By In 2013, if you had listened to any of the pop “hits” stations for as little as ten minutes, you would have likely heard Miss Katy Perry’s smash hit, “Roar.”
At the risk of putting words into Miss Perry’s mouth (for the sake of this article, we will assume Miss Perry actually has something to do with the writing of her songs), and at the equal risk of unintentionally giving meaning to a meaningless song, I could not help but to meditate on the lyrics of this former No. 1 Billboard hit (don’t worry, I made it out—barely. Though I am still trying to shake the strange and sudden burning desire to become the woman I know I could be if I was “brave” enough to just let loose and go for it); and when I learned that Miss Perry is the daughter of Pentecostal ministers (yes, plural), into which ministry she was incorporated; that she lived somewhat of a sheltered adolescence; that she attended religious schools and camps (oh, the humanity—her parents should be shot!); and that her first music expedition was as a “Christian”/”gospel” artist**, I concluded that my conclusion was conclusively conclusive.
“Roar” is a typical, lock-step, Kool-Aid®-chugging, “zombified” blah-fest. It’s about breaking free (!) from the bonds of—well, you know, something. You see, some unnamed foe had been torturously enslaving poor little Miss Perry to the brink of utter ruination. A poison-laden dagger had been shoved deeply into her womanly heart (which was apparently extracted from an actual lioness, if you can believe it), and, a la Xcalibur, its sharp, icy point could not be removed. She was heavily chained; mentally over-encumbered; grossly mistreated; helplessly brainwashed.
“What,” one might ask, “or who is the culprit of this heinous, inhumane crime?” The answer: religion. Oh, did I say “religion”? How silly of me, I meant Christianity. After all, religion is good, as long as it teaches that unbelievers are to be ruthlessly and violently murdered in cold blood (see encyclopedia volume I-L, entry “Islam”). But that Christianity stuff—it is the root of all evil. Poor Miss Perry had so much pent up inside that she just was not able to do—so much, declare I!
But worry thou not, O ye of the compassionate heart! Miss Perry finally woke up from her ghastly nightmare, for she discovered the real “truth.” She broke free from the bonds of Christia—er, religion. And what freedom it is! She informs listeners that she is “floating like a butterfly” in her colorful new life—a life without some invisible, party-pooping, tyrannical “Nay”-Sayer watching her every move with pinpoint precision and buzz-killing disapproval. While this type of mindset may be expected of a bratty little teen, newly accepted into some university of corruption to be “educated” by a degree-toting, pseudo-science-spewing, atheism-touting, run-of-the-mill professor of perversion; but Miss Perry long ago graduated from the school of “teen-hood.” In fact, she has only a few months left of tween-hood!
Sad, is it not? Miss Perry escaped from what she perceived to be a set of chains and willingly walked right into an actual set of chains—and big ones, at that. Alas, in just a few short years, Miss Perry, like a beautiful, graceful butterfly, blissfully floated from writing songs like “Faith Won’t Fail”**, to her breakthrough pop smash hit, “I Kissed a Girl (and I Liked It)”. And she actually thinks she is free! I would laugh if I could stop crying. Miss Perry—as well as 99.99% of her Hollywood colleagues with her, and, tragically, her multiplied million Kool-Aid®-mustached teenage idolaters after her—are hopelessly entrapped in the most intense of prisons, infected with the deadliest of socio-spiritual diseases: egotistical narcissism—sometimes referred to (by me) as Look-at-Me-itis, or I-Want-to-be-Important-osis (but only in my daily conversations with myself, which are so unbelievably sophisticated it makes the Queen of England look like Ashley Judd).
But the real point of it all is summed up in one line of Miss Perry’s aforementioned 2013 hit. She concludes her tempestuous journey with this “victory”: I went from zero, to my own hero. Therein lies the “moral” of this great, “liberating” philosophy: “Be your own hero. You don’t need God! You don’t need Chri—er, religion! You don’t need someone telling you what you can or can’t do! You are your own person! Know no boundaries! Know no regrets! Life is short, and you get only one; so fly, little bird, and LIVE!” This is the battle cry of the liberal movement in America. Not freedom of religion; but freedom from religion—freedom from restraint of conduct and, they hope, relief of conscience.
The apostle Paul, to the Christians at Rome, had somewhat to say about this ideology:
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey…? For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time…? For the end of those things is death…”
— Romans 6:16,20,21 —
O, cruel Irony! Who would’ve thunk it: Liberation is the most intimate form of slavery.
The word of God is full of this sound truth: Worldly “liberty” is a dead-end street, with a gallows and a keyless locked door waiting at the end. In Proverbs 1:8,9, the writer encourages his recipients to heed the instruction of parents, “for they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck.” In other words, it will be something of which to be proud, like a neck-bound family heirloom. To the contrary, the instruction of the world will be like a painful brand on your head, and a noose about your neck!
But the best book on this subject is that of Ecclesiastes. The key word in this great Holy Spirit inspired document is one that Miss Perry would do well to consider: vanity. In 1:9,10, the writer would inform the 21st century liberal platoon that, despite their narcissistic dreams, they are not sparking some new revolution. The vanities they preach have been preached before, and one can be sure that the “masterminds” who preached them are not the better for it. In fact (again, O Irony, relieve me of your sweet sting!), our founding fathers are the ones who incited a revolution—a revolution against everything for which these modern makeshift, would-be revolutionaries stand! Why? Because such always leads to the same end: Destruction. Listen to the wisdom of a writer inspired by One Who is infinitely wise:
“Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed it was all vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.”
— Ecclesiastes 2:10,11 —
It is our job, as Christians, to dedicate our lives to attempting to free people from this mental and spiritual slavery. Mohammed (or the devil-serving demons who invented him) said to kill them; but the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Only Begotten of God—Jesus Christ—said to seek them and save them (Luke 19:10; cf. Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15,16)! The apostle Paul said our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Cor. 10:3-6)—that weapon is the truth! Our shield, our sword, our helm, our breastplate, our dagger, our everything is the Truth—the holy word of God (Eph. 6:10ff; cf. 2 Pet. 1:2-4).
Jesus said, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32); therefore, we must take this Truth to the lost. Let Katy Perry, in all her vainglorious vilification, rally souls to roar, while we rectify them through repentance (Luke 13:3,5; Acts 2:38; 3:19). After all,
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
— Mark 8:36 —
** This writer does not endorse or approve of such types of music, as they are contrary to the will of God, however sincere its performers might be (Eph. 5:18,19; Col. 3:16,17; cf. Exod. 20:24,25).
