A Beyoncé Mass –Why? MONEY.

Having a Beyoncé Mass for marginalized black females is like having a Gilbert Gottfried Shabbat for struggling Jewish comedians who don’t get enough laughs. Fine cause—wrong mascot. Just cause—wrong venue.

What does a church/minister do if their building is nearly empty (average 50 parishioners) and the seating capacity is many times greater? While many churches are asking this question and taking no significant action to reverse the trend, not so with the Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA–The last time this building was filled to overflowing was in 1964 when Dr. Martin Luther King showed up. They have discovered what the Evangelical church started doing many years ago.

PUT ON A BIG SHOW OF ALL THINGS WORLDLY. Use the old fly-paper approach. Raise the skirt and catch the “seeker’s” eye on the way to their pocket-books. Add a twist of Jesus, some perceived mystical positive thinking prosperity promises and there you have it.

Here is the new and improved, Beyonce version: http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/worshipers-formation-beyonce-mass-54757406

Moral to the story, if the Evangelical fund-raising technique still has persuasive powers, then copy it. Have a truly spiritual experience via a Beyoncé Mass. Yepper, that’s right—you heard me correctly. The same Beyoncé that uses goddess imagery from the gods of ancient Rome, Asia and Africa. The same cultural icon singer who writes and sings songs like, well, uh, let’s just say a whole lotta worthless parental restrictions and XXX that no one pays much attention to because it’s Beyoncé.

Even a former president and wife adopted her as a healthy role model for their two daughters.

Just to inform the non-religious, seeker or otherwise unconcerned apart from the glamour of the thought, a Mass is a Christian celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the partaking of the Eucharist, (bread and wine of the Lords Supper as a church sacrament)

A Beyoncé is a worthwhile, valuable human being who choses to degrade herself and the innocent children of the world with base, vulgar and demeaning lyrics while acting them out in costume and cheap sexual performance. All of this is deemed “normal” because of the millions of dollars attached.

But this Mass at the Grace Cathedral shall have no such illusions. Rather, it will be divested in other-worldly pursuits, like correcting “the marginalization of women, black women in particular.” A church official states,

“The Beyoncé Mass promises to help attendees discover how the musician’s art “opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten ― particularly black females.”    

A Seminary professor comments, “I use Beyoncé as a central figure to have these conversations about the realities that black women face.”

Enter, Beyoncé. It is not secret that her worth, in excess of 500 million dollars, has made her the supposed champion for the rights, worth, dignity, value and hope of the female population everywhere. Who wouldn’t want to have all that?

The lessons of life and “success” as learned and taught by sister Beyoncé are as follows. Here’s the formula:

1-Be crude, rude, and unashamedly lewd—even to the youngest and most impressionable children.

2-Make millions if not billions and live a lifestyle grossly inconsistent with all things decent.

3-Now you can afford all the necessary cosmetic (plastic) surgeries. Make yourself look as Caucasian as possible. Forget having pride in your natural appearance as God gave you. Never mind inner character.

4-Now then, ladies, you are no longer “marginalized and forgotten.” Congratulations!

 If Beyoncé represents “the realities that black women face”, then a transient in a homeless shelter represents the hardships and struggles that people with millions of dollars in their bank account must face each day.

Beyoncé creates much of the hardships black women face because of the choices she has made that have taken her down to where she is today. Little girls see her, read her lyrics and go and do likewise. Perpetual dysfunction.

We have two options here as I see it.

 One is to follow the advice of Grace Cathedral staff minister Jude Harmon. He is calling on you and me to repent of our ways. Huffington Post reports a conversation with the good minister.

“Conservative Christians see a high wall separating the Church from the world; Progressive Christians do not,”

Harmon told HuffPost in an email that the Mass seeks to elevate the experiences of black women while revealing what a lackluster job all the rest of us have done.

 “The sad truth is that dominantly White churches, and even many traditional Black churches, have historically not done a good job of elevating and celebrating Black female voices,” Harmon said. “This isn’t just an oversight; in the language of our Christian faith, it’s a sin, and we’re called to repent.”

 OK People, let’s do what the Rev. Harmon says: Let’s be “progressive” Christians! (whatever that is?) We are the bad, sad truth people no more.

Sermon Outline: ELEVATE – CELEBRATE – and REPENT OF OUR SINFUL OVERSIGHT

Or we can consider another way to administer respect, dignity, love, caring, sacrifice and purity to young girls and women of all ethnicities everywhere. How about this?

Two– CHOSE ANOTHER ROLE MODEL Here’s a great one for us.

The black nuns who inspired “Sister Act”. These nuns would never allow the Church and the Eucharist to be associated with anything other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Sister Loretta Theresa on the steps of The Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in Harlem, NY (Photo courtesy: Ceci Marquettesisters)

Having a Beyoncé Mass for marginalized black females is like having a Gilbert Gottfried Shabbat for struggling Jewish comedians who don’t get enough laughs. Fine cause—wrong mascot. Just cause—wrong venue.

Beyoncé’s music/lyric/performance/life is not one I am ready to elevate and celebrate, much less with a Mass or anything associated with the church and Christianity. I suspect the Catholic church isn’t either, despite the wayward staff at the San Francisco church having gone off the deep end.

The next Celebrity Mass: Underpaid NFL Cheerleaders who cry (instead of rejoice)  because they are harassed (not persecuted) for their faith.