Unwelcome Concert

MANILA, Philippiness --- "GAGA" in Pilipino language means dumb. True to her name, Lady Gaga's concert is nothing else but that. For why did she insist on staging a concert that offended the religious sensibilities of her audience! What was really her mission? Was it to entertain or proselytize, like teaching that Judas was a hero and Jesus Christ, "the king without a crown," was a villain?

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We respect Lady Gaga's "religious" belief but why does she have to mock Jesus Christ, using even obscene language, Jesus Who is highly revered by billions of followers all over the world?

From the marketing viewpoint, when you sell a show or a product, it should be acceptable and appealing to customers so they will see or buy it. Lady Gaga and organizers didn't realize this simple marketing principle; hence, their concert tour in Asia was a catastrophic failure.

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Lady Gaga and party were banned from staging their concert by religiously conservative countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. In the Philippines, no doubt, the concert was a financial flop, too. With the vehement protests and clamor to ban or boycott the show, people would rather stay away.

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Is Lady Gaga doing all these blasphemous shows in order to create controversy, thus become popular internationally? But Lady Gaga, please not do it at the expense of ridiculing and disrespecting Jesus, the Son of God.

I only hope and pray that Lady Gaga's shows will not cause divine retribution. As the Bible says, "It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God."

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REMEMBER JOHN LENNON? He was a member of world- famous Beatles and once said at the peak of their popularity, "Christianity will go... It will vanish and shrink... I am right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now."

Mark David Chapman, a security guard, was incensed by Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" remark, calling it blasphemy. On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot h! im from behind and with powerful seven hollow-point bullets hitting him, it was impossible for him to survive.

"Christianity will vanish?" It was Lennon who vanished!

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THE LIGHTER SIDE. There was a little old lady who would step out on her porch every day and prayed, "Lord, please send me some food." An atheist next door belittled her saying, "You fool. There is no God." Yet, the little old lady continued.

The next morning, she went outside, and there found a big bag of food. The atheist stepped out and said, "There is no God; I bought those groceries!" The old lady then lifted her arms and said, "Thank You, Lord. You sent me groceries, even if you have to do it through the Devil!"

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YOU'RE INVITED... to a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City with side tour to the USA on Oct. 10-20, 2012. The Guadalupe shrine is where the Blessed Virgin appeared several times to a peasant Indian and imprinted her image on a cloak (tilma).

For inquiries, call Broadway Travel, Inc., at 465 United Nations Avenue, Manila (cf. tel. directory) or e-mail: mailbox@broadwaytravelph.com. I will serve as chaplain.