BITR: Marilyn Manson

(Let me apologize in advance for the length of this blog. I guess I got a little carried away. In writing this I was exploring some things I've been thinking about lately, and I think I raised more questions to myself than I actually answered. So any insight would be appreciated.)


I find it funny that people really take Marilyn Manson as seriously as they do, especially nowadays. Before the subject came up a few months ago at church I don’t know when was the last time he came up in conversation or in thought. In fact, I half expect him to show up on a reality TV show with Danny Bonaduce and Vanilla Ice in the near future. Two words come to mind: “washed” and “up”. Manson is currently in a court battle with a former band mate over some kind of contract dispute. I don’t think America could care less.

I have a hard time figuring out how Marilyn Manson got to be so popular. He’s put out several albums, made a lot of money, been in movies, and he’s an icon for gothic culture. After listening to his music I sometimes wonder why, because it’s awful. And I don’t mean that because of his lyrics and his anti-Christian message, but because the music just flat out sucks. The best explanation I can offer for his success is that he built his career on shocking people and by connecting to a demographic of people who by some means identified with him.

Before taking on the celebrity profile of Marilyn Manson, his name was Hugh Warner. Part of his childhood included being frequently molested by a neighbor and going through his grandfather’s sex toys. It was during this time when Manson formed his trademark hatred of Christianity. His parents enrolled him in a private Christian school where he was basically an outcast, and apparently treated like one. Stemming from the experiences there, he went on to build a career based on bad music, shock, and a cultural war against Christians, parents, and conservative politicians; which in turn fueled his popularity even more.

With his music and his antics, Marilyn Manson has built a cult-like following which, surprisingly, mostly consists of white suburban kids. I listened to some of his songs and I noticed that a lot of his lyrics are built on a rebellion against people who may be considered good, successful, beautiful, and accepted. For instance, take this excerpt from the single “The Beautiful People”:

And I don't want you and I don't need you
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong

The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
You can't smell your own [poo-poo] on your knees

I think that this kind of message appeals to people who are considered rejects or outcasts because in a way it validates them. And it does that by putting down the people who have put them down. I mean think about it, you’re a kid in high school and you feel constantly rejected by your peers. Your parents don’t pay much attention to you or maybe they are always unloving towards you, and then you go to school only to get beat up or made fun of. You feel like nobody accepts you or likes you as an individual. They make you feel ugly, awkward, and basically rejected. And let’s say you go to church and people just stare at you and they never talk to you. Or even worse, you get treated the same way you do at school. In fact, let’s take it a step further and say you somehow get the message that God doesn’t love people like you. If you experience this at probably any level, somehow you are going to establish a “Them vs. Me” mentality, and they will be the accepted ones while you are the outcast.

So Marilyn Manson comes along and he writes this music that is a rebellion against those people. He says that all those other people are fakes and hypocrites, and you don’t need them. You listen to his songs, which lift up and celebrate the “dirty”, flawed people – people like you. In a way, this is going to comfort you because it makes you feel better about yourself. It’s going to make you feel above all those people who have been putting you down, which is exactly what you want to feel. And so you are probably going to buy into this and become a huge fan of this guy.

(Let me go ahead and say that I don’t personally believe that in the world there are “good” people and “flawed” people. I don’t think these are true stereotypes because we are all messed up in ways and we are also good in other ways. The difference is in the perception – some people believe that they are the good ones and everyone else is bad. Other people believe they aren’t good and are made to feel like there are other people who are better than them. Unpacking this idea would be another blog entirely. I just wanted to clear that up.)

I remember one Sunday night at church watching one of Rob Bell’s Nooma videos. He was talking about the creation story and the fall of man in Genesis. Regarding the actual truth and accuracy of the story he said something like this: “I don’t think it’s important that the fall of man happened, but that the fall of man happens.” His point being that every day we eat the apple. Every day in some way we walk away from God. And whether the story has historical significance or not, we can’t deny the truth of it in our daily lives. Every day we are deceived by the snake, and we take a bite from the fruit.

