subject: Celebration of Shame [print this page] Celebration of Shame Celebration of Shame
A few days ago, I watched Larry King interview the iconoclastic pop diva Lady Gaga on his show. In the interview, the singer said that she grew up in a Catholic family, believes in Jesus, and prays often. Then she proudly announced: "My show is a celebration of shame!" She went on to explain that her music is all about defying conventional values and codes of morality.
What Lady Gaga said in her interview should not surprise Christians. She was merely echoing the mood of our culture. We live in a society that has its moral compass spinning out of control, where people no longer are ashamed to display their passions, however distasteful and perverted they may be. The Bible warns, "The unjust knows no shame" (Zeph. 3: 5).
Interestingly, the history of shame has its beginning in the Garden of Eden, where the first human couple lived. The Bible says, "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" (Gen. 2:25). They were not ashamed because they were in a state of moral innocence, for sin had not yet entered into their lives. But the moment they sinned, their moral innocence was gone, their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. Their response was not to celebrate their nakedness, but to cover themselves with fig leaves. They were ashamed! Thus shame entered the human experience as a consequence of sin.
In the Bible, shame represents a state of moral failure in the sight of God. For example, regarding the rebellious people of Judah, God asks: "Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at allthey don't even know how to blush" (Jer. 6:15). Paul identifies the enemies of the cross of Christ as those who brag about shameful things (Phil. 3:19). Jude calls false teachers who corrupt the church "unthinking animals" and "shameless shepherds." Often, the expression "put to shame" is used as an idiom for divine judgment (Ps. 119:31; Dan. 12:2; Rom. 10:11). Indeed, shame has a dark history; it is not something to crow about.
The remedy for spiritual nakedness and shame is not celebration, but to be clothed with the garment of salvation or the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10). Paradoxically, the only place where one can find the garment of salvation is at the cross, the image of shame. On the cross, Jesus Christ bore our sins and died despising the shame. In His infinite wisdom, God turned the cross, the image of shame and alienation, into a symbol of forgiveness, deliverance, and restoration.
For a person clothed with the garment of salvation, shame is a moral deterrent. Paul reminds Christians that it is "shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret" (Eph. 5:12), just as it is shameful for believers to sue each other in a secular court instead of resolving their conflicts among themselves (1 Cor. 6:4-5). Moreover, when we are draped in the robe of righteousness, we are not ashamed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1: 16) or suffer for Christ (1 Pet. 4:16). It behooves Lady Gaga to know that the divine injunction is very clear: we don't celebrate shame but reject all shameful deeds, since God has given us a new way in Christ (2 Cor. 4:1-2).
