POLITICIANS who preach about religion are often met by pious protests invoking Mr. Jefferson's plea for a "wall of separation between Church and State." Entertainers would do well to observe a similar abstinence from mixing pop culture, politics and religion. As the artist formerly known as Madonna demonstrates this summer, doing so merely trivializes entertainment -- to the extent that is still possible, while degrading faith and dumbing down discourse on important issues.
I recently had the chance to catch the prima donna of '80s decadence in Washington, D.C. on her latest "Reinvention Tour." Since my employer had purchased my ticket at great expense for the two hours of gyrating gibberish, I chose to make the best of it by reinventing it into a journalistic opportunity. Dear readers, your dutiful scribe now sets out to recount the Material Girl's aging performance in all its vainglory.
The first thing that comes to mind as Madonna tries to "reinvent" herself into a serious political and religious thinker is Al Gore's miserable failure to connect with voters in 2000. Who can forget the CFC-free eco-geek's strained attempts to reinvent himself as the ultimate alpha male by sucking face with Tipper Gore on primetime TV? In a case of pop culture imitating politics imitating pop culture, Madonna has taken a page out of her old playbook that Gore so clumsily tried to adopt in 2000. This is, after all, the "Material Girl" who evolved into a sex symbol who reinvented herself into a demure children's book writer. Will pols and performers never learn? People are not products that can constantly be repackaged; fan loyalty only follows a strong sense of self-identity.
In her latest reincarnation, the artist formerly known as Madonna fashions herself as a devout Jew, taking the Hebrew name Esther and practicing an obscure sect known as Kabbalah, no less. Her road to Damascus conversion would be more convincing if it weren't the latest fad to hit Hollywood since Scientology. Instead of supporting Judaism, celebrities are desecrating a great religion by feigning a horribly hollow devotion.
Madonna's supposed anti-war stance was similarly shallow and damaging to public debate. Partway into the painfully pedestrian performance, the diva and her dancers slipped into fatigues and combat boots and started prancing around the stage and twirling rifles, while video of war destruction played in the background. With soldiers and innocent Iraqis getting blown up by terrorist thugs and a serious debate swirling about the merits of war, the artist formerly known as Madonna tastelessly exploited Americans' sacrifice as a backdrop for her knee-jerk anti-war chic.
The use of martial paraphernalia became even more questionable as the performers, still dressed in camouflage, brought out various 1980s hits, like "Papa Don't Preach" -- arguably a pro-life ditty about a teenage girl who refuses to have an abortion. While Madonna is to be commended for her respect for pre-natal life, the utterly unrelated military garb exposed her symbolism as more of a statement about fashion than serious political thought.
Having dishonored the men and women in uniform who are risking their lives to make the world safer by her cavalier use of camouflage, Madonna returned to mocking Judaism when she dusted offJohn Lennon's "Imagine." One could not have picked a more anti-religion and Leninist screed to share, but she did. "Imagine there's no heaven
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