Pastor's kids, kissing girls, and veggietales.

So this blog post is a result of another inspired request of a friend. Personally, I think he should start blogging too. He's got some wisdom in him =) Though, I suppose I can write this one for him. This blog deals with a rather popular artist that has risen to popularity in the past few years. Her hits include songs about kissing girls and waking up in Vegas. Yes, you probably guessed that I am talking about the one and only Katy Perry. However you might not have guessed that she is a pastor's daughter. Shocking right? But wait there's more! Ms. Perry also maintained a brief career as a Christian singer when she was about 15. So how did she go from singing about God to singing about being bi-curious? According to Katy's mom, its when Katy was noticed by a music producer who wanted to take her to L.A. “that's when she started to change" said Mary Hudson (Katy changed her name from Hudson to her mother’s maiden name Perry to avoid confusion with that other Kate Hudson). That may have been what led her on the path to the super-stardom and notoriety she experiences today. But I would argue that that’s not when it started, when Katy herself really started changing. Sure, that’s when her parents noticed her changing but Katy said in an interview "I started living life on my own terms at 17. I moved away from home with the blessing of my parents. And it’s just that crazy experience of like, ‘Ohmigod, I have no curfew! I’m making my own money now! Nobody can tell me what to do! I don’t really have a set of rules besides the rules I set for myself!’” I think what happened was her parents held Katy so tightly, then she was let loose into a world she was not prepared for. She experienced a culture shock. And her reaction was to lose herself in it. While looking online, I found some Christian responses of hopes she might find God again, that she might return to her parent’s faith.

I would argue that she never had it in the first place.

You see, Katy Perry isn't that different from us. Well, except for the millions of dollars of course. We have been there. We have held the title of "Christian" but haven’t yet figured what that means, what that looks like. And if we do not have parents, role models to help us figure that out, our faith becomes superficial at best. A few lines from that same interview mentioned, "Perry grew up in a Christian household. MTV-watching was prohibited. Madonna posters were forbidden. And terms as innocent as 'Dirt Devil' and 'deviled eggs' were banned in favor of 'vacuum' and, yes, 'angel eggs'."
My theory is that her parents sheltered her. And when I say sheltered I mean from everything. I don’t think they really explained to her why she couldn't watch MTV or listen to Madonna, past stating that they were bad influences. It seemed like it was just a "Cause I say so" situation and it seemed to have backfired. Katy seemed to translate that living Christian meant living cut off from the world completely and that's just not how Jesus intended for us to live.
Our faith is not meant to be a list of things we cannot have or do. It is a living breathing faith that allows us to adapt to our culture and change it, not fight against it. I am not saying there are not things in our culture that should be challenged but I think it’s more of a not throwing out the baby with the bath water situation. Yes, we must use our discernment when approaching secular music, movies and other media. Not avoid them altogether. We need to see that God is not just in Veggietales and songs by Newsboys. He reveals himself in other areas as well. Areas not included in our sheltered Christian environment. Don’t get me wrong, I love Veggietales but when we are constantly on a diet of Christian books, music and movies, how are we supposed to encounter the culture we live in?
I believe if Katy's parents had successfully taught her about her culture and about how to encounter it, she wouldn't have run headlong into it. Because think about it, if all she knew about Christianity was rules and then she suddenly lives in this culture of ours where there are almost no rules, which one is she expected to choose? Well-intentioned repression is always going to fall short of unapologetic freedom.
The key here then is to recognize that our faith is not rules. Our faith is acknowledging the all-encompassing love, revelation and salvation of Christ and how it will transform our lives. Do not misunderstand me, God wants us to remain pure of the world's tainting but that does not mean we must shun the world. How are we to save it unless we understand it? What we must do is keep ourselves rooted in God as we explore culture. That means viewing the movies, music, and other media we enjoy through God's scope. More on that in my next post. For now, I would say to exercise caution in judging Ms. Perry. She is actually more alike to us than we think.