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With NBC being pulled from all sides over the crucifixion number in their upcoming broadcast of Madonna's Confessions Tour—the Catholic League on one side urging the network not to air what they interpret to be a reckless act of blasphemy, the Official Madonna Fan Club on the other insisting the entire disco-torture sequence would fall apart without it—Madonna has finally spoken out on her exact intentions:

"This is not a mocking of the church. It is no different than a person wearing a Cross or 'Taking Up the Cross' as it says in the Bible. My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole. I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing."

At least she stopped short of entering the Beatleseque territory of bragging that her crucifixion managed to out-fierce Jesus's own: Yes, plain ol' wood and nails could never compete with reflective mirrored-tiles and state-of-the-art lighting and digital projections, but there's no need to gloat about it. Instead, she took that old cliché—"What would Jesus do?"—and went the extra step of actually doing it, a theme she returns to repeatedly throughout the evening, such as when she enacts the Son of Man's millenia-old wishes to don S&M-flavored bridle gear while humping a pole-mounted saddle.