I believe the story of Cain and Abel is the same way. In Genesis, Cain and Abel were the two sons of Adam and Eve. Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer. This is how their story goes in Genesis 4.

“In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.”

Now the Bible says the Lord went on to punish Cain for the murder, sending him away to the land of Nod, which means wandering. I think this story is extremely interesting because in its simplicity it is saying so much about humanity. You have two brothers who both bring their offerings to God, who rejects one of them and accepts the other. Now I used to think that God rejected Cain’s offering because he didn’t give his best. That was the Sunday school answer I was taught as a kid. But as I look at the text I notice that it never says why Cain’s offering was rejected and Abel’s was accepted. We don’t learn why God prefers the sacrifice of Abel over the sacrifice of Cain. The only thing we really have to go on is in Hebrews 11:4, which says that Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice by faith. Even with that answer, though, you can’t ignore the fact that Moses wrote the story without including why God rejected Cain’s sacrifice. And for thousands of years, until the book of Hebrews was written, people had no recording of why. What did they think of this story then?

Anyways, Cain’s offering was rejected. So how did he react to this? He got angry. I imagine that first Cain was hurt. If he didn’t care about pleasing God with his offering then he wouldn’t have reacted in such an extreme way. I imagine that Cain felt hurt, which probably developed into bitterness, jealousy, and finally anger. That anger built up and then one day when they were in the field Cain murdered his brother.

This reminds me so much of Marilyn Manson and many (not all) of his fans. Angry, outcast, rejected people who react with anger when they are invalidated by society. It’s the feeling of bringing what you have to the table and being rejected, turned away – just like Cain brought his offering to God and was rejected. And just like Cain reacted with anger, people still react with anger when they are rejected by their peers.

I think that more people in the world feel this way, more than just people who like Marilyn Manson. In fact, I think the feeling is universal. We all sometimes feel like Cain. Who hasn’t been rejected in some way or another? Who doesn’t know the feeling of bringing what they have and being turned down?

So what is the church to do about Marilyn Manson? People believe his music influences teenage suicide and school violence. In a small way I agree with this, but I don’t think it really gets to the heart of these problems. There was a father in a Senate hearing on the effects of music on youth in America who believed that Marilyn Manson’s music played a big part in his 15-year-old son’s suicide. Manson responded by saying, “If you want to blame music for someone hurting themselves, then you can just as easily blame Shakespeare writing ‘Romeo & Juliet’ which is something I was taught when I was a kid, and that's a story about two teenagers that killed themselves because their parents don't understand them and I think the key lesson is that parents don't understand their kids. If you take more time to talk to your kids, your kids are going to live happier lives." While I don’t know about the Shakespeare part of this quote, I actually agree with Manson on that last statement. A teenager does not kill himself because of a song. He kills himself because he feels miserable, unloved, ignored, rejected, alone, or all of the above. Maybe he is crying out for attention from somebody. The problem isn’t that he needed to trade in his Marilyn Manson CDs for Steven Curtis Chapman albums. My guess is that the kid needed love, acceptance, guidance, and companionship in his life.

In Ephesians, Paul says that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” It may be easy as the church to think that it’s us versus Marilyn Manson in these sorts of things, but I think that is wrong. Instead I think we need to continue the work of laying down our lives, loving others, accepting those around us, and basically doing those things Jesus told us to do instead of trying to win a culture war against one man. Marilyn Manson is not a threat to us. Hate is. True evil is our enemy. And the Bible reminds us to not return evil for evil, but repay evil with good. Our duty is to love.

Someday down the road Marilyn Manson is going to die. He’s going to be buried (hopefully with all his recordings) and people are going to hold a funeral, say goodbye, and then move on. He is going to end. But I believe that what he represents -- the rebellion, hate, cynicism – all of those things are going to live on. Why? Because they exist not only in Marilyn Manson, but in all of humanity. They live in me and they live in you. The only thing we can do to ultimately win this battle is to live the lives Jesus wants us to live, and to preserve the things that he represents.