Politics
Wednesday September 20, 2006
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
NBC TV to Air “Blasphemous” Madonna Mock Crucifixion Stunt
By Gudrun Schultz
NEW YORK, New York, September 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - NBC television has decided to air a mock crucifixion staged by pop star Madonna during November programming, despite the strenuous objections of international religious leaders to a performance condemned as blasphemous.
The stunt is a centerpiece of Madonna’s international “Confessions” tour, with the performer appearing on stage strapped to a 20-foot mirrored cross, wearing a crown of thorns. The stunt is part of her on-stage rendition of Live to Tell, an account of the trauma of domestic abuse.
Regardless of the context, however, religious leaders have condemned the use of the central and most revered image of Christianity to illustrate a point in a rock concert, particularly from a pop star with such an outrageous performance history as Madonna, as deeply offensive to Christians.
NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly accepted the stunt after previewing the production.
“We viewed it,” he told Access Hollywood, “and didn’t see it as being inappropriate.”
During recent performances in Rome and Russia, leaders in the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church condemned Madonna’s “crucifixion” imagery as blasphemous.
“To crucify yourself in the city of the pope and the martyrs is an act of open hostility. It’s a scandal created on purpose by astute merchants to attract publicity,” said Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, shortly before Madonna’s Rome performance. “This concert is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the cross.”
Cardinal Tonino said the pop star’s actions warranted excommunication--Madonna is a non-practicing Roman Catholic.
A spokesman for the Moscow patriarch said, “The US singer Madonna exploits Christian symbols--the cross, rosary beads and the crucifix--and tries to equate human passions, including her own personal passions, with something sacred,” reported Agence France-Presse.
Focus on the Family condemned NBC’s decision to run the show, saying, “mocking the crucifixion of Christ for the sake of controversy-driven publicity and ratings is offensive to Christians all around the world.”
The pro-family organization is asking concerned individuals to contact Kevin Reilly and express their concerns:
E-mail: kevin.reilly@nbcuni.com
Phone: (818) 840-6046 or (818) 840-6022
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Cardinal Calls for Madonna’s Excommunication: Pop Star’s Mock Crucifixion an “Open Act of Hostility”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06080409.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Texas Bishop Repents Publicly for Catholic Hospital Which Was Doing Sterilizations
- Poll Shows a Solid Majority of Canadians Want Legal Protection for Unborn Children
- Interview: Bishop Explains Why a Bishop "Would Consider It a Privilege to Die to End to Abortion"
- Christian-Founded Dating Website eHarmony Forced to Cater to Homosexuals
- Italian Government Must Act Fast to Define Food and Hydration as a Human Right to Save Eluana: Prominent Italian Lawyer
- Brazilian Christian Censored and Fined for Making "Homophobic" Remarks in Book
- Grandmother's Account of Traumatizing Experience with Abortion Moves Jamaican Parliamentarians to Tears
- Bush Pushes Ahead with Regulations to Protect Doctors’ Conscience Rights
- Levant Acquitted after Republishing Letter by Pastor Previously Found to Be “Hate Speech”
- The Death of Catholic Culture and the Election of Barack Obama
- Brazilian Psychologists Prohibited from Helping Catholic Church Screen Out Homosexual Priesthood Candidates
- Letters to the Editor for Friday, November 21, 2008
- US Election Message to Catholic Bishops Part III: The Broken Window Strategy
Most Read this Week
- Italian Nuns Refuse to Kill Eluana
- Lawsuits Proliferate Demanding Proof of Obama's Natural-Born Citizenship before Electoral Vote Count
- Christian Prayer Group Sexually and Physically Assaulted by Homosexual Mob
- Vatican Cardinal: "A New World Order is Gaining Ground"
- Mormons, Knights of Columbus Face Chilling Threats and More Vandalism for Prop. 8 Support
- The Coming "War" Between the Obama Administration and the Catholic Church
- Texas Bishop Repents Publicly for Catholic Hospital Which Was Doing Sterilizations
- Obama Fortifies Administration with Team of Anti-Life, Anti-family Radicals
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's Wife: I'm "a Catholic in Good Standing" But Also Pro-abortion and Pro-Homosexual
- Martin Luther King's Niece: Obama Election Heals "White Guilt" at the Cost of Life and Family
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.