Mocking Madonna

Many entertainers have a peculiar driving need to express their distaste for the Catholic faith, and usually in some flamboyant way.

So as blasphemies go, this is terribly run of the mill these days, especially for Madonna. She’s putting on a concert in Warsaw on one of the holiest feast days of the year for Catholic Poles. On the feast of the Assumption, thousands of Poles honor the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Jasna Gora shrine of the famous ‘Black Madonna’.

I would have passed it over as a news story, but found this remark to be intriguing:

“It’s not a problem for me to go to a concert on a holy day, but the fact that on a Marian holiday somebody planned a concert of a star, who is so provocative and blasphemous, is a devil’s trick,” stated Jan Pospieszalski, a well known musician, journalist, and host of the weekly show Warto Rozmawiac. Pospieszalski stated the protests were coming too late, since approval for the concert had been given six months ago. He added, “For me, mass culture which has to support itself with transgressions, breaking taboos, is just too boring and predictable.”

Outrage works too, but publicly shrugging the rock star’s stunt off as boring and predictable is somehow more potent.

Polish External Radio Service reported the remarks of two young persons, Agnieszka and Mariusz, both under 30, who speculated that the pop-star in engaging in a deliberate religious provocation to shore up a flagging career.

“She’s just an old, pitiful lady, desperately looking for attention. Artistically, she has nothing original to offer. She should really make space for some young, talented artists,” said Agnieszka. “And if she’s so brave and provocative, why doesn’t she go to some Muslim country and try to offend their religion?”

Good question. The gig’s up on this routine.