Lady Gaga -- the queer icon and pop sensation -- is setting off the Christian right again. In her new song and video, "Judas," Lady Gaga sings over and over, "I'm in love with Judas," referring to the reviled disciple who betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Is there anything redemptive, theologically speaking, about this song and video?
For me, the answer is a definite "yes." As a queer theologian and professor of early church history, this song and video brings to mind the little-known second century gnostic Christian text The Gospel of Judas. In that text, Judas is actually the disciple who is the most loyal to Jesus and does the will of Jesus by setting into motion the events that ultimately lead to human salvation.
The song and video "Judas" also raises important questions for me about whether any one group has a monopoly on the Christian faith, and it asks us to consider who might be the true betrayers of Jesus' message today.
Lady Gaga's newest video is filled with biblical imagery. She is dressed as a Mary Magdalene figure, clinging onto a handsome biker Jesus adorned with a gold crown of thorns. They travel with 12 other bikers who wear leather jackets emblazoned with the names of the 12 apostles. Gaga, however, keeps on checking out Judas throughout the video.
Gaga has a chance to shoot Judas, but instead her gun releases lipstick, which she applies to Judas' lips. At that moment, Gaga is flooded with water imagery, and the video cuts to her washing Jesus' and Judas' feet in a bathtub. In the end, Judas kisses Jesus, setting into motion the events leading to the crucifixion. The video ends with Gaga being stoned to death.
The Gospel of Judas is a non-canonical Christian gospel that is written in Coptic and dates back to the second century C.E. The text surfaced in Egypt during the 1970s and was released in 2006 by the National Geographic Society. An English translation of the text appears on the "Lost Gospel of Judas" section of the society's website.
What is so "queer" about The Gospel of Judas is that it turns the traditional Christian condemnation of Judas on its head. Instead of being the betrayer, Judas is in fact the only disciple of Jesus who truly understands Jesus' message. In fact, Jesus laughs at the other disciples during their Eucharistic prayers for their lack of understanding.
Judas is the one who is the most loyal to Jesus; he does Jesus' will by handing him over to the authorities and in fact sets in motion the events that lead to redemption. The other disciples do not understand this, and Judas dreams that he is stoned and persecuted by them. In the end, he is misunderstood and reviled by "orthodox" Christians.
Lady Gaga's video, like The Gospel of Judas, harkens back to a time when there were many views of what it meant to be Christian. That is, the video evokes a time when pluralism and multiplicity was the norm and not the exception.
Much of the theological richness of the Christian past was suppressed as Christianity became more institutionalized in the second and third centuries and ultimately became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the early fourth century. What the modern-day Christian right completely ignores is that there were in fact many different strands of Christianities in the early "catholic" church.
Could it be that those of us who are often reviled as the Judases (that is, the "betrayers" of the faith) of today -- lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people -- are in fact the most loyal to Jesus' message and to the "scandal of the cross"? Could it be that LGBT people understand quite intimately what it means to be crucified over Jesus' gospel values of unconditional love and the Word made flesh?
Conversely, could it be that self-righteous and pharisaical Christians such as the National Organization for Marriage, the Catholic League and the official Christian hate groups designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center are in fact the modern-day betrayers of Jesus' message of embodied love, a betrayal made worse by their pocketing numerous pieces of silver for their salaries and other financial compensation?
Could Jesus be laughing at the Christian right for having the arrogance and hubris of thinking that they have a monopoly on the cross and the Christian message?
Love her or hate her, Lady Gaga certainly continues to inspire controversy from a theological perspective. Her new song and video is no exception.
Follow Rev. Patrick S. Cheng, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/patrickscheng
Bruce Chilton: Who Was Mary Magdalene?
Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Co-Director Explains Video's Religious Imagery ...
How many of us strive to do what is right but keep making the same horrible choices again & again?
That's what this song is about. Yes, religion of course, again, how many of us continue to sin even though we know it's ultimately not good for us?
I love everything you say here, I just hate that people are losing sight of the simple & pure message about the greatest challenge of humanity - Our constant need to choose the dark instead of the light.
1. Either Judas understood Jesus' message which means that the other disciples didn't. Or the other disciples understood Jesus' message and Judas didn't. Judas' understanding of Jesus' message is so different AND contradictory to the disciples' understanding of Jesus' message. We unfortunately can't have it that the disciples and Judas were both right.
2. This means, either Judas wrote this gospel or Judas didn't. Modern historical criticism and evidence suggests that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were all written within the history of Jesus' generation. Meaning, eyewitnesses could attest the authenticity of authorship/content. The Judas' gospel is dated to 200 years after the death of any eyewitnesses. Which means no eyewitnesses can guarantee the authorship/content and Judas' gospel .
3. As much as Lady Gaga is a strong champion of LGBTQ community, the song (unlike the rest of the album) has little to do with the LGBTQ community. This is one instance where art and artist are not the same. In fact, the song was co-written by songwriters Germanotta and Khayat.
4. Judas' gospel says nothing specific about sexuality or the LGBTQ community. There's no connection in the gospel whatsoever.
5. The song asserts that even though there's Jesus, she's in love with Judas. In fact, she's in love with Judas, not Jesus. She respects Jesus, but clings to Judas. Jesus redeems but not Judas. And sadly she's not in love with the Redeemer.
I suspect that the Religious Right (so far I've actually only seen commentary by the Catholic League) deplores this latest from Lady Gaga for two basic reasons: 1) they (often) fall down on metaphor; and 2) they are disinclined to consider women's experience as a genuine arena and mode of theological inquiry. The Judas of the video doesn't really have much in the way of redeeming features. He's a hard-drinking, hard-fighting womanizer. Yet the gospel Gaga offers to us modern-day Magdalenes is that the figure of Jesus keeps loving, forgiving, and seeking to lead us toward abundant light and life, where we do not need the attention of any man (or woman) to make us feel whole, because we already are.
not laughing, deeply grieving.
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Corinthians 3:17
http://bcrecordings.net/store/index.php?main_page=page_4
At gnosis.org you will find The gospel of Thomas,
Any Christian would find that gnosis.org has a treasure of information because as Rev Patrick puts it "Much of the theological richness of the Christian past was suppressed ...".
I have often struggled with the ideology that Judas was/is "damned" for his actions, especially with the undercurrent of "truth" that Jesus (and G-d) knew his actions - even preordained them - before he acted. However, intrinsically connected with this idea is the belief that Jesus' crucifixion was also preordained...a "must" in the overall story.
The "death before life" perspective seems short-sighted, only working in the "hindsight is 20-20" direction, and questioning the all-good intentions of G-d. In order to believe the "must" of crucifixion, it seems to me one has to believe in a level of intrinsic depravity in human beings that prevents us from accepting the presence of G-d without proof through some violent act followed by redemption. That very "depraved nature" is central to "Christian" opponents' arguments posed against LGBT people regarding same-sex relationships.
While I land squarely on the side of not placing too much blame on Judas, I also question the overall theology of crucifixion that Paul later struggled to explain in his letters. I'm all for power being turned upside down, but does it really take torture and death to do it? If so, is that reality more about human nature or G-d's activity in the world? Perhaps, it's neither. Perhaps it's most about addiction: an addiction to power that can overcome our best intents to treat others with love and incite evil from us.
Blessings,
Pastor Mel
Rev. Mel Martinez
Abilene, TX
There's a difference between exploration and outright blasphemy. The passive-aggressiveness of it all is insult, too. Facial horns? Really? A Roman Catholic with a habit made of Latex, anal beads disguised as rosary beads? Really? Does she have such a low opinion of our intelligence?