Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” surely triggered the fanaticism of 45,000 people. On April 27th of 2012 in her very first world tour concert, Lady Gaga made sure that her watching fans left satisfied with her exceptional performances in Jamsil Olympic Stadium Complex. The number of people who bought tickets to this event marked the second highest after Michael Jackson, and this clearly reflects her influence in South Korea.
However, not all people were welcoming her arrival. Soon after she arrived, the South Korean government suddenly raised the rating of the concert to "above 18." Right before the concert started, many Christian groups including The Christian Council of Korea severely castigated Lady Gaga, her concert, and the host company for allowing "a bad influence" to take place on the Peninsula. These people even went in front of the concert hall trying to ‘save’ people in the line from Satan. Some of the Christians held up banners presenting things that severely criticized Lady Gaga’s stance on bisexuality and the blatancy of her performance in front of her many fans. Neither these Christians nor the fans were happy.
This so-called anti-Gaga movement from various religious sects is still taking place in other countries. The second destination of Lady Gaga’s world tour is one of the biggest Muslim countries in the world, Indonesia. Already various Muslim protesters are holding up banners, reprimanding the concert venue itself and Lady Gaga. People of the Philippines, one of the strongest Roman Catholic countries, are against the coming of Lady Gaga. Her tour, it seems, will be experiencing many more bumps along the road.
With respect to many other religious believers, their theories notwithstanding, the actions and assertions made by these religious groups are not valid. Most of all, these people are not respectful of others with dissenting viewpoints. The evaluation on the performer or the concert can be different depending on what kind of perspectives you take. Although many of her fans were not affiliated with certain religions, their musical preference should be respected just like how the religions are respected. Yet the religious sector failed to be flexible with people holding different opinions.
Moreover, the conflict-provoking censuring of the bisexuality or homosexuality of the performer clearly shows that the religious sector is intervening beyond their given scope of business. The often raised issue of agreeing or disagreeing with homosexuality is actually a debate that does not make sense. Sexual preference is a matter of personal choice instead of debate. Fervent uprising of religious fundamentalists is therefore against the value of freedom of choice.
With the reverence for the devotion which these religious groups made in our society notwithstanding, the radical dichotomy of evil versus angel triggers the conflict between the factions of dissenting opinion within the society. Just as The Bible or the Koran is sacred among their respected group members, counterpart values of the public should also be appreciated.
Staff writer Lee JuWon is currently a SolBridge University student.
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