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E-Online, USA
Sep. 21, 2006
Natalie Finn
www.eonline.com

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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 16051 • Posted: Tuesday September 26, 2006  

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As Tori Amos once asked, “Why do we crucify ourselves?”

Well, Madonna, for one, does not do it for spectacle. Nor does she strike the pose because she’s suffering from a “spiritual crisis,” as multiple religious figures have suggested since she started suspending herself from a cross while onstage this year.

The Material Girl issued a statement Thursday following the final date of her record-breaking Confessions tour, which wrapped up today in Tokyo, defending her mock-crucifixion as not being “anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous.”

“It is no different than a person wearing a cross or ‘taking up the cross’ as it says in the Bible…Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole,” Madonna said. “I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing.”

The hot-button number in question is a performance of the ballad “Live to Tell,” which the pop icon sings while wearing a crown of thorns, silver cuffs attaching her to a 20-foot-high mirrored cross. Pictures depicting victims of poverty and AIDS in Third-World countries flash by in the background and a ticker counts up to 12 million, to represent the number of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa.

When Madonna first took her show on the road, starting in Los Angeles in May, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said that she should “knock off the Christ-bashing.” Religious groups from England, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Germany all seconded the motion, causing a bit of a stir in what seemed like every European city Madonna touched down in this summer.

Most recently a few hundred protesters from the Russian Orthodox Church threatened to disrupt the Kabbalah follower’s first-ever show in Moscow, but her gig went off without any major hitches. The 50,000 people in attendance made sure of it.

Now the debate is stateside again, however, with NBC contemplating whether to include the controversial crucifixion scene when the network airs the singer’s Live to Tell concert special in November.

NBC President Kevin Reilly told TVGuide.com several weeks ago that the scene will probably stay put because Madonna “felt strongly about it” and considers it a highlight of her show.

“We viewed it and, although Madonna is known for being provocative, we didn’t see it as being ultimately inappropriate,” Reilly said.

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