Why Should You Care About What the Church Cares About Katy Perry’s Approach to Religion?

Last updated on: November 20, 2013 at 9:03 am by David Hayward

Why Should You Care About What the Church Cares About Katy Perry’s Approach to Religion? 2013-11-20T09:03:23-04:00 David Hayward

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“Church as Judge” (by nakedpastor David Hayward)

I came across Candi Finch’s post yesterday, Why Should You Care About Katy Perry’s Approach to Religion?. I want to thank her for her contribution to this very important discussion. When I started reading her post I was hopeful because she obviously cares about young people and has done her research. She even says, “Before you dismiss what she (Katy Perry) says…” which I found encouraging because too often the opinions of stars like Katy Perry concerning spirituality are ignored or ridiculed. She also claims that there are Katy Perrys in our churches, indicating to me that Finch is compassionate, culturally aware, intelligent and not judgmental. Finch agrees with the research, as do I, that the reason so many young people are leaving the church is because “young adults wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity and that the church appears to be unfriendly to those who doubt.” Finch is an assistant professor of theology and is getting a PhD in systematic theology. So, that along with her compassion for young people and her cultural awareness, I look forward to hearing from her in the future about this crisis the church faces.

But then her post takes a strange turn that surprised and disappointed me, but is typical of the church, because she nearly said what needed to be said but retreated back into official policy. I felt the need to contribute to her discussion in hopes of providing another and hopefully helpful perspective. She blames pluralism (all religions have equal value and contain some measure of truth), and syncretism (we can appropriate these values and truths from wherever we find them and apply them to our lives). Her solution is familiar: preachers should preach the purity and exclusivity of Christianity clearer and young adults need to believe it harder. In other words, true Christianity alone is the way and you shouldn’t doubt it. Unfortunately, Finch’s solution reinforces the problem.

So I’ve composed a list of reasons why we really should care about Katy Perry’s approach to religion. Here they are:

Having been there, she knows what she’s talking about.
Scare tactics such as Hell no longer control her.
Reward tactics such as Heaven no longer entice her.
Belief for her must not be intellectually offensive.
She claims her action, therefore social responsibility, is important.
She was willing to risk the support of her parents to find her way.
She will appreciate and appropriate truth where she finds it.
The concept of blessing or curse depending on church membership doesn’t apply.
She feels no need to belong to a church in order to be spiritual.
Her spiritual health and independence is her responsibility, not the church’s.

Again, I thank Finch for her contribution to this discussion and hope we can continue to humbly try to get closer to being honest about the church’s problems and more courageous about finding meaningful solutions.

I welcome you to The Lasting Supper where we have Katy Perrys who are allowed to stay Katy Perrys!

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