Grammy-winning pop singer Madonna said in a recent interview that she believes her shows send out the same message that Pope Francis preaches. According to The Christian Post, Madonna’s current show includes the singer using a large cross as a stripper pole and dancing “provocatively” on a table that resembles the Last Supper.
Madonna told Rolling Stone that she uses religious symbolism in her performances to reflect her history and connection with the Catholic Church. The singer was excommunicated in 2006 after rising from a cross with a crown of thorns on her head during a show.
Madonna said, “It’s good to look out into the big, wide world and see that we have changed, and at the end of the day the message of Jesus is to love your neighbor as yourself, and so that means not judging. And to do that, you have to be more open-minded and accepting of people who have lifestyles that you perceive as unconventional.”
She continued, “I have a long relationship with the pope, with the Vatican, with the Catholic Church, with my excommunication. Anyway, you know, I was raised a Catholic, and no matter what spiritual path I might go down, I always feel some kind of inexplicable connection with Catholicism. It kind of shows up in all of my work, as you may have noticed.”
According to Madonna, she combines religion and sexual content in her shows to “provoke people with concepts of sex and religion’s point of view about it.”
The singer concluded that she ultimately spreads the same message with her music as the Pope does with his sermons.
“At the end of the day, the message of my show is about love, and that’s his message,” Madonna said.
(This appeared in christianheadlines.com on October 12, 2015)