Miley Cyrus Hates Christianity! How Do We Respond?

            Miley Cyrus can choose to perform Lakshmi Pooja than watch the Superbowl LI (51); none would object.¹ But when Miley Cyrus spews venom upon Historic Christianity; Christians should respectfully object. Millions of youngsters love Miley and consider her as their idol. So Miley’s thoughts could subtly and swiftly replace the thoughts and actions of these young fans.

            Prior to probing Miley’s tirade against Christianity, her spiritual evolution should be considered. Miley, once upon a time, loved the God of the Bible. However, as she began to grow older, she apostatized and embarked to wallop Christianity.

            Consider Miley’s spiritual evolution, “Less than a decade ago, Cyrus was considered a role model for young girls. As a teen, the "Hannah Montana" star refused to dress immodestly, telling People Magazine, "I like to look kind of like what girls would want to look up to, and their moms and dads will say, 'Hey, that's cool. That's different.' " She also wore a purity ring, signaling her commitment to practice abstinence until marriage.

            In 2007, Cyrus referred to her church "the greatest source of strength" and recited Ephesians 6:10-11 as her favorite passage in the Bible, which says,  "Finally, my brother, come close to the Lord for if you put on the full armor of God you can stand against the walls of a devil."²

            Then came her rejection of Christianity, “At a time when most 15-year-olds were posing for junior prom photos in front of their parent’s porch, Miley Cyrus was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vanity Fair. She wore only a bed sheet…And yet, when she reinvented herself as an in-your-face, raunchy, bisexual, selfie-obsessed pop icon, the public at large reacted with surprise.

            There was an outcry of disgust when she shimmied and simulated sex with Robin Thicke at the MTV VMAs in 2013. Her songs began to gravitate from fun-loving (“Party in the USA”) to drug-glorifying (“We Won’t Stop”.) With every public appearance she seemed to feel the need to shed more of her clothing. And now, with her set of inflammatory statements about her feelings on conservatives (“they shouldn’t make our laws”) and sexual liberty (“I am literally open to every single thing, as long as it’s consenting”), it seems that Miley has emerged from her time of rebellion as a fully-formed product of a lifetime of others’ adulation.”³

            Why did Miley apostatize? It is possible that she may have desired to liberate herself from the pure lifestyle that the Bible mandates Christians to aim for and live to the best of their abilities. It is quite possible that she desires to live to satisfy her carnal needs and wants.  

            Having posed in nude, her dislike of Christianity could originate from the fact that Christianity prohibits this lifestyle. Christianity condemns bisexuality, but if Miley desired to be bisexual, evidently Christianity cannot be her religion.

            Her father Billy Ray Cyrus reckons her entry into the entertainment industry at a young age destroyed her faith, “In 2011, the singer's father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus, said in an interview with GQ Magazine that he regretted having her in the "Hannah Montana Show" and confessed that his family was cautious of the temptations within the entertainment industry before to going to Los Angeles.

            "Somewhere along this journey, both mine and Miley's faith has been shaken...That saddens me the most," he said, adding there is "no doubt" that his family is being ruined by Satan.”⁴

            Miley’s Christianity-bashing is astounding, “…she recently described people who believe Noah's Ark was real: "That's [expletive] insane." She added: "We've outgrown that fairy tale, like we've outgrown [expletive] Santa and the tooth fairy."

            Then she discussed her sexuality: "I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult—anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl."”⁵

            Miley thinks of herself as a least judgmental person. But her judgment of conservative Christians is shocking, “In a recent interview with Paper magazine, Cyrus, who appears nude within the publication, refers to herself as the “least judgemental person ever.” However, the magazine notes that while she was raised in a Christian home and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church, the “Wrecking Ball” singer “maintains a particular contempt for fundamentalist lawmakers who rally against this sort of progressive, potentially life-saving changes for the LGBT community.” “Those people shouldn’t get to make our laws,” Cyrus said of Christians who hold to a traditional view of marriage.”⁶

            Was Miley’s apostasy grounded on valid reasoning? God has given man freedom to either love or hate HIM. So Miley is free to choose her religious platform. But when she is a successful public icon, her actions would most likely be emulated by her fans without any doubt or without thinking twice. Hence there is a need to determine the validity of her reasoning to apostatize from Christianity.

