Malin Jordan, the editor of our local newspaper “The BC Catholic,” wrote a good article on whether our Catholic children should be going to We Day because “up front, it’s a feel-good event, but beneath, it’s saturated with inappropriate messaging.”  He cites “the recent We Day in Vancouver Oct. 22 that had surprise guest Jennifer “J-Lo” Lopez strut the stage with a sex-charged dance number that left little to the imagination. J-Lo also performed her song “Booty” for the 20,000 or so kids in attendance… Here are some lyrics from that song:

Booty, booty, booty, booty, booty everywhere / Look at her booty, stop, stare / They love that booty, hell yeah / The way she twerk it, not fair

She got a booty, that’ll swallow a thong / And if you do it better do it dirty all night long / Booty, toot it, boot it, you know the plan / So much booty, she could supply the demand

I don’t know about most parents, but I think a sex-infused dance show with sex-romp lyrics is not appropriate for children as young as 11.”

(See 2:20)

Even the Catholic bishops of Kenya requested “that donors in Canada and the United States direct their generosity to Catholic health facilities and not to contraception-distributing institutions and programs such as Free the Children’s Baraka Medical Centre.”

Jordan’s definitely right that we have so many better alternative charities which we can support.

We all have to ask ourselves: what is right, what’s good for our children, what is influencing them and what are we giving our support to?  We tend to accept whatever is in our culture without thinking critically about these questions.  We are what we do, we are what we watch and we are what we support.  If we know more about Jennifer Lopez than Jesus, it’s no wonder our children will be more like she and less like Jesus.