10 Utterly Outrageous Music Videos That Caused Major Controversy

2. Like A Prayer - Madonna

Another to chalk into the crucifixion/blasphemy column, this one. Back in the days before Madonna became a wiry cougar with a penchant for wearing too little, she was a sex-pot with a penchant for provocation, and the video for "Like A Prayer" ranks up there with her infamous "Sex" book as her finest moments of controversy. Madonna was raised a Catholic but appears to have spent most of her life attempting to upset the religion's leaders. And back in 1989, Catholic leaders condemned the video for "Like a Prayer" as blasphemy, thanks to its depiction of burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus (which in itself caused far too much controversy based on the actor's ethnicity.) This wasn't the last time she'd come under scrutiny from the God-lovers, as in 2004, a Vatican group warned that her devotion to Kabbalah, a mystical form of Judaism, was a potential threat to the Roman Catholic faithful, and then in 2006, they got upset again when she featured a mock-crucifixion in a tour that played perilously close to the Vatican.