            How do we respond to Miley slamming Christianity?

            First, know that Miley’s arguments against Christianity are blatantly invalid.

            It is plausible that Miley did not research and study the reasons invalidating her objections before abandoning Christianity. Consider Miley’s objection to the miraculous narratives in the Bible and her views on objectionable sexual practices.

            There are very good reasons available in the public domain that ascertains the validity of the biblical narratives of Noah’s Ark or Jonah in the fish. Apparently, Miley is unable to believe in the narratives of the miraculous in the Bible.

            Very minimally, since God is the maximally great being, HE should be able to raise a man from dead or wipe out an entire community with floods (for justifiable reasons, of course!) or enable a man to live in the stomach of a huge fish. God’s maximal greatness allows for the occurrence of the miraculous.

            Regarding Miley’s endorsement of bisexuality; consensus or agreement cannot be a valid reason for sexual activities between people NOT united in marriage. Consensus notwithstanding, the Bible explicitly condemns and prohibits homosexuality, adultery and the likes.

            Even if you were to not consider the biblical prohibition of sexual sins, it is scientifically proven that child sex, incest and adultery are detrimental to a healthy lifestyle. If consensus were to be the sole valid reason for sexual activities, then by the same reasoning, adultery and polygamy should be acceptable.

            Moreover, if consensus is the sole reason for valid sexual practices, then the extent of sinful sexual practices between two people would be horrendously extended. For instance, the gory and ghastly child sex and incest should be acceptable as long as two people, irrespective of their age, agree to sexual intercourse. But child sex and incest are unacceptable sexual practices in every culture and in every situation. So consensus, even if you were to not consider the Bible, cannot be a valid reason for two people to indulge in sexual practices outside the confines of a marriage.

            To reiterate, the Bible prohibits all forms of sexual activity outside the confines of a marriage.

            Second, Christians cannot follow Miley Cyrus. Every Christian should glorify God through his/her life. Christians cannot follow Miley’s lifestyle or the sinful messages that she propagates through her music and video.

            Sinful lifestyle manifesting via public nudity, vulgar language, and biblically unacceptable sexual practices cannot be observed in a Christian’s life. So Miley’s sinful life cannot be a valid standard for Christians to pursue.

            Third, while Christians should not follow Miley’s sinful lifestyle, we should love Miley unconditionally, just as how God loved each and every one of us while we were still sinners. Love for Miley should translate into prayers for her to regain her love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians ought to realize Miley’s sins and pray for her liberation from these sinful activities.

            May Miley realize that God loves her immensely and may she return to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith.

Endnotes:

¹http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/02/06/miley-cyrus-just-did-lakshmi-puja-at-her-home-because-she-loves/, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

²http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/55983/20150610/miley-cyrus-mocks-christians-who-believe-in-old-testament-fairy-tales-says-those-who-oppose-homosexuality-shouldnt-get-to-make-laws.htm, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

³http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2015/06/22/miley-cyrus-slams-the-bible-weve-outgrown-that-fairytale-former-xtian-star-has-completely-left-xtianity.html, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

⁴http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/55983/20150610/miley-cyrus-mocks-christians-who-believe-in-old-testament-fairy-tales-says-those-who-oppose-homosexuality-shouldnt-get-to-make-laws.htm, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

⁵http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/50104-miley-cyrus-belief-in-noah-s-ark-is-insane, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

⁶http://www.americasfreedomfighters.com/2015/06/12/miley-cyrus-slams-christian-conservatives-these-people-shouldnt-get-to-make-our-laws/, last accessed on 23 Feb 2017.

Soft Pornography in Public: Who is the Victim?

