Posted on 06/30/2009 6:37:37 AM PDT by NYer
The Catholic News Service blog spotted this article Michael Jackson wrote for Beliefnet about his upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness and his spiritual beliefs as an adult.
In the article, entitled “My Childhood, My Sabbath, My Freedom,” Jackson wrote:
When people see the television appearances I made when I was a little boy—8 or 9 years old and just starting off my lifelong music career—they see a little boy with a big smile. They assume that this little boy is smiling because he is joyous, that he is singing his heart out because he is happy, and that he is dancing with an energy that never quits because he is carefree.
But while singing and dancing were, and undoubtedly remain, some of my greatest joys, at that time what I wanted more than anything else were the two things that make childhood the most wondrous years of life, namely, playtime and a feeling of freedom. The public at large has yet to really understand the pressures of childhood celebrity, which, while exciting, always exacts a very heavy price.
More than anything, I wished to be a normal little boy. I wanted to build tree houses and go to roller-skating parties. But very early on, this became impossible. I had to accept that my childhood would be different than most others. But that’s what always made me wonder what an ordinary childhood would be like.
There was one day a week, however, that I was able to escape the stages of Hollywood and the crowds of the concert hall. That day was the Sabbath. In all religions, the Sabbath is a day that allows and requires the faithful to step away from the everyday and focus on the exceptional. I learned something about the Jewish Sabbath in particular early on from Rose, and my friend Shmuley further clarified for me how, on the Jewish Sabbath, the everyday life tasks of cooking dinner, grocery shopping, and mowing the lawn are forbidden so that humanity may make the ordinary extraordinary and the natural miraculous. Even things like shopping or turning on lights are forbidden. On this day, the Sabbath, everyone in the world gets to stop being ordinary.
But what I wanted more than anything was to be ordinary. So, in my world, the Sabbath was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday.
>May he finally find peace with God.
I understand that this is merely a prayer for his salvation, and that is something I can agree with. I pray that there were evidences of fruit that we could not see. I must also pray that should there have been none, that the mercy of the judge not be extended to MJ.
It is right that all of us sinners fall into the eternal pit. It is only through the grace of God that we are not cast there upon the first sin. We deserve nothing better than the wrath which Jesus took the full brunt of. It is not unjust or wrong that any face the judgement and wrath. It is not unjust or wrong to praise God for pouring out wrath. Yes it is a frightening thing, but it is right to praise God for punishing those that deserve it, and should make our commission that much more desperate and motivated to save those of His Flock.
Believe me, I would desperately love to have some small evidence that Michael Jackson was saved, but I see nothing of Christ in his life. All praises to that Judge who pours out His righteous wrath on those that are not washed by the Blood of Christ. All praises to Him that has chosen to extend unmerited favor to His ekklesia, His Called out ones from all the peoples. May He be blessed for both His wrath and grace for He is full of Righteousness and Mercy and that is good.
amen
I agree that it is non-biblical, and a bit trite. It usually is served up with a sinners prayer, and once said, it is sometimes claimed that the one who offered the prayer is ‘born-again’.
It is not to say that some are not saved by this method, but too many have no signs of true regeneration (” show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works....” James 2:17-19. Note that this statement is descriptive, not proscriptive, which would lead to works righteousness ).
This, like child baptism/one true church-ism often leads to false converts who do not know they are false converts. “Hey, I was baptized/am part of the one true church/said the sinners prayer... I AM saved.”
Where did ‘asking Jesus into your heart’ come from? I suspect that it is from the time of the Second Great Awakening of Finney. Ugh!
I pray also for his salvation. He seemed like such a tortured soul to me, torn between his love of worldly things and possessions and trying to find some purpose and meaning in his life. I will say that out of all his screwed-up family members, his father will be the one who has to answer as to why he neglected his God-given duty to be a parent, instead of pushing his children down the road to fame and greed.
My thoughts exactly. We still see this today, with parents pushing their children to excel at (fill in the blank). What is especially disturbing, are those mothers who dress their very young children up as adults and parade them on stage as models. It is for their gratification, not that of the child. So many have been robbed of their childhood, years that are necessary for emotional, physical and spiritual growth.
Joe was responsible for female hormone injections when he was little I was told... I had friends at CBS during 70’s show run there who suspected that and other sad things... but the mom still made their clothes for all the early performances...
Yes, I agree.
And I pray for his kids as well, it seems now they risk being exploited just as some allege he was as a child.
Jackson has gone through all the major religions.
Raised a Jehovah’s Witness, he converted to Judaism, and in his latest incarnation, converted to Islam.Somehow he bypasssed Roman Catholicism.
The British papers are saying his entire empire, including his Nanny, and his finances were managed by the Nation of Islam for the last few years.
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