An Open Letter to Miley Cyrus

Miley, I’m writing this letter to you on the slight chance you’ll read it.

If you don’t, many others will, and some of them will begin to pray for you daily.

Some of your followers might also read it, and perhaps something in this letter will speak to them.

But I write to you for one reason only: I care about your soul. Despite your riches and your fame, your life is a shell of what God intends it to be.

Please forgive me, though, if I’m not super familiar with your work. My daughters are in their late 30s, so I missed your Hannah Montana days. And you can understand that your more recent career does not really intersect with my tastes.

Still, you have a way of being in the news, whether it’s the latest interview in which you said you were “gender-neutral” or a previous interview where you declared yourself “pansexual.”

Either way, a few things have become clear to me.

You seem to have a real heart for the underdog, for the outcast, for the marginalized. Perhaps that’s part of your Christian upbringing? Could it be that you care for these people because Jesus cares for them too?

It’s also clear that, as you’ve come of age, you’ve run far from your upbringing. Are you sure you’re on the right path? When you fall asleep at night, is there a deep sense of peace and security?

Just think back 10 years, when you were 14 years-old. Were you reading the Bible daily and praying? If so, did you find life in the words you were reading? Did you connect with God when you prayed?

Looking back, if you ever felt you genuinely knew the Lord—I mean, knew Him as a beloved child of the Father—have drugs and sex and fame replaced the relationship you once had?

And ask yourself this: If the Miley of 14 could have seen the Miley of 24, would she have been proud or ashamed?

Again, I don’t know you at all today, and I certainly didn’t know you back then. But if purity once mattered to you, was it worth throwing away? And just how far will you go in pursuit of fleshly extremes? What’s next on your list of ways to shock and titillate your followers?

You can multiply purity over and over again, and you end up with purity. It’s the same with love. Multiply it endlessly, and you have endless love.

It’s the opposite with fleshly vices. Multiply immorality and you have every kind of perversion. Multiply drug use and you have death.

God’s ways are ways of life, and the path you’re on is the path to death.

You might say, “I had your religion, and I don’t want it anymore. Been there, done that, for good.”

Perhaps what you had was human tradition? Perhaps what you had was a bunch of religious rules?

That’s why I asked if you ever had a relationship with the Lord. He changes us from the inside out. Unfortunately, many people get inoculated by dead religion, confusing that with really knowing Him. Did that happen to you?

Even though I’m a public figure, I’m a small fry in comparison and can’t imagine the spotlight you’re under. I also can’t relate to the need to be in the spotlight all the time. Is that why you say and do some of things you do?

When you say you’re gender-neutral, is it to make a headline or to identify with people you love? Or are you deeply confused about your gender identity? Honestly and truly? If so, where did that confusion come from, your own heart or your surroundings?

And when you announce that you’re pansexual, is that for a headline too, or do you genuinely welcome all kinds of sex, as long as it’s consensual? If you really believe that virtually anything goes, do you think you’ll feel good about this later in life? Do you think you’d want your kids to follow your example? Do you ever wish that you had saved yourself for marriage? Do you feel good that other, impressionable young girls will be following your example?

As a teenager, I was a long-haired, hippie rock drummer, called “Drug Bear” and “Iron Man” because I was such a heavy drug user. Rock music and drugs were my life, and our band’s most popular song was called “Dance of the Mushroom Man.”

I went to every rock concert I could. I saw Hendrix twice. I saw the Doors, Janis Joplin, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Jefferson Airplane and more, some of them multiple times. I couldn’t imagine life without drugs and rock music.

But when I encountered the love of God in a little gospel-preaching church in 1971, I was radically transformed. I became deeply aware of my sins. I became deeply aware of what Jesus did for me, dying on the cross to pay for what I had done. And I experienced the joy of the Lord, something so out of this world and euphoric that I told the Lord I’d never put a needle in my arm again. And that was the end of the story—really, the beginning of a whole new life.

Did you ever experience that love when you were a girl? Did you ever experience the joy of the Lord? Did you ever experience the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin?

Perhaps the Spirit is at work in your heart again today. Perhaps God is calling you back, saying, “Miley, do you remember?”

He’s ready to receive you if you will turn to Him with all your heart and all your soul. He’ll make you pure again. {eoa}