His take on Christianity
"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you're as good as dead."
A quote taken from this interview in Parade magazine
Its utterly clichéd to point out the consequences of making this comparison to another religious figure would not be so benign as just a bit of press and blog attention.
But if Elton John had wanted to be really edgy particularly with respect to Middle Eastern lesbians that is exactly what he would have done.
An amazing case of projection there.
ReplyDeleteAndrei, how would you phrase the "... comparison to another religious figure..."? Just asking.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent take on John's comments can be found at http://www.jesusandmo.net/2010/02/19/elton/
Excellent?? Hardly.
ReplyDeleteElton is just applying the concept of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and by suggesting Jesus imitates Elton, he gets to flatter himself.
Elton is a Rocket Man, not a Rocket Scientist.
I do like a few of his tunes though: Song For Guy and Candle in the Wind stand out.
zen, I didn't say John's comments were "excellent", I said the J&M satire of them was.
ReplyDeleteIt is a dumb comment to make, but why worry? His star has long since faded.
"I would ban religion completely ... It turns people into really hateful lemmings ..."
ReplyDelete(Elton John, quoted on CNN, Nov. 2006)
Rather than a few words out of context, here is the complete text from which the above quote was mined.
ReplyDeleteHere's the larger statement in context from the actual interview in the Observer Music Monthly, as Shears said he likes integrated dance clubs with both gay and straight people, and John replied:
I just find it more human. We should all be together. I've got this really naive idea of what life should be like - it's an idealistic idea but it's completely integrated. We can't keep thinking of gay people as being ostracised; we can't keep thinking of Muslim people as being [ostracised] because of the fundamentalism that occurs in Islam. Muslim people have to do something about speaking up about it. We can't judge a book by its cover.
From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.
The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave; why aren't they coming together? I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts: instead of more violence why isn't there a [meeting of religious leaders]. It's all got to be dialogue - that's the only way. Get everybody from each religion together and say 'Listen, this can't go on. Why do we have all this hatred?'
We are all God's people; we have to get along and the [religious leaders] have to lead the way. If they don't do it, who else is going to do it? They're not going to do it and it's left to musicians or to someone else to deal with it. It's like the peace movement in the Sixties - musicians got through [to people] by getting out there and doing peace concerts but we don't seem to do them any more. We seem to be doing fundraisers for Africa and everything like that but I think peace is really important. If John Lennon were alive today he'd be leading it with a vengeance.
Its always good to read things in context.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/nov/12/popandrock9
Yup, reading the whole thing in context elevates one's opinion from "rocket man" to "space cadet".
ReplyDeleteLRO, it was indeed the satire I was saying was not, in my opinion, anywhere near excellent.
ReplyDelete"Ooh, ooh, let's throw in a reference to the Pope and Pedophilia. Hah, hah, aren't we just cutting edge?"
As for Elton's statement about banning religion - it's a rather naive statement.
Firstly, he seems to blame organised religion for mankind's failings, and lumps them all in together as if they are exactly the same. Banning it, even if possible would not automatically make people into his kind of better.
And is every form of government the same? Let's ban governments because they haven't got together and sorted issues after 9/11. It's been left to the singers. So lets ban them because they've been crap at it. etc See, he doesn't make sense, unless you keenly jump on his stupid assertion and say "Yes, all governments of all sorts are bad. Let's ban them and the singers will save us. Go the sixties. I was too stoned to remember the Cuban missile crisis, but hey, that wasn't even a religious incident, so can't have been a big deal. Vietnam? Those Buddhists and Catholics must have been intent on extermination. Grow more poppies...
The thing is, bad people will use any mechanism to get what they want. Doesn't mean religion itself is the issue, and equating them all is dangerously simplistic.
Secondly, his proposition is that it's failed. And yet down in the back streets of communities it is religious organisations still delivering the biggest chunk of charity. The state just cant do it in the same way genuine charities can, and religious ones have earned there place in that milieu.
Thirdly, the last two Popes have been doing a great job of preaching peace and love, and offering a code to live by. It's actually pretty reasonable.
Except you'll find the Pope is taken out of context far more than Elton John ever is.