From Tom Cruise to Courtney Love, there have been some big-name celebs involved with Scientology. Could the ‘God Is a Woman’ singer, Ariana Grande, be involved in the religion?
Ariana Grande is not a Scientologist. The ‘Thank U Next’ singer was raised under the Catholic faith. However, in 2013 she left the Catholic Church because of its stance on homosexuality. Her brother had come out and she wanted to show support for him. Soon after, she found the Kabbalah Centre and began to practice under this faith.
You can read more below about Ariana Grande’s life as a Catholic, her move from Catholicism, and what the Kabbalah Centre followers practice.
Ariana Grande Was Born Roman Catholic
If you didn’t know, Ariana Grande’s family background is Italian. So, it should come as no surprise that she was born into a family that practiced the Roman Catholic form of Christianity.
For the people who don’t know much about the Christian faith, there are quite a few different denominations (groups) within the religion.
There are two main Western forms: Roman Catholic and Protestant; then there are the Eastern forms like Eastern Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. Finally, there are the nontrinitarian sects like Jehovah’s Witness and Latter-Day Saint.
The Roman Catholic denomination has its leader, the Pope, and follows Canon Law. It was the directives from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church that Ariana Grande eventually disagreed with.
Growing up though, Grande would have attended Mass on either Sunday or Saturday evening. She may have participated in confession and Hail Mary’s. However, she has never been fully open about how strict of a Catholic she was.
Due to the fact that she was a star on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and was pursuing other acting ventures before that, she probably didn’t have much time to practice her faith.
However, she did eventually leave her Catholic upbringing because of its stance on a lot of different areas.
Grande Moves Away from Catholicism
It was in 2013 that Ariana Grande announced to the world that she had left behind her Roman Catholic faith for a more accepting religion. She spoke about leaving Catholicism with Metro (reported by The Daily Mail).
She said that “I was born Roman Catholic but I lost faith when the Pope decided to tell me everything I loved and believed in was wrong.”
Ariana Grande elaborated that the Catholic Church, more specifically Pope Benedict XVI, said that Spongebob Squarepants would burn in hell because he was gay, that reading Harry Potter was a sin, and the ban on female priests.
On top of all of that, her older brother Frankie Grande had come out as gay and the Catholic Church’s stance on that was that he was not loved by God and would go to hell. Ari couldn’t stand to support this view so she and Frankie looked for a new religion.
She told the Sunday Telegraph (reported by RTT News) “When my brother was told that God didn’t love him I was like, ‘OK, that’s not cool.’ They were building a Kabbalah Centre in Florida so we both checked it out and really had a connection with it.”
You can learn more about Kabbalah in the below video from Unpacked.
What is the Kabbalah Centre?
Arianna Grande is not the first celebrity to convert to Kabbalah, nor will she be the last. Other followers of Kabbalah have been Madonna, Marla Maples, Ashton Kutcher, and Demi Moore.
While Kabbalah is known as Jewish Mysticism, a big distinction should be made between that and the Kabbalah Centre that Ariana Grande spoke of above. The Kabbalah that the ‘7 Rings’ singer follows is not considered part of the Jewish faith at all.
The founder of the Kabbalah Centre is Rabbi Philip Berg who, as this article by Vice explains, found the teachings of the Kabbalah while on a trip to Israel. He began teaching classes soon thereafter.
Berg wanted to make the sacred teachings accessible to people outside of Judaism. However, it is speculated that what he teaches is not from the Kabbalah at all because it is a heavily guarded spiritual secret within Judaism.
The Rabi’s that Berg claimed to practice under have denounced him. Either way, this has not stopped Ariana Grande from joining the faith that is known for accepting all.
Kabbalah Centre’s base belief is that humanity has a huge potential for greatness and that through this practice one can be guided through their spiritual and physical humanity. All forms of pain and suffering can be removed from their lives.