Lady Gaga (dailymail.co.uk).

She has also openly reached out to troubled youths in the world through her music. One of her teenage fans, a high school boy in Buffalo, New York committed suicide due to the years of bullying he had to endure in school. He quoted a Lady Gaga song in his last words, and thanked Lady Gaga before killing himself.

That’s the funny thing. Even the likes of Marilyn Manson, who has been so publicly criticized for being a “Jesus hater,” seems to have a better grasp of the youth psyche than most Christian leaders. Listen to Marilyn Manson talk to filmmaker Michael Moore about the Columbine massacre, in which Michael asks, “if you could say anything to the two boys (who committed the shootings) in Columbine, what would you say to them if they were here?”

Manson replies, “I wouldn’t say a single word to them. I would listen to what they have to say. And that’s what no one did.”

It’s Just a Show

It’s obvious that Lady Gaga thrives on the shock factor of her stardom. It seems to be the vector she has found most effective in getting her principles across to the public. She is the unpredictable shape in the cookie-cutter entertainment industry, and this is part of the reason why people are obsessed with watching her every move.

But like Madonna, the Lady’s always in control: everything is a planned, schemed action. Everything is part of a show — purposefully meant to amuse. No one should really take Lady Gaga’s work that seriously, but those who do see that her work has a multitude of underlying meanings that are immensely important for the youth.

Lady Gaga is the ultimate symbol of individuality — of accepting oneself for whoever they want to be, and whatever beliefs they have. She is outrageous, but in being outrageous, she lets it be known that “fitting in” doesn’t always equate to how good you can be as a person.

Lady Gaga is that constant reminder that just because the people around us don’t see things the way we do, we should not feel ashamed or different. There is always somebody else out there who does. And this is what Lady Gaga stands for. She became the friend of all: the outcast, the rebels, the bullied, the peculiar, the awkward, the flamboyant, and the obnoxious — she spoke out for all of those who could not when the world was speaking out against them.

Funny, because this is something that Jesus was known to have done, too.