In her 2020 book Strange Rites, Tara Isabella Burton examined how an "eclectic spiritual hunger" is expressed in American society.

"People are finding the tenets or the building blocks of religious life [by] remixing religion," she said, referring to "the idea that you can get your ritual from Place A and your sense of meaning from Place B, your sense of community from Place C, and you can mix and match a little bit of yoga here, a little of sage cleansing there and still show up to church for Christmas Eve." Read more

She never once suspected that she was being scammed, as she believed she was a "chosen of the Virgin" long before the call from God.

Between 2013 and 2019, the woman deposited her entire savings in a small drawer at a local convenience store operated by a man who is now accused of scamming her. After she depleted her savings, she took out two bank loans to appease God. Read more

The video, called The Next Day, depicts French star Marion Cotillard as a dancing girl who bleeds from stigmata marks on her palms while Bowie plays a Jesus-like figure in robes fronting his band in a seedy basement bar.

"I doubt that Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery — I very much doubt it," said former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.

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