Last night on CNN Headline News's "Showbiz Tonight," so-called Hip Hop Professor Marc Lamont Hill noted that he was "freaked out" by Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus's claim that she loves Jesus. Host AJ Hammer played a clip from a YouTube video where Cyrus and pal Mandy answered fans' questions, this one dedicated to their religion:
Are we Christian?
Yes!
Yes. We are.
We love Jesus. Happy Easter by the way. He died for our sins. That is how great he is. That`s why we do what we do. I sing and act Jesus. Not the acting but I sing and dance for Jesus. Actually, I act for Jesus, too. And now that I think about it, I do everything for Jesus.
Yeah, we are. For Jesus.
Hill was asked by Hammer if he was concerned about Cyrus -- her sudden fame coupled with her youth. His reply?
Exactly. I man, this video freaks me out. I wasn`t inspired when I saw it. No 15-year-old loves Jesus that much. Either she`s heavily calculated or a weird kid and either way, seems like she`s hurdling towards Lindsay Lohan/Britney Spears territory. These were both really good girls who were completely obsessed and a few years later they are hanging off of bar tops. That`s a dangerous thing.
Thankfully, Hammer and other guest Jane Velez-Mitchell called Hill out on his remarks:
HAMMER: You see, I don`t think she`s heavily calculated. I don`t think she`s weird. What do you think, Jane? Are you worried for her? I think she seems to be maintaining a solid path. I don`t think the video strikes me as, oh my God, she`s gone off the deep end.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m not so worried about the Miley. The fact she grew up in a showbiz family, her father famous in his own right, not just some manager trying to capitalize off his kid but been down the road of fame and knows the pitfalls and he has said publicly, if my daughter starts getting into weird behavior, I`m pulling her off the stage.
I wonder how it is that Professor Hill is so "freaked out" by a 15-year old star's professed love for Christ when, for example, he grants space on his own website's blog to convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, in which he recently wrote that the [publicized] comments of Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, represented merely a "quasi-controversy." Or how Hill is "freaked out" by Cyrus but believes that Jeremiah Wright is an example of a "prophetic preacher," and that he "doesn't know" whether Louis Farrakhan is a racist and anti-Semite.
The mind boggles.
(h/t to NB reader "Barker.")
