Yesterday on the Bob and Sheri (Radio) Show (www.bobandsheri.com), Sheri Lynch read a comment from R&B singer Mary J. Blige about her new found faith in God. I emailed Sheri and she told me where to find the article. It is from a interview with Blender magazine in their May 2006 issue entitled “Dear Superstar: Mary J. Blige.” I think this is a classic example of creating God in our own image. (For those not down with the hip hop scene, “bling” refers to flashy jewelry or any display of a lucrative, extravagant lifestyle.)
Question: Mary, you’re a devout Christian. How do you reconcile bling with God?
Answer: My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling! He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. I don’t know what kind of God the rest of y’all are serving, but the God I serve says, “Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I’m gonna make sure you’re doing that.” My God’s the bomb!
You can read the entire article here http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1910. I am glad that Mary J. has found her way back to God. (She said that she grew up in a Pentecostal church in Savannah, Georgia, but didn’t get much out of church as a child.) She said that God has saved her from suicide and a life of drugs and alcohol to which I add my “PTL.” I hope that as she continues in her relationship with God that she will discover God as he is without the cultural baggage we (myself included) add on to him.