Pop superstar Katy Perry, who was raised Christian but departed the faith, credits God’s help in overcoming depression, according to her latest album and press interviews.
Perry, 30, who was raised by parents who were Pentecostal ministers and whose first album was a gospel music release, had apparently left Christianity behind by the time of her short-lived 2010 marriage to comedian Russell Brand. The nuptials, according to a Times of India report, were “a lavish Hindu wedding held in Rajasthan” and the couple “have become devout worshippers of Lord Ganesha,” a Hindu deity.
The couple separated in 2011 and divorced in 2012. The failure of her marriage left Perry depressed, and today she credits God for keeping her going.
“Then there’s ’By the Grace of God,’ which is the first song that I wrote coming to make this record, when I was in a different place, I was in a darker place,” Perry told Australian TV host Rove McManus last week during the start of a tour there, according to The Christian Post.
According to London’s Daily Mail, Perry confessed to McManus that she had thoughts of suicide, but never acted on them: “Sometimes you can be blinded by your extreme emotion,” the paper quoted Perry as saying. “It was sad and there were thoughts, but there were never actions, thankfully.”
The Christian Post report quotes lyrics from the song: “By the grace of God (there was no other way) / I picked myself back up (I knew I had to stay) / I put one foot in front of the other and I / Looked in the mirror and decided to stay/Wasn’t gonna let love take me out / That way.”
While Perry acknowledges “the grace of God” in being able to recover from her marriage’s breakup, the song isn’t the first time she’s discussed her current beliefs. In December 2013, Perry told Marie Claire magazine, “I don’t believe in a heaven or a hell or an old man sitting on a throne. … I’m not Buddhist, I’m not Hindu, I’m not Christian, but I still feel like I have a deep connection with God.”
As for Perry’s parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, who were on the pastoral staff of Church on the Rise in Westlake, Ohio, when their daughter’s marriage collapsed, they continued to support her even while disagreeing spiritually.
“I love my daughter and I will always love her. Stop being judgmental and critical. Do not close the doors to your loved ones, especially your children,” Keith Hudson said in December 2012, according to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. “Just because they do not like what you do or what you are, they are still praying that you stay in the race. They are counting on you.”
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