Katy Perry has opened up about her Christian upbringing and said she's continually attempting to drop the "conditioned layers" imposed on her by her pastor parents.
The 32-year-old pop star revealed to Vogue Magazine that her parents, both evangelical Christian pastors, "carefully sheltered her" throughout her young life.
"[My] house was church on Sunday morning, church on Sunday night, church on Wednesday evening; you don't celebrate Halloween, Jesus gives you your Christmas presents; we watch Bill O'Reilly on TV," she said. "That was my whole childhood and youth and early teens. I still have conditioned layers dropping off of me by the day."
The "I Kissed a Girl" singer claimed that her parents didn't allow her to "interact with gay people" and that there was "some generational racism."
"The schools were really makeshift," explained Perry to the fashion publication. "Education was not the first priority. My education started in my 20s, and there is so much to learn still."
Going by her real name "Katy Hudson," Perry released her first self-titled album as a contemporary Christian artist.
"Amy Grant was our Madonna," the singer told Vogue of her early years as a Gospel artist. "We knew about Madonna and Marilyn Manson in my family because we picketed their concerts."
However, she described how, after handing out pamphlets titled "How to Find God" at a Manson concert in Santa Barbara, she ended up watching the performance with her youth pastor. Two years after releasing her Christian album, Perry discovered the seventies group Queen and was mesmerized by the group's sexually provocative lead singer, Freddie Mercury.
"I had never heard such an imaginative explanation of how to live," she recalled. "That was my first perspective on that world, and I just loved it. I felt so free and accepted."
At 17, Perry moved to Los Angeles and branched out to secular music and was signed on to Capitol Music Group. Her debut as Katy Perry was an instant success and she has continued to advance her career.
As earlier reported, in the process of reestablishing herself as a pop star, Perry turned away from her religious views. "I don't believe in a heaven or a hell or an old man sitting on a throne," said Perry in an issue of Marie Claire. "I believe in a higher power bigger than me because that keeps me accountable."
The singer has also rejected the Conservative ways of her parents, and has become an activist for LGBT rights.
In a speech last month at the Human Rights Campaign gala, Perry recounted her experiences going to Christian camps that advocated for "praying the gay away": "Most of my unconscious adolescence, I prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps. But then in the middle of it all, in a twist of events, I found my gift and my gift introduced me to people outside of my bubble. My bubble started to burst," Perry added.
The popstar added that the LGBT people she met on her rise to fame "were the most free, strong, kind and inclusive people I have ever met. They stimulated my mind and they filled my heart with joy and they freaking danced all the while doing it.
"These people are actually magic, and they are magic because they are living their truth."
The popstar's rejection of her faith became evident in her overtly Satanic performance of "Dark Horse" at the 2014 Grammys, which prompted Christian singer Natalie Grant to leave the awards ceremony early.
Perry's parents have previously expressed sorrow over their daughter's decision to abandon her faith and promote a worldview that goes against Biblical instruction.
"They ask how can I preach if I produce a girl who sang about kissing another girl? I was at a concert of Katy's where there were 20,000. I'm watching this generation and they were going at it. It almost looked like church. I stood there and wept and kept on weeping and weeping," Katy's father, Keith Hudson said in a 2014 sermon. "They're loving and worshipping the wrong thing."
"Satan's assault on our youth is relentless, and they can't fight against it alone," Mary Hudson, Perry's mother, wrote in Charisma magazine. "Parents have to walk in their God-given authority-children can't be left to raise themselves."