Wikipedia defines ‘soft porn’ as, “Softcore pornography or softcore is commercial still photography or film which has a pornographic or erotic component, but that is less ^[vague] sexually explicit and intensive than hardcore pornography. Softcore pornography is intended to be sexually arousing, and typically contains nude and semi-nude performers and sex scenes…”¹

Miley’s “Wrecking Ball” video on YouTube, published on September 9, 2013, has 586 million hits, 2 million likes and 1 million dislikes. This video gets over a million hits every day - an indication of its popularity! Notwithstanding the dislikes, Wrecking Ball is a super hit video.² Wrecking ball video belongs to the soft porn category, for it shows off a naked Miley.

Nicki Minaj isn’t far behind Miley. Her videos are equally provocative (e.g. Starships). And the lyrics, well let’s not even go there! Some lyrics of these celebrity singers are nauseatingly deplorable.

Several other celebrities belong to the category of Nicki and Miley. So Miley and Nicki are not the sole culprits.

A public domain video such as this would be watched by both the young and old, and Miley would have impacted the minds of her audience. Would this impact be positive or negative?

It is very likely that people would be divided over these performances. Some may consider these performances as utterly deplorable. Others may genuinely think, “There’s nothing wrong with this performance.” Yet another group may wonder whether these performances are right or wrong. This is the way of life.

These performances would be perfectly acceptable if they positively impact the audience. A positive impact is to help build one’s character towards goodness and progressively away from evil. A negative impact is to lead people into evil and greater evil.

There are two entities here – the performer and the audience. The performers’ performance primarily impacts the audience into motivating the audience to pursue either good or bad.

The audience can secondarily and responsively impact the performers. This secondary responsive impact occurs when the audience accepts or rejects the performer. In the case of the wrecking ball video, a majority of audience accept Miley. This is the impact of the audience on Miley. This impact can motivate Miley into similar performances.

The primary impact is of maximal concern. The reality of soft porn in the public domain impacts people adversely (negative impact).

Sadly soft porn is endorsed not only by the performer, but by the media and all those who play a role in the production of this performance. The presence of these entities deceives people into thinking that soft porn is legitimate. This deception lures people into disasters.

A person watching soft porn could get addicted to porn. Addiction to porn lands the addicted person into excessively dangerous situations. 

If a married person is addicted to porn, his / her marriage life could be threatened adversely. If an unmarried person is addicted to porn, he could even morph into a rapist, which in extreme situations could even lead him to be a serial killer.

Thus, the ramifications of soft-porn in public domain, apparently endorsed as acceptable, would adversely impact people and the society.

But why go to the realm of soft porn in public domain? There are other provocative storylines in videos doing their rounds in the public domain. ³

Apart from selling the commodity, the advertisement subtly persuades [young] men and women into promiscuous living. The storyline of this advertisement is of a mother being sexually attracted to the young man who is dating her daughter.

Would the message of this advertisement not lead young men to an obsession over the mothers of their dating partners?  We are living in a society that seems to not only recommend but also lead people into adultery (promiscuity). This is rank evil. 

Who then is the primary victim of the public domain soft porn? The audience, of course! The performer motivates the audience into sin.

Then there is another kind of evil resulting from soft porn in public.

In the past, Miley’s father Billy Ray Cyrus expressed his desire to save Miley from creating any negative impact on the society, “"I'm scared for her," Cyrus said of Miley. "She's got a lot of people around her that's putting her in a great deal of danger. I know she's 18 but I still feel like, as her daddy, I'd like to try to help. Take care of her just a little bit, to at least get her out of danger .” ⁴ 

The very same father (Billy Ray Cyrus) who in the past desired to protect Miley from danger, and by implication, the audience, spoke recently to defend Miley’s public nudity. Billy defended Miley by saying, “… It wouldn't have mattered if Miley would have worn jeans and a flannel shirt ...a Tux ...or a nun's habit. The song's a smash ...and her performance vocally on the tune reflects her roots and sheer God given talent.”⁵

Billy Ray is known for his professed Christianity. This quote is attributed to him, “I think a lot of people think that Christianity is about always being perfect,” Billy Ray says. “It’s actually the opposite of that. It’s realizing that we’re all humans, and that’s why God sent his Son to this earth -- to save people like us.”⁶

Billy accurately states that Christianity is not about moral perfection in this world. But Christianity is also not about endorsing and promoting sins in this world.

