I Liked This Story Better the Last Time I Heard It...in 1985

Madonna Gets Church Hot (Under Collar)

from Sploid

Like a paid marketing company, the Church of England has jumped straight out and screamed to the media that Madonna's new concert tour is offensive, while other Christian groups said it could even be "dangerous."

On the opening night of her "Confessions on the Dance Floor" tour, Madonna performed the ballad "Live To Tell" while suspended from a giant mirrored cross and wearing a crown of thorns. Talk about waving a red rag in front of a bull. "Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" the church said in a statement.

If that wasn't enough to get conservative Christians foaming at the mouth, she then compared Bush to Hitler and made a crude reference to Dubya and oral sex.

David Muir of the Evangelical Alliance accused the singer of "blatant insensitivity," and suggested that she should drop the giant cross from the tour before the Big Guy Upstairs got angry. "Madonna's use of Christian imagery is an abuse and it is dangerous," he said.

Madonna's an old hand at inciting such good publicity though. In 1990, she even had the Pope calling for a boycott of her "Blond Ambition" tour. The Material Girl managed that one by simulating masturbation during the song Like A Virgin. Previous to that she had the Vatican fuming when she burnt crosses and had a black Jesus in her Like a Prayer music video.