Music Monday: Michael Jackson and Christianity

http://www.everydaychristian.com/blogs/post/7648/

When you think of Michael Jackson many different ideas, phrases, and words begin to pop up in your mind. 'King of Pop', 'Thriller, 'Criminal', 'Weirdo',' Pervert', 'Talent', 'Fame', 'Dancer', 'Singer', and more. The life of Michael Jackson has been an interesting story to follow, and many are still unaware of the King of Pop's abusive childhood, and the emotional turmoil the world famous pop artist endured most of his adult life. The power of words didn't just impact Michael as an adult, he heard the hate in words as a boy being told his nose was too fat, and his skin was too dark. As his fame grew, those words continued to chip away at the heart of a boy becoming a man the world wanted to mold. Perhaps we should take a look at Michael Jackson with new eyes, and see him as a child of God. A man who struggled with the price of fame, the spotlight, and the pressures to be someone the world expected him to be.

Perhaps the hardest conversations I have with people today are about Michael Jackson. This may seem strange, but a majority of my friends and peers have a very negative view of Michael Jackson -- his life, his story, his decisions. It's discouraging to me because the King of Pop is no different than you and I, yet we exploit him so freely. His trials and failures were something everyone knew about, whether truth or fiction. His distant behavior and inability to communicate with the world without his music made it very easy for the masses find him guilty without even viewing any or all the facts. The true events of his life will never be known to us, only to God, Michael and those who were involved, yet the world held those accusations as ammunition, ready to fire their words, their opinions and their hatred onto a man who wanted only to promote peace, love and innocence. His actions were different, his approach to innocence and capturing a childhood he never had was out of the ordinary, and his distant and aloof behavior in his adult years bred from years of child abuse, and self-esteem issues only opened the door for speculation by the mass majority of the world. This leads to confusion, to uncertainty, to negativity....but should this breed hate?

I understand where the negative opinion of Michael Jackson comes from, and I understand the confusion it causes people worldwide. However, I do not understand the slanderous actions taken by members of the body of Christ after his death, and even during his troubled life. Terms like 'Whacko *****', and slanderous jokes shared at the lunch table after Sunday morning services. These actions, I cannot understand nor find acceptable.

As Christians, I feel we lost an opportunity when Michael Jackson passed away. I feel we lost an opportunity while he was living. There before us, loved by millions, scorned by millions was a man who in his songs shared his heart with the nation. He wanted to heal the world, to make a change, and to be understood.

In the song "Will You Be There," a song many only associate with a killer whale named Willy, Michael Jackson shares some of his most intimate thoughts, that were dismissed by many at the time, and even still today. The song actually illustrates a form of fellowship that many Christians can relate to in the church. These are the lyrics, these words are straight from the lips of the King of Pop:

"...But They Told Me
A Man Should Be Faithful
And Walk When Not Able
And Fight Till The End
But I'm Only Human

Everyone's Taking Control Of Me
Seems That The World's
Got A Role For Me
I'm So Confused
Will You Show Me
You'll Be There For Me
And Care Enough To Bear Me..."

-Michael Jackson

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Was the church there? Were you there? Did you lift him up in his times of darkest despair? Are we there for anyone in the spotlight being ripped to shreds for their fears, mistakes, and problems? Perhaps we should stop casting stones, and judging our brothers and sisters struggling with all the world to see. As a body of believers we have not been failed by the celebrities of the world, but instead, we have failed them.

My challenge to you this week: pray for someone who is doing things you don't agree with, pray for someone who you think is a mockery to the world, pray for someone you don't like, pray for your worst enemy. The funny thing about prayer---the more you pray for someone, the more you come to love them, care for them, cherish them, words of hate and malice are harder to speak when you take time to care, to pray, and to love.

