Pop-singer Madonna kicked off her “Confessions” tour in Los Angeles by offending Christians and drawing more attention to herself. Between her political statements and oral sex jokes, Madonna found the time to don a crown of thorns, hang from a mirrored cross and croon her ballad “Live to Tell” in front of a screen flashing images from the Third World.
When the Material Girl first embraced Kabbalah, we thought her new-found faith would inspire her to show some respect for religion. It stands to reason that a woman whose faith is so important to her that she drags her rabbi to her concerts would not want to mock the faith of others.
However, Madonna proved, once again, that you really can’t teach an old pop star new tricks. She’s been spicing up her act with misappropriated Christian imagery for a long time now. Perhaps she can’t arouse any interest in her work without it. Poor Madonna keeps trying to shock. But all she succeeds in doing is coming across as a boring bigot.
In our statement to the media, we said, “Do us all a favor, Madge, and stick to singing and dancing. Knock off the Christ-bashing. It’s just pathetic.”
When Bill Donohue appeared on Paula Zahn’s CNN-TV show, he said, “If she tried it with some other religion, she may lose more than her shirt.” He added, “She certainly won’t bother the Muslims, and I think we all know why that is.”
