Prince talks religion, says we’re not one big happy family

Prince talks religion, says we’re not one big happy family July 5, 2013

Pop icon Prince recently gave an interview to V Magazine writer Vanessa Grigoriadis.

When it looked at one point as if the exchange might end, Grigoriadis got in what she deemed her big question: “How do you, as a religious person, reconcile the religious impulse with what most of your songs are about, which is the sexual one?” That’s worth asking. Since Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness some time back, more than one person has wondered about the incongruity.

Prince said he didn’t feel like discussing it, but the question did prompt one thing worth mentioning.

“[D]o you see a difference in religions?” Prince asked.

No, answered Grigoriadis. “[A]ll religions are based on the same idea and then corrupted by their human leaders.”

It’s a pretty common thought. Faiths are like different paths up the same mountain, and we’re all en route to God. But some people have figured out how to game the travelers and co-opt the path for their own gain. This is the mantra of the spiritual-but-not-religious types, the guiding light of the New Agers. But Prince was having none of it.

“If one religion believes Christ is the king, and another doesn’t,” he said, “then there’s a difference in religions.”

Indeed, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.


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