SPLAT! Music Industry Goes Whole-Hog Anti-Faith With These Two New Releases

You’ve heard the old saw that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice?

We’ve seen that played out in the music industry this week, as two rabidly anti-Catholic numbers hit the news:  First, that downright nasty performance by Kristeen Young on the Late, Late Show; and now, Tom Petty’s release of a new, hitting-below-the-belt number which chastises the Catholic Church for the abuse crisis.

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First, there’s the abrasive feminist piano-banging rocker Kristeen Young.  The screamer, who goes for controversy in lieu of talent, has earned NPR’s noncommital assessment:  they’ve called her work “beguiling and visceral.”   And this week, she was the featured performer on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, belting out her new song, “Pearl of a Girl.”

A non-discriminatory screed, Young’s song hates on Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.  Most offensive in the lyrics is this line:  “I wish the virgin would’ve had an abortion.”

Let me warn you up front:  She’s ugly, and the song is a headache waiting to happen.  I don’t recommend that you watch this; but just in case you’re a glutton for punishment, I’m including it here.

Since you most likely couldn’t understand the lyrics, what with all that scowling and screaming, let me point out the anti-religious sentiments in Young’s song:

I never knew I was a girl until they stopped to tell me

I never knew I was disturbed until they dropped three volumes on me

But in the Bible/Torah/Quran there are really no good roles for me except concubine and wash woman

I used to be the sad one now I just wanna stab them it’s so severe its brutal….

They’ve needed to have the law so they can legally bind us

They’ve needed to have the church so they can morally ground us

They’ve needed most of the dough they must be so scared of us

So their stories are of ghosts I only wish the virgin would’ve had an abortion.

And then there’s Tom Petty.  The rock legend is featured on the cover of this month’s Billboard magazine; and what’s sure to make news from his interview is his animus toward the Catholic Church.  According to Billboard, there are “Five Things We Learned About the Rock Icon.”  Among them, this:

PETTY WROTE A DAMNING SONG ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX SCANDAL.  Although it didn’t fit into the album, he wrote a song about the victims of the Catholic clergy called “Playing Dumb,” which is included as a bonus cut on the vinyl release of “Hypnotic Eye.” Petty tells Billboard he doesn’t mean to attack Catholics – “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have” – but explains his reaction to the scandal. “If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club. And I wouldn’t give them any more money.”

I’m thinking that before he got his dander up, Petty should have done his homework:  According to MediaReport.com, Catholic priests abuse at a rate far lower than that of other males in the population.  In fact, only 4% of priests were ever even accused of abuse–and the number of claims actually found to be credible is far lower than that.