Chloe Govan - Katy Perry

T hanks go to interviewees Printz Board, Russ Breimeier, Mike Caffrey, Agatha Carubia, Mandy Collinger-Parsons, Rich Davis, DeWayne Hamby, David Henley, Nathan Kreitzer, Adam LaClave, Mark Moring, Jill Sobule, Carol Thomas, John J. Thompson, Matthew Turner, Brian White, Philip Von Wrede and all the additional, anonymous interviewees who participated.

Chapter 1

I ts no easy feat winning over a deeply repressed, devoutly religious Christian audience in the heart of Americas Bible belt - least of all for a scantily clad preachers daughter tottering on the stage in four- inch high stilettos and clutching a lipstick-shaped inflatable phallus. Yet Katy was a woman willing to take on the challenge - and she wasnt nearly finished yet. As waves of shock rippled through the audience, she briefly but passionately locked lips with a female member of the crowd for good measure. Alongside the occasional boo were deafening roars of approval. Katy was breaking down societys last taboos and all with a deceptively innocent smile - she had kissed a girl and shed loved it. To more conservative viewers, the scene was unspeakably shocking, but for Katy it was just another day in her life on the stage.

From a shy teenage tomboy whod never heard chart music and lived in baggy sweaters to a flirtatious glamour puss penning songs that had pastors everywhere shaking their heads in righteous indignation, Katy had made quite a transformation. Yet where had it all begun?

Katy was born to Mary Perry, a mixed-race globetrotter of German and Portuguese descent, and husband Keith Hudson, an all-American Memphis-born preacher, on October 25, 1984, and christened Kathryn Elizabeth. The one thing both her parents had in common was a commitment to a devout religious lifestyle - and that was a priority they passed on to Katy. From the very beginning, her life was one of rules, boundaries and restrictions. I knew about Hell from the moment I understood a sentence, she told Rolling Stone I had fuzzy felt boards with Satan and people gnashing their teeth. In her early years, MTV and even VH1 were permanently blocked from the family TV set to protect Katy from catching a glimpse of dirty dancing. Secular music and movies were banned for their atheist outlook and she was even forbidden from eating processed sugar.

My religious upbringing was comically strict - even the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner was banned, Katy later revealed to Rolling Stone. In our house, no-one was allowed to refer to devilled eggs. We had to call them angelic eggs. We were never allowed to swear. Id get into trouble just for saying Hell, no! If you dropped a hammer on your toe in our house, you had to say something like Jiminy Christmas.

She continued: I wasnt ever able to say I was lucky because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed and she also didnt like that lucky sounded like Lucifer. I wasnt allowed to eat Lucky Charms, but I think that was the sugar. I think my mom lied to me about that one.

Talking of how her parents had censored all non-Christian influences, Katy told CBS News: You know, there was a movie called Jesus Camp and I watched it and I was like Oh my God! I didnt know they had behind the scenes footage of my childhood!

Jesus Camp was a 2006 documentary that lifted the lid on the controversial world of a childrens strict Christian summer camp in North Dakota. According to the founders of the camp, their aim was to train young children as young as five as miniature warriors for Gods army and to encourage them to take America back for Christ.

In the film, founder Becky Fischer warns a group of terrified children that if mythical storybook wizard Harry Potter had existed in Biblical times, he would have been put to death. Meanwhile, another scene sees youngsters reprimanded with the words, A lot of you say youre Christians but how many of you are leading separate lives? The pastor then invites the increasingly hysterical group of pre-teen children to clean up their act while she pours a bottle of water into their outstretched hands to purge their sins.

Children were filmed sobbing in repentance, begging for forgiveness and even joining anti-abortion campaigns with red Sellotape depicting the word Life sealing their mouths shut. Later, the same children were encouraged to take a hammer and smash cups emblazoned with the word Government - an institution the camp is allegedly trying to overthrow.

According to Fischer, democracy is undesirable as it gives non-believers and sinners equal freedom. Dancing was forbidden at the camp and even ghost stories were denounced as dishonourable to God. Was the camp craving a Christian jihad, a full-scale religious war?

The motivation of the groups leaders was to overthrow the government and outwit the enemy, Islam. America responded with indignation and outrage. The Richard Dawkins Foundation posted a ridiculing critique on its website, entitled Surviving Jesus Camp. It raged Forget Texas Chainsaw Massacre - if youre looking for a horror movie, Fischer is enough to scare the crap out of you, this woman who would get off by putting a made-up kid wizard to the stake No point voting on gay rights, when the Bible says its bad, no point voting on abortion when the Bible says its murder. The Bible, not democracy, has all the answers. This is sharia law by another name - and whatever your views on these issues, it is scary.

One blogger concurred, In this moment, we see not only the power behind religions throne but the roots of Nazism, Soviet enslavement and terrorism. Imagine being in kindergarten and hearing that you are vile and need to confess your sins to the Lord!

Meanwhile another raged, If there is one thing which Jesus Camp reveals, it is the extent to which some adults will rob children of a normal childhood in order to foster their own politico-religious agenda. The children in this film are not being inculcated with moral and spiritual values - they are being manipulated into quasi-religious hysteria. This isnt faith - its hypnosis.

The camp stood accused of rewriting stories of the Big Bang with creationist theories, and using Gods words to teach everything from moral studies to geometry. Some Christian websites defended the documentary, calling it powerful, profound and inspiring. Yet to many, it was a sinister cult that controlled children by brainwashing them with a guilt they were too young to understand. Meanwhile for Katy, some of the scenes were just a part of everyday life.

She shared the uncertainty of a 10-year-old at the camp who adored Christian music but was fearful of her urge to dance, not for God but for the flesh - the sheer enjoyment of it. The girl earnestly informs others at the camp that the desire to dance can be overcome with effort and concentration.

Katy too was encouraged to listen exclusively to religious songs and was told that secular tunes were the devils music. Obvious candidates such as Madonna, who had prostrated herself on a cross, were banned from the house but even seemingly innocent boy bands such as New Kids On The Block were on the reject list. I was raised in a very pseudo-religious household where the only thing on the menu was gospel standards like Oh Happy Day, His Eye Is On The Sparrow and Amazing Grace - all eight verses of it, Katy chuckled to MTV.

Yet somehow Katy found access to the occasional illicit pop tune - and, what was more, she lacked the discipline of the young girl on the documentary. She confessed to Prefix magazine, Jagged Little Pill [by Alanis Morissette] was huge for me. One of the vivid memories of my childhood is swinging on the swing set singing Ironic at the top of my lungs. I went to a Christian school, so I got into a little trouble for that one!