Just as moving vans pulled up to Katy Perry and Russell Brand’s Hollywood Hills home, Perry’s parents discussed their daughter’s impending divorce for the first time, from the pulpit of their evangelical ministry. During a worship service this week, the two said that they believed Perry’s split was God’s way of bringing people to church.
Mary and Keith Hudson saw an unusual surge in the crowd at their Church on the Rise in Westlake, Ohio, during the week following Brand’s filing for divorce from Perry after just 14 months of marriage. The Hudsons advertise being “Kate Perry’s Parents” on the roadside sign for their congregation. Perry’s given name is Katheryn Hudson.
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“I’m sure that Katy’s trending on the Internet was to get you here to church tonight,” Mary Hudson said from the pulpit, to a crowd of 300. “I mean all over the world, who knows how God is bringing them in? The most important thing is you are here and God wants to put the fire in you in 2012.”
Keith Hudson added, “What has taken place in my daughter’s life has opened many opportunities to go in and be with guarded and gated people. God has given us a platform to go in and meet people — and they like us because we are cool. We are not threatening.”
He furthered that the couple were not upset with their daughter for getting divorced, often frowned upon by their religion.
“I love my daughter and I will always love her,” Keith Hudson continued. “Stop being judgmental and critical. Do not close the doors to your loved ones, especially your children. Just because they do not like what you do or what you are, they are still praying that you stay in the race. They are counting on you.
“I believe in God, for every one of my children.”
In the past, Perry has spoken negatively about her Christian upbringing. The “Teenage Dream” singer told Vanity Fair in June that she wasn’t allowed to say “deviled eggs” or “Dirt Devil” in her home and also wasn’t allowed to read books beyond the Bible.
“I didn’t have a childhood,” Perry said. “I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up. Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree.”
Still, reports have said that Brand’s alleged mocking of Perry’s religion was one of the things that led to the couple’s demise.
A source close to Brand tells The Sun, “Russ was forever making lewd jokes at the dinner table and poking fun at her parents’ beliefs.”