You might not think that the worst backlash someone faces in their career would come from saying that “Jesus is real”, particularly given that America has long been a Christian country and most people here still are nominally Christian. The same applies for Great Britain, once a leading protestant country that did its best to export the Christian faith around the world.
But, of course, these are “clown world” times, not reasonable times, and atheism had advanced as Christianity has receded. And so a singer known as M.I.A. recently discussed, in both an interview with Apple Music and on her social media accounts, how being an outspoken Christian turned some of her fans against her and caused an intense backlash.
Speaking about the matter on her Twitter, M.I.A. said: “The fact that the biggest back lash in my career and life I’m facing after saying “Jesus is real” is such a revelation to me. People who control these apps rather me be a bad girl , then a good one.”
Commenting on her post, some people posted messages of support and understanding, saying things like: “Biggest backlash that destroyed my career was voting for “the wrong person”. Idk what world this is anymore. I never understood trying to control what other people think, & to the point of destroying them?!” and “Blessed are you are you when you are persecuted for His Name’s sake, great is your reward in heaven .”
That wasn’t all the singer had to say about her faith and standing up for it. M.I.A. (her real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam) told Zane Lowe during an interview that she became a Christian after experiencing a vision that changed her perspective and turned her away from the Hindu faith, and that some of her fans take issue with her conversion.
In her words: “Basically, all of my fans might turn against me because they are all progressives who hate people that believe in Jesus Christ in this country. [E]ven if it costs me my career, I won’t lie. I will tell the truth, and I will tell you what’s on my mind and my heart. If I’m coming back now saying ‘Jesus is real,’ there’s a point.”
She also said, during an interview, that she knows it was the Christian God that saved her despite her previous Hindu faith, saying “…Right now I think the only clear thing I can say is that even when I had no belief in Jesus Christ and Christianity, and even when I was 100 percent comfortable in Hinduism, it was a Christian God that turned up to save me.”
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She also explained how a vision from God turned her into a Christian, saying, “I am. I’m not going to lie. Then when I had this vision, it turned my world upside down. I kind of couldn’t let go of the Tamil side. I think that’s why 50% of the record is sort of like that. Because I’m still me. That’s still my language. And those are still my tools to be able to create beats like that or a sound like that. But I think the message was just to get to a peaceful place. Watch the space. The history is, even if it costs me my career, I won’t lie. I will tell the truth, and I will tell you what’s on my mind and my heart. If I’m coming back now saying Jesus is real, there’s a point. Basically all of my fans might turn against me.”
Better yet, she said that she lets her faith influence her perspective of the world, saying during the interview: “We live in a world where understanding has to be simplified because our attention span is smaller, our ability to think deeply about things is going, tolerance is going. So many of these qualities are going and I think that’s why we need something that is a simplified form of understanding.”
Continuing, she added, “The more I understand the complexities of the world, the simpler I find things really are. And funny enough, Christianity is very simple; it’s because those things are really simple. The world is really simple.”