On November 8, recording star Cher will release a new CD called “Not Commercial.” She describes her songs, all of which she wrote, as “dark” and has authorized a warning label on the cover because of the subject matter and colorful language.
There is one song that caught the attention of the Catholic League, “Sisters of Mercy.” Allegedly written on the basis of tales told to Cher by her mother (Cher spent a brief time in a Catholic orphanage as an infant), “Sisters of Mercy” blasts the Catholic order of nuns from beginning to end. The Sisters are called “daughters of hell”; “master of pain”; “mothers of shame”; “twisters of truth”; and “daughters of war.”
Other lines in the song that refer to the Sisters of Mercy are as follows: “They always weave their web of lies and wrap you in their wicked spell”; “They try to crucify your inner sense and do it in God’s name”; “They use God like he’s a weapon but only for a chosen few, then hide behind pious faces like the guilty always do”; “These chicks administer your penance while the devil guards their door,” etc.
Catholic League president William Donohue criticized Cher today:
“E! Online calls Cher’s ‘Sisters of Mercy’ a ‘diatribe against nuns,’ and theLos Angeles Times brands it ‘accusatory.’ The Catholic League calls it defamatory. Cher was right to put warning labels on her new CD, but she unfortunately chose the wrong warning: she should have warned that those who hate intolerance should avoid this CD altogether.
“If Cher had been molested by a lesbian when she was in camp, is there anyone who thinks she would be bashing all homosexuals in a song today? And if she did, everyone knows she’d pay dearly with her Hollywood buddies. But taking a cheap shot at nuns costs nothing in Hollywood and may even be cause for celebration. That’s how phony this gang has become.”
