Politics
Wednesday September 20, 2006
NBC TV to Air “Blasphemous” Madonna Mock Crucifixion Stunt
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
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:
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 TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
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.