Published: May 5, 2011

Gaga be with you.

And also with you.

April 15 was National LGBT Day of Silence, when members and allies of the LGBT community were asked to stay silent to show solidarity with our community. One person I know, Lady Gaga, did not stay silent that day, as she released her latest single that Friday, thereby causing all members of the LGBT community I know to break their silences in celebration of this single.

Rarely do I allow one person to dominate my life, but between Easter Sunday and the release of Lady Gaga’s new single “Judas,” the eponymous apostle has been an integral part of my iTunes and worship services. Suffice to say, I’m in love with “Judas.”

I may be in the minority here, but Gaga’s “Born This Way” always felt like a lackluster choice of a first single. That’s not to say that it’s not an OK song, but it’s just not blow-me-out-of-the-water “Bad Romance” good. “Judas” restores my faith—pardon the pun—in Gaga the Hitmaker.

“Judas” succeeds where I believe “Born This Way” failed—creating a hit single with lyrical depth, club-banger-readiness, and oozing ’80s homage. As a retro pastiche number, “Judas” invokes a lot of Madonna (like everything else Gaga or anyone else does). It’s nearly impossible to be a pop songstress—white, black, or Latino—and not invoke the Queen of Pop. Lady Gaga and Madonna share a Catholic upbringing that lends itself to rich imagery and metaphor. Where Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” album brought us a black Jesus in a music video and a song called “Act of Contrition,” Gaga’s song has at its heart the much less controversial, and much more universal, theme of betrayal.

In a world where most of the songs on the Top 40 list are about “getting on the floor” or telling us “tonight I’m loving you,” people forget that not every word of every song has to be a literal reflection of its meaning. Lyrical depth still exists, and I think every member of Fordham College at Lincoln Center knows what it’s like to be in love with his or her own Judases.

For those students married to their academics, sometimes our favorite classes give us the most work, but we continue to write papers or do lab reports out of a labor of love.

For those students who work in Student Affairs, we know the frustrations of putting on events, making budgets, getting rooms approved and getting people to come to programs, but we still follow through with these commitments because we love our school.

For those students who love clubbing and partying, they know how bad it is for their bodies, but they do it because they love to  look fabulous and dance till the world ends.

We all have our own Judases and should all be able to appreciate Gaga’s metaphor and relate it to our own lives without crying out “heretic” or getting ready to burn her CDs. Besides, did you take out your Mayan calendars when Britney commanded you to dance “Till the World Ends” or think Russell Brand was an alien when Katy Perry fell in love with an “Extra Terrestrial?”

One of the arguments against “Judas” around which I can’t wrap my head is the idea that the song is blasphemous. I believe that, like Judas Iscariot, this song is blatantly misunderstood. Not to be a theology scholar here, but I was never that mad at Judas. Judas was a pivotal part of the Gospels.

Without him there would be no crucifixion or salvation. He represents the necessary hardships that we must go through in order to achieve grace in order to change. When did it become blasphemy just to use religious imagery anyway?

Lady Gaga isn’t saying she’s fraternizing with the man who killed Christ, but rather, that sometimes there is a necessary part of ourselves that we feel is bad but that we cannot shirk because it is a part of ourselves.

I know there’s going to be a lot of pushback to Gaga’s “Judas.” Almost anything truly artistic will have people falling on both sides of the fence. Some may feel that it was a blatantly capitalist marketing decision—from a woman who is a self-proclaimed hater of money, no less—to release “Judas” on Holy Week. Some may feel that it invokes the names of one of the greatest villains in history unnecessarily.

To these Gaga naysayers, I understand your pain. I felt “Born This Way” to be a misstep in the path of one of the great musical prophets, but “Judas” has gone and resurrected our girl and brought her followers back to the dance floor—and to that I say, “Hallelujah!”

Here endeth the lesson. The Gospel according to Gaga.

Praise to us, Little Monsters!