Michael Jackson was my friend. I prayed for him, and I still mourn the missed opportunity to share love and hope with the King of Pop.

i'm still at a loss for any public mistakes, that i have seen from Michael. or public faults. so, i'm particularly disturbed by what the article writer is saying. it's as if he is seeing something..or WANTING to see something, that is not there. and i don't profess to have been inside the walls of Michael's homes, to see what happened privately. and not once, in that article, was the word 'charity' written, in the words that come up when Michael's name is mentioned. but what does stand out to me, is something that the majority of those Christians, that man is talking about, and that man, himself, brings up, is that they all equate being aloof, with something negative. what frightens me, is that they share that with the world, outside his fans. so, i'm going to bring up what i think they mean. do they mean they are disappointed he wasn't a player? even if they are not sure of what his social life was like..(they weren't inside his homes, either) that strikes me as ironic. they seem more disturbed by his aloofness, than the player life of a rapper, for example. is that where they got the perv, weirdo words from? i used to attend church, and i do remember the hate particularly aimed at Michael. it was much easier for them to play other secular artists on the radio, than him. it was particularly disturbing to me. sad to say..i can only speak for myself..the people who professed to be Christians i met in real life, had no love for Michael Jackson. i haven't stopped loving God, but i will remember that experience as the twighlight zone experience of my church attending life...and it made me wonder about those people. and it made me uncomfortable attending church too. but it didn't matter. eventually, the leaders of the church, i attended, no longer wanted me in their church, anyway. i had an aloof personality, myself. and they were uncomfortable with me, liking Michael Jackson.

it just seems to me that the article writer is trying, to improve, and i appreciate that, but him and the commenters have seemingly only graduated to a light version, of what i have experienced from those people that i mentioned, that i have met. so, in all, i feel that there is no real change in them, at all. my experience was too traumatic, with those people i met, so, it affects what i feel about all this. i felt that my spiritual fortitude was tested, by these peoples' behaviour, because, frankly, i have never seen a more saintly person, whose behaviour was closer to what good works i read in the Bible, than, Michael Jackson. the people i met in the churches i attended, didn't even come close, because they were condemning someone they never met..someone who made a positive difference in the world. and that includes the leaders of those churches i attended, that condemned Michael. he had done nothing to them. but they condemned. so, comparing their behavior to Michael's, turned my spiritual world, upside down, because those people had great influence over me.

i mean, how in the world, could that article suggest that people pray for their worst enemy, when thinking of Michael? in all my years, i never ever thought that, their idea of the worst enemy, would be someone like Michael Jackson. that is exactly what i am talking about. am i wired different from them? because 'enemy' is NOT a word i think of, when i think of Michael Jackson.

yep..this entire experience really twisted my world.
and it put the icing on the cake of how difficult it was to be a Michael fan, publicly, in this world. and..of course, it really adds to making me wonder about this world.(outside of the fanbase)but then again, i can't find any fans outside the internet. but the irony is, i know there are more MJ fans in this world, than other people in this world. and yet, the writer of that article gives the impression that it's vice versa, yet he says that MJ is both loved and hated, at the same time. so..even there, he makes no sense. if the size of the fanbase wasn't palpable, then he couldn't know enough to say MJ was loved.

I consider myself a Christian but judgementalness is one of my big problems with today's Church as well. And one of the reasons I didn't feel well attending my church, I think. It didn't even have to do with somebody like Michael Jackson, but I just disliked it how people used to judge each other, used to say things like this or that person will go to Hell and so on. Who are you to say that?

When I look at Michael and think about his connection with Christianity and Jesus, I think of Jesus's words when he said he didn't come for the healthy but for the sick. I won't deny that Michael had a lot of issues (who wouldn't with his life?) and like everybody else, he had his sins, but Jesus came to heal the sick and the wounded and he ate together with the sinners. And it were the Pharisites criticizing him for that! But he himself wasn't judgmental, but forgiving with the sinners - instead he was judging the Pharisites for their arrogance and hypocricy!

when I heard of his death I thought "thank you God for having him be one of your children", it's something that has helped me get through his death a LOT, you know the thought that one day I'll get to be up there with him and my family and people I love and I can share that with him, it just helped me a lot

This is a young female writer.
It's very discouraging to hear about supposed
Christian people lacking compassion and understanding when it comes to Michael.
However, change happens in little steps sometimes and we can choose to look
at this as one more person with true affection for Michael. Including that
particular song speaks volumns about the heart and soul of Michael---she's
asking those people to listen to his words--hopefully, many will begin to understand
who he was and what we lost.

them baby steps seem to last forever. there is a limit. even for L.O.V.E. that is why he was taken away from us. there is no such thing as unconditional love. otherwise we wouldn't all suffer, because L.O.V.E. was abused, too much. i believe the condition is this: the day we all give L.O.V.E. and nobody abuses it, and we do it on time, instead of when it's too late, is the day we won't experience any more pain.