You know the lyrics.
It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
’cause you were Born This Way, Baby
Lady Gaga’s number-one smash-hit “Born This Way” sold over one million copies the first week following its May 2011 release. It’s the chorus of our age.
I’m beautiful in my way’
Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
It sounds so right. “God makes no mistakes!” That’s a line from Pastor Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. Certainly, we should love ourselves as we are, just as God created us.
The lyrics, I contend, are incoherent at best, and cruel at worst.
We might paraphrase the theme as, “It doesn’t matter whether you love a person — ‘gay, straight, or bi’ — or whether you love Him, Jesus, because God made you this way, and God doesn’t make mistakes.”
The song is cruel if the lyrics mean that God predestined you either to love Jesus or not to love Jesus. While most agree that God predestined those who would be saved, though people sharply differ over the basis,[1] few claim that God predestined both those who would be saved and those who would not.[2]
God’s promise of salvation extends to everyone.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16
“Whoever believes” — God’s arms are open wide to anyone who comes to him. No exceptions. Come to him, and you will be saved.
It’s cruel to claim and even boast in God providentially electing some to hell. Absolutely cruel.
Admittedly, it’s unlikely this is the thrust of the lyrics. More likely, the lyrics are incoherent. More likely, the lyrics reflect a theology of God that would be better understood as a theology of “god,” not “God,” or more simply narcissism.
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
“We are all born superstars,” gods, masters of our universe, autonomous self-determining creatures that know right from wrong, good from evil.
There’s nothin’ wrong with lovin’ who you are
She said, ’cause He made you perfect, babe
So hold your head up, girl and you you’ll go far
“He made you perfect.” Who is capital H, “He”? “Perfect” — by whose standard?
“He” can only be a reflection of me, a god of my creation that looks so much like me that he is me, or rather, I am him.
Since you are god/God, then you are free to love yourself as you are, irrespective of what anyone may claim otherwise. If you think that it is right, then it must be right. After all you are perfect, a superstar. So “hold up your head”; “don’t hide in regret”; “you are on the right track”; because “baby, you were born this way.”
This is incoherent.
Where do you draw the line? Is it okay for the pervert to hide behind “I was born this way”? What about the abusive father? The negligent mother?
Are these people superstars? Perfect? Or, on the right track?
The lyrics are incoherent.
When we turn to the only true and wise God, we find one who makes no mistakes, though we make plenty. We find one who became like us in every way so that we can be come like him and know good and evil.
It does matter whether you love “him” or “capital H-I-M.” Love Him ’cause baby, you were born to!
Footnotes
[1] Calvinists contend that the basis of election is God’s free and sovereign, irresistible choice. Wesleyans, on the other hand, argue that the basis of election is foreknown faith. Both affirm election, but for different reasons. (Wikipedia has numerous articles including, Conditional Election, Unconditional Election, Corporate Election.)
[2] Theologians call this double predestination; that is, God chose both those that will go to heaven and those that will go to hell. (For more information, see Wikipedia.)
