Most atheists have a story about why they stopped believing in God. Perhaps something caused them to begin questioning their faith. Still, they took that final leap only after a lot of critical thinking.

Yet when they tell people they no longer believe in God, the assumption is that something bad happened to them. That's it. A logical thought process always takes a back seat to blame God for some kind of tragedy.

Hell, there are entire books written by Christian apologists about theodicy, offering explanations for why God allows bad things happen to good people… as if that's the only reason people have for becoming nonreligious.

Recently Spears made a stir in Catholic circles when she told her Instagram followers that she had wanted to get married in a Catholic church in Los Angele.

On Thursday, August 5, 2021, she announced on Instagram that she is Catholic and attends Mass.

But the following afternoon Spears' Instagram post was deleted. Other posts unrelated to faith were also deleted from her Instagram account.

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Britney Spears, who has since had her wedding to longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari in the backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion, didn't mention what church it was. But reporters figured it out and asked for a statement from St. Monica's Catholic Church, a vibrant parish community in Los Angeles.

The parish said they had no knowledge of Spears ever requesting to get married there.

In a follow-up post, Britney Spears explained that she had asked her wedding planner if she could marry Asghari at St Monica's.

She said, in fact, it was "the first request" she had put to the planner upon agreeing to work with them.

Six weeks later, she had been told no by the planner and assumed the parish had rejected her request.

Now, some Catholics might see Britney Spears as oblivious or uninterested in what exactly it means to get married in a Catholic church. "It's not just a random venue," one of her followers responded to the original post (which has since been taken down).

But Spears' attraction to St Monica's was pretty clearly not just about getting a great spot for the ‘grams.

In her original post, she wrote about her desire to go to St Monica's during the pandemic: "I wanted to go every Sunday," she wrote. "…It's beautiful and they said it was temporarily shut down due to COVID!!!! Then 2 years later when I wanted to get married there they said I had to be Catholic and go through TEST !!!!"

In her second post, she repeated that she has had a long-standing desire to go to St Monica's.

"During the 2 years of Covid, I also wanted to go there … I was told no due to the pandemic …"

These aren't the only times Spears has written in a positive way about Catholicism, either.

In August 2021, she posted about attending a Mass: "I just got back from Mass…I'm Catholic now…let us pray!" Catholic commentator Austin Ivereigh kidded on Twitter, "Next on Catholic news: Britney Spears names her puppy #Traditionis Custodes."

Pundits seemed to spend a lot of energy debating whether or not she had officially converted, but to my mind, they missed the point entirely. She had been to Mass and was happy enough about the experience to mention it and kid around a bit.

In the case of Spears' wedding, it seems that the parish had nothing to do with what happened. And if you're ever visiting Los Angeles, I highly recommend St Monica's. Britney Spears is right. It's a great place.

Situations similar to hers come up pretty often in many of our parishes. Especially when it comes to weddings and funerals, there are times when people come to our churches wanting things that don't necessarily fit our categories.

• They want a pop song at a funeral.
• They want a non-religious ritual included in their wedding.
• Or they want to get married here, even though they aren't Catholic.

It can be very easy to get hung up on the specific problems of their requests, not only because some of the same issues come up again and again (raise your hand if you've had someone insist they need "Stairway to Heaven" at a funeral), but because many of our parishes are already overwhelmed with the normal demands of their regular parishioners.

When you've got only one priest in a parish and maybe a pastoral associate, it can be hard to remember whether or not someone's desires fit our liturgical practices or are phrased the right way; there very well might be something deeply spiritual beneath the surface.

Evangelisation funnel

Some years ago, I interviewed Matt Meeks, then the chief digital officer of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In our conversation, Meeks had a lot to say about what he called "the evangelisation funnel."

When you're doing marketing, he explained to me; there are three key phases that the evangeliser needs to speak to:

1. general awareness—your potential parishioner isn't in the market for something yet, and you're trying to keep the faith in front of them as something potentially meaningful;
2. consideration—your potential parishioner is looking for options, and you want them to see what you offer; and
3. intent—your potential parishioner is about to choose a place and you tangibly help them come to you (i.e. here's when our Masses and confessions are, and here's what you need to accept or do before participating).

One of the things Meeks said that has always stayed with me is that the church often does not do that first awareness step well.

"We're up to our neck in stories, but we're not telling those stories well."

What we tend to do instead is skip right to consideration, leaping into discussions of doctrine or rules that are way too much too soon.

"If our goal is to pull in people who are not necessarily in the market for God (or, I might add, the Catholic Church), Meeks told me, "you're too far down the funnel for them."

When it comes to moments like weddings or funerals, similar dynamics occur.

Our church buildings themselves give a fantastic taste of the beauty, hope and solace that our faith can offer.

But then, when people come in the door, we end up moving right into the rules—into what's allowed and what isn't—when we should be drawing out what brought them here and thinking about how we can nourish that.

Put another way, the whole reason we build beautiful churches and decorate them with gorgeous art is to give people some glimpse of the God who loves us.

We should not be caught off guard when unexpected people then show up at our doorstep. Continue reading

"Isn't church supposed to be open to all?"

A spokesperson for Santa Monica Church said their records indicate Spears never contacted the church about her wedding or visited the facility. Read more

On some level, we weren't that surprised: we've seen jukebox musicals and Jesus musicals before, so why not a jukebox Jesus musical?

After all, if the same guy that wrote Starlight Express could write a musical about Jesus - one with some spiritually powerful moments, such as Judas' opening number where he pleads with Jesus to do something already - then why not the folks who wrote Britney's songs?

God's grace can be mediated by even the most mundane reality, like bread and wine (and yes, sunsets, too), so there is nothing intrinsically problematic with using contemporary music to open ourselves to God.

What's more, the images on the webpage look to be quite a bit more in line with mainstream portrayals of the Gospels than those of some other Jesus musicals.

Although, let us remember that being in line with mainstream interpretations of the Gospel itself is perhaps a sign that not all is well with our narrative.

On another level though, this is obviously absurd. Continue reading.

Andrew Staron is an assistant professor of theology at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, USA. Stephen Okey is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Religion at Saint Leo University outside of Tampa, Florida, USA.

Source: Daily Theology

Image: Spears: The musical

This is the question the creators of Spears The Musical: The Gospel According To Britney ask in regard to their new opera, which tells the story of Jesus Christ through the music of Britney Spears.

According to the musical's website, the show will chronicle the life, death and resurrection of Jesus using Britney's hits like "Stronger," "One More Time," "Lucky" and "Crazy."

Spears was developed by Patrick Blute, a 23-year-old Columbia University graduate, who debuted the show in April 2012 at the college to a sold-out crowd.

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