Was Michael Jackson a supernatural magician or an icon of self-immolation? Both? The physical body is gone, the musical productivity has ceased, the capacity to speak for himself is no more, so now MJ is a wonderfully ambiguous figment of our imagination. Three religion scholars discuss the life, legend, meaning, and myth of one of the world's most talented, successful, and perhaps tortured performers.
Michael Jackson, pop theologian and transcendent performer, went from Jehovah’s Witness to Nation of Islam to Islam searching for the well-being embedded in so many of his songs. Farah Fawcett, who was so much more than a pretty face and healthy head of hair, courageously faced death on camera in a youth-obsessed culture.
Has the Nation of Islam, a tradition hinged on separatism, evolved into supporters of the President of the United States? If so, how does that affect the Nation’s ground-up community networks and sociopolitical analysis of American society?
