A perspective of the symbolism of Ariana Grande - from the Rev Dr Peter Mullen

Ariana Grande-Filth - By Peter Mullen

The pop-star who performed at the event in Manchester at which 22 members of the audience were murdered by a Muslim terrorist is to appear on Sunday 4th June in a “benefit concert” for victims of the atrocity. Ariana is clearly very popular and I wanted to discover the secret of her appeal, so I looked at her website where I found the words of some of her songs and a few sample video films of her act.

In the first of these films Ariana, in a state of sexy semi-undress and suffused in soft lighting, sprawls provocatively on a bed, caressing her arms, and then simulates sexual coitus while she sings:

“Tell me something, I need to know
Then take my breath and never let it go
If you just let me invade your space
I'll take the pleasure, take away the pain

“And if in the moment I bite my lip
Baby, in that moment, you'll know this
Is something bigger than us and beyond bliss
Give me a reason to believe it

“'Cause if you want to keep me, you gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta got to love me harder
And if you really need me, you gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta got to love me harder
Gotta love me harder
Love me, love me, love me
Harder, harder, harder..”

I can’t think why I bothered to explore any further - perhaps I hoped to find that she is capable of singing about something other than sex? It’s not as if I imagined that on another recording she might give us Mozart’s Ave verum or even I did it my way. And indeed she didn’t. Instead she offered us:

“I'm talkin' to ya
See you standing over there with your body
Feeling like I wanna rock with your body
And we don't gotta think 'bout nothin' ('Bout nothin')
I'm comin' at ya
'Cause I know you got a bad reputation
Doesn't matter, 'cause you give me temptation
And we don't gotta think 'bout nothin' ('Bout nothin')”

I persevered for about an hour but there was little variation so, surfeited and sickened, I gave up and went away to think about it all. Two thoughts impressed themselves.

First, I wondered whether we do actually have a problem with paedophilia in this country. Of course we do. This crime is reported in the papers every day and, if the TV documentaries are anything to go by, it’s endemic in our institutions: the church, social work, schools, children’s care homes and so on. And I recalled that many of Ariana’s fans are preteens; indeed the youngest victim in the Manchester slaughter was just eight. I wondered, are we really going in for joined up thinking here – to abhor paedophilia and yet to celebrate performers such as Ariana?

Secondly, and in the light of the fact that the perpetrator of the Manchester attack was a jihadist, I wondered whether there is not, after all, something in the claim of Muslims that western society and culture are decadent.

We can do without suicide bombers. And we can do without the poisoning and corrupting of children’s minds and emotions by the sort of filth being offered by such as Ariana. Do we not care for the mental and emotional health of our children? She gave one concert and now she has been invited to repeat the dose, and on a much larger scale. Have we no shame?

“The dog returns to its vomit” (Proverbs 26:11).

Peter Mullen's Blog is All Things Considered
www.revpetermullen.com