–– Tim Cantrell
The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Parents and pastors are being asked this question, which begs a few prior questions: ‘Should a believer be a fan of Michael Jackson at all? Should Christians even listen to secular pop music? What does it mean for Christ to be Lord over all my entertainment choices?’
So far, the Michael movie is a huge hit here in Africa and globally, expected to gross over $1 billion. As a father and pastor, I am burdened to help those under my care to honour Christ in these realms of life too easily treated as off-limits, like art, music and leisure, so that we learn to give Christ “first place in everything” (Col. 1:18). None of life is neutral; all of it is full of meaning that must be discerned: “Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
Global Impact
Jackson’s music, moves, videos, concerts, and fashion became a global brand, attracting an entire cult of impersonators. His televised memorial service in 2009 was viewed by some 2.5 billion people! For oppressed peoples of the world, like apartheid South Africa, Michael Jackson became an iconic symbol of hope. Because of this new movie, his songs are back on the airwaves, currently being heard in malls and shops around Africa and beyond.
From childhood, Michael Jackson clearly was endowed with exceptional talents, which could have been greatly used for God’s glory and the good of others. However, I propose that Jackson’s artistic genius has caused more harm than good. Here are two biblical reactions to Michael Jackson’s legacy: moral outrage and deep compassion.
Moral Outrage
When I asked my wife about Christians watching the new Jackson movie, she instantly reacted, ‘Of course not, what filth!’ When I asked my godly mother-in-law, she too was disgusted, ‘Michael Jackson represents all that is lewd and crude, the epitome of the world, the flesh and the devil’s influence’ (1 Jn. 2:15-17). Contrast this with my memories of attending public school and attempting to moonwalk (a hopeless cause!), and even selling sparkling gloves to my friends, for which I am ashamed.
But when I was growing up, my family didn’t know any better, since we weren’t in a good church at the time. Believers must be taught to “love what is good” and “hate what is evil” (Rom. 12:9; Ps. 101:3). Christian movie reviewers, like Plugged In, need to go beyond mere superficial externals and analyse a movie’s overall message and worldview, and express moral outrage at what is evil and harmful to both young and old (Heb. 5:14; 1 Thess. 5:21-22).
Michael Jackson became yet another gateway drug of the Sexual Revolution (like the effect of ‘Elvis the Pelvis’ on a previous generation), leading untold masses into fornication, teen pregnancy, pornography, divorce, transgenderism, bodily mutilation, substance abuse, and all kinds of perversion. The fact that Jackson mixed in other innocent songs makes his worldly influence more subtle and gradual, like the frog in the kettle.
Indecent Exposure
Peter pulls no punches about our pre-Christian past in his call to holiness, “Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance…your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers” (1 Pet. 1:14,18). Why would a believer want to return to that vomit out of which God saved him, or have his conscience further desensitised?
How could any mature Christian not feel defiled by Jackson’s debauched lyrics (*see below) or his crotch-grabbing pelvic thrusts and half-naked dancers? Imagine the first Christians at Corinth going back to the Temple of Aphrodite to be entertained; or paying money to finance her industry of immorality? Unthinkable!
As Mohler warned years ago, “Michael Jackson has become a parable of the moral confusion that lies at the heart of the postmodern age. His appearance, public statements, and documented behaviour are beyond the pale of moral decency. He not only reinvented himself as an androgynous figure of sexual confusion, but he documents and confirms that confusion in his steadfast defence of sharing his bed with young boys.” Last week Mohler again noted that this new movie is a deceptive ‘rehabilitation’ and cover-up of a person that even the Wall Street Journal called, “a horrible human being”.
Deep Compassion
God’s grace alone could save a vile, hell-deserving rebel like me! “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Yet for Michael Jackson, instead of repenting and coming to Christ to wash him clean and make him new, he spent his life striving to remake himself. Only the God who made Michael in His image could restore his (or any other) restless soul, heal their deepest hurts and satisfy their innermost cravings (Ps. 63; Jn. 6:35). Mr Thriller lived a miserable life of victimhood, doing exactly what Jesus warned against, ‘gaining the whole world while losing his soul’ (Mk. 8:36).
As Colson observed, “Michael Jackson was everything our culture worships, and yet he was desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone. He was nothing but a creature of our culture, which puts fame and celebrity at its core, with money as its driving force, without regard for the person caught up in it or the character he exhibits.” May God raise up younger Christian voices with the same clarity and courage of Colson and Mohler to “expose” such “unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11).
Who can deny the parallels between the ‘King of Rock & Roll’ (Elvis) dying prematurely of drug abuse and the ‘King of Pop’ meeting the same fate? Michael became a child prodigy sacrificed to the Molech of our day, the false god of entertainment, devoured by the very industry he created – just as Scripture warns idols can do to us (Ps. 16:4; Ps. 115; Jer. 2:5). May God help us to guard our own hearts and flee idolatry (Prov. 4:23; 1 Cor. 10:14; 1 Jn. 5:21).
New Appetites
Discipling younger believers to make wise choices is not about policing every decision or giving them a taboo list of non-kosher movies. But it is about teaching them to “approve the things that are excellent”, so that there is “not even a hint” of impurity amongst us (Php. 1:9-11; Eph. 5:3). Christians are not anti-cultural, but we are counter-cultural and must be non-conformists who swim upstream, resisting worldliness by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2; Col. 2:8).
None of our entertainment choices should be driven by, ‘What is permissible?’ Our first question is, ‘What will exalt God, edify fellow believers, and not cause others to stumble?’ (Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 8, 10). We must be fans of “whatever is true, honourable, right, pure, and lovely” (Php. 4:8). See here for some excellent resources for growing in godly discernment of the arts.
True Greatness
Another biographical movie has just come out, also about an exceptionally gifted man who lived on a very public stage. It’s called A Great Awakening, about the famous evangelist, George Whitefield. His life was the polar opposite of Michael Jackson’s. Instead of a self-centred life leading millions astray, Whitefield lived a God-centred life worthy of emulation, still bearing good fruit around the world 250 years later.
Every day we choose which heroes we will honour and celebrate (Heb. 13:7). Which kind of life do you most want to admire – a wasted one or a well-spent one? Are you exalting self or Christ with your entire life, including your entertainment choices?
[*Read Michael Jackson’s lyrics for yourself and tell me they are not sexual: “Billy Jean”, “Thriller”, “The Lady in My Life”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Dirty Diana”, “In the Closet”, etc., plus the explicit videos that go with them. Or “I’m Bad”, which declares, “It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right”, casting aside all moral absolutes. Not to mention the mindless repetition in his songs, like the delirious mantras of pagan religions.]