Faith Goes Pop

Vampire Weekend’s New Single Asserts That Zion Doesn’t Love You

Lilit Marcus — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:20:35 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think of Vampire Weekend as a disaffected art rock band, but do they have a spiritual side? Their latest single, “Ya Hey” (a pun on one of the Jewish names for G-d, Yahweh) contains quite a few spiritual lyrics, like “Zion doesn’t love you/and Babylon don’t love you,” and refers to whoever “you” is as a “saint.”

The video is deliberately oblique, just showing people (mostly wearing muslin wraps that look like togas, or standing in front of the Chrysler Building) opening bottles of champagne. The refrain, “You won’t even say your name/only I am that I am” is another G-d reference, which lead singer and Hebrew school alum Ezra Koenig would definitely know. It’s an interesting song, but the occasional random Chipmunk voices in the background are pretty annoying.

Christian Rocker Tim Lambesis Reportedly Put Out a Hit On His Wife

Lilit Marcus — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:17:33 +0000

Well, damn. Tim Lambesis, lead singer of the Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has been accused of putting out a hit on his estranged wife. Tim and his wife Meggan Lambesis separated last year and were in the process of getting a divorce. The San Diego, CA police department deserves the credit here: when they got a tip about Tim’s actions, they put together a sting operation and busted him trying to hire an undercover police officer to kill his wife for him. The couple has three kids. No word on what happens next, but we assume they’re staying with Mom for the time being.

The band has often talked about the Christian virtues of forgiveness in their songs. Let’s hope they meant it.

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Tilda Swinton Leads a ‘Spiritual’ Dance Party

Lilit Marcus — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:40:11 +0000

The amazing Tilda Swinton appeared at the Roger Ebert Film Festival earlier this week, and she led what she called a “spiritual service” – a dance party to the tunes of Barry White. If Tilda tells you to dance with her, then you freaking dance with her.

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The Duggar Girls’ Book Is Coming Out in November

Lilit Marcus — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:41:55 +0000

The four oldest Duggar daughters – Jana, Jill, Jessa, and Jinger – have ‘written’ a book about their lives, which will be published in November by Howard Books, a Christian company. The title is Growing Up Duggar: The Duggar Girls Share Their View of Life Inside American’s Most Well-Known Super-Sized Family. It’s a little too early for the book to have cover art or a description yet, but if this book is anything like the other previous Duggar books, it will contain plenty of information we’ve already see on the show and absolutely nothing scandalous or interesting. I’m sure their parents had to sign off on everything.

Question, though: will the girls be able to do publicity for their book, or will they be needed at home to take care of their younger siblings? Maybe they’ll have to rotate book publicity duties? And maybe this will be a chance for one of them to pretend she’s going out to a book signing and never come back?

Emma Watson Gets Kinda Spiritual in the Trailer for ‘The Bling Ring’

Lilit Marcus — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:03:49 +0000

“I’m a firm believer in karma, and I think this situation is a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being.”

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Peaches Geldof Has Swapped Scientology for Thelema

Lilit Marcus — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:07:05 +0000

Troubled British starlet turned troubled British young mom Peaches Geldof, daughter of Sir Bob Geldof, has reportedly traded one controversial belief system for another. According to the Guardian, Peaches recently tweeted about her belief in Thelema, also known as OTO, a black magic religion created by the famed occultist Aleister Crowley. One of those tweets was a picture of her new “OTO” tattoo.

Before this, Geldof was connected with Scientology and spent time living at their Celebrity Centre in LA, which resulted in this story.L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was reportedly a big Crowley fan who borrowed many early elements of OTO for his own religion, so maybe Geldof hasn’t actually strayed that far from the flock.

Justin Bieber Thinks Anne Frank Would Have Been His Fan If Not for That Whole Pesky Holocaust Thing

Lilit Marcus — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:15:44 +0000

Considering that the Anne Frank House is probably the best-known attraction in Amsterdam, it’s not unusual when visiting celebrities stop by. But when Justin Bieber went there yesterday, he didn’t quite focus on the seriousness of the place.

According to the museum’s Facebook page, Bieber and his entourage stopped by, and the pop star left a note in the guestbook on his way out: “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.” A “belieber” is a fan of Justin’s. So in other words, he wrote “I really hope the world’s most recognizable victim of the Holocaust would have liked my stupid music.”

Here’s a tip, famous people: when you go to internationally-known sites that often leave visitors in tears, try not to make it somehow all about you and your terrible music, okay?

Teen Mom’s Farrah Abraham Isn’t Too Christian to Make Porn

Lilit Marcus — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:04:06 +0000

Since the original series of Teen Mom ended last year, one of the show’s stars, Farrah Abraham, has desperately tried to stay relevant. She released a book, an album, and a line of pasta sauce, then got a DUI. A few days ago, rumors began to swirl that Farrah had made a sex tape. The truth is slightly more complex: she didn’t make a sex tape, she made a straight-up porn movie with porn star James Deen. (Side note: a sex tape is a tape that you make for funsies that accidentally or ‘accidentally’ gets released, a la the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee tape, while a porn is one where you pick a random costar and are on a set with lighting and sound people. Farrah’s movie falls into the latter category.)

According to Farrah’s mom, the deliciously insane Debra Danielsen, Farrah is a good Christian girl who would never dream of having sex on camera. “We have religious beliefs,” Danielsen told a TMZ reporter. This is the same woman who didn’t want her daughter to be on birth control even though she’d already had a kid at 16. Now, how long until this porn movie actually comes out? I’m sure poor James earned every penny.

Queens of the Stone Age’s New Song Is Called ‘My God Is the Sun’

Lilit Marcus — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:34:20 +0000

Not “the son,” in case you were wondering.

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SNL’s Bar Mitvah Boy Returns to Explain Passover

Lilit Marcus — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:03:06 +0000

I absolutely loved Vanessa Bayer‘s “Jacob the bar mitzvah boy” character the first time she popped up, so I’m thrilled that she made a repeat appearance on Saturday Night Live last weekend. Jacob appeared on Weekend Update to teach Seth – and the audience, presumably – about the meaning of Passover. Her impression of an awkward, dorky bar mitzvah kid is actually so perfect that I break out in hives while watching her.