I am all for musicians and civilians alike to take a stand against something they believe is wrong. I would encourage celebrities to use their status to make the masses aware of certain situations that need more attention. However, when the result of doing so is pissing off every Catholic on Earth, it might be better to handle it a little differently.
Sinead O’Connor earned rebel status on this site for her infamous appearance on Saturday Night Live back in 1992. If you don’t know what happened on that night, let me briefly summarize. Sinead gave a performance in which she sung Bob Marley’s song War. She was singing it not about racism, as the original version of the song did, but instead about child abuse, which at the time was a disturbing ordeal involving the Catholic Church. This might not have brought such controversy, except it was followed by Sinead ripping a photograph of the Pope (then Pope John Paul II) in front of the live camera while singing the word “evil”. I had to download music to familiarize myself with both versions of the song
If ever anyone deserved the title rebel for one action in their entire career, I think this is it. YES, what was going on was wrong and heinous, but I am not sure ripping up a picture of the highest authority in the entire Catholic religion while on live national television is wise for anyone concerned about their reputation, let alone a celebrity.
More rebellious yet, when asked about the incident years later, Sinead reportedly has no regrets about the incident and would not change anything that she did during that broadcast. R-E-B-E-L.
Sinead took such a stand against the church at the time because she herself was a victim of child abuse growing up along with other family issues. She used her celebrity figure to speak out against something that was wrong, and I hold her in the highest regard for that. Not many artists have the courage to do that.