However, Billy Ray seems to endorse Miley’s public nudity and the associated vulgarity – the sin. This is where Billy Ray is in troubled waters with his faulty belief (theology).

It is a greater evil when a parent either silently or vocally endorses the sin of the child.

When a parent’s theology is faulty, the child is bound to actively step into sin, and to adversely impact the society. Thus, the [celebrity] performer is also a victim – due to the parent’s faulty belief (theology).

How do we respond to this situation? Two situations need be addressed from within this context.

We should not endorse or promote soft porn in public or in private. We should learn and teach our children the dangers of soft porn.

It may be virtually impossible to perfectly protect or insulate ourselves or our children from these provocative advertisements or the soft porn videos that may surprise us when we are on the TV or the internet. While we should block soft porn videos, it may be challenging to switch off our TV as and when a provocative advertisement suddenly appears.

Therefore a solid education in moral choices is the need of the hour. We cannot dismiss these soft porn videos or the provocative advertisements easily. These powerful visuals will remain in our mind and will continue to tempt us to sin.

Discussions on moral choices are mandatory in the family and in the society. We ought to discuss the negative impact of these deadly visual viruses that lurk in the public domain. We can learn to be innately and spiritually motivated to switch off from these temptations.

It also goes without saying that remaining in Christ will give us the power to resist and overcome temptations. Only a mind that is totally convinced about the damage resulting from these deadly visuals will defeat temptation and stay clear of any sin. Only Christ can offer us this unblemished conviction. It is the desire to live for Christ that motivates a person to resist and overcome sin.

What about our belief? What about our faulty theology? Christians who subscribe to postmodern and liberal perspectives do not take sins seriously. For instance, postmodern and liberal Christians believe homosexuality is not a sin.

They fundamentally believe that there is no absolute or objective truth. In other words, anything goes. They also believe that the Bible is not dogmatic about anything.

So, on what basis would this Christian (who advises his community to support and promote homosexuality) mandate his community to avoid watching soft porn and even hardcore porn? Would not the audience respond to this Christian with the logic that pornography is not a sin?  

So as Billy Ray Cyrus defended his own daughter’s public nudity, these postmodern and liberal Christians would directly or indirectly motivate their children to sin and even defend the sins of their own children. This is terrible evil.

God said this to the parents who sacrificed their children then and will say the same now to these liberal and postmodern Christians, “And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols. Wasn’t it bad enough that you had become a whore? And now you’re a murderer, killing my children and sacrificing them to idols” (Ezekiel 16: 20-21, MSG).

We should sincerely engage our postmodern and liberal Christian friends in discussion. But what if our postmodern and liberal Christian friends are not honest enough to discuss these matters with us?

Their dishonesty should not discourage us. We should strive to discuss these matters with those who are honest in their quest for truth.

More importantly we should continuously commit our life to the Lord Jesus by humbly and honestly introspecting our beliefs so to determine their truthfulness in the sight of our Lord. Only a humble heart will turn away from sins and move towards God. May that blessing be ours and those around us.

Meanwhile, let us also pray for the victims of soft porn. May they be liberated from evil and into Christ consciousness. Amen.

Endnotes:

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softcore_pornography

² https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8&feature=kp

³ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mambpzvJyYM&list=PLE3003BFFE3B7895C&index=17

⁴ http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/473030/billy-ray-cyrus-hannah-montana-show-destroyed-my-family

⁵ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/billy-ray-cyrus-wrecking-ball-video_n_3909197.html

⁶ http://www.cbn.com/700club/Guests/Interviews/Billy_Ray_Cyrus060905.aspx