Editing Prince (musician) (section)

===Religious beliefs===
Prince was an observant religious person from childhood and throughout his life. An abiding love of God and Jesus were recurring themes in his work, often closely intertwined with romance, sexuality and sensuality on songs such as "I Would Die 4 U" and albums such as ''Lovesexy''. In March 2016, while discussing his childhood during a show in [[Oakland]], he told the audience: 
{{Blockquote|I wanted to be like my father and I loved everything he loved — my mother, the Bible, and music.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Walters |first1=Barry |title=Prince Channels Liberace at Tour Kick-Off in Oakland |url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1038-prince-channels-liberace-at-tour-kickoff-in-oakland/ |access-date=21 January 2024 |work=Pitchfork |date=29 February 2016}}</ref>}}

A complete recitation of [[The Lord's Prayer]] featured in the full-length album version of his 1981 hit "Controversy." His 1984 track "Darling Nikki", while dealing with explicit subject matter involving an encounter with a sex worker, contained the following backward message: "Hello, how are you?/Fine, fine, ’cause I know that the Lord is coming soon/Coming, coming soon." That same year, he released a B-side simply entitled "God."

Prince became a [[Jehovah's Witnesses|Jehovah's Witness]] in 2001 as a result of his friendship with bassist [[Larry Graham]]. He did not consider it a conversion but a "realization", comparing his connection with Graham to [[Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus]] and [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo]] in the film ''[[The Matrix]]''. He attended meetings at a local [[Kingdom Hall]] and occasionally knocked on people's doors to discuss his faith.<ref>{{cite magazine| last = Hoffman | first = Claire | title = Soup With Prince | magazine=The New Yorker |date = November 24, 2008| url=https://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_hoffman|access-date=May 5, 2016}}</ref><ref name="wsjhagertyaudi">{{cite news|last1=Hagerty|first1=James R.|last2=Audi|first2=Tamara|title=Prince's Little-Known Life|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/princes-little-known-life-1461542745|access-date=April 27, 2016|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=April 24, 2016}}</ref> His newfound faith would also heavily influence his 2001 album ''The Rainbow Children''. The CD edition of his 2003 instrumental album ''N.E.W.S'' contained an [[Adobe Flash]] file that slowly display the words "He Causes 2 Become" when the disc was inserted into a computer, being a reference to the name of [[Jehovah]] in Witness theology.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Divine Name in the Hebrew Scriptures |url=https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/appendix-a/tetragrammaton-divine-name/ |website=JW.org |access-date=23 January 2024}}</ref>

Shortly after he became a Witness, former bandmates Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman reached out to him for a potential reunion of their 1980s band the Revolution. Melvoin claims he declined due to her [[lesbian]] and [[Jewish]] identities, then asked her to hold a press conference in which she would disavow homosexuality and become a Jehovah's Witness herself. She resigned herself to never hearing from him again.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hoffman |first1=Claire |title=Prince's Life as a Jehovah's Witness: His Complicated and Ever-Evolving Faith |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/features/prince-jehovahs-witness-life-7348538/ |access-date=23 January 2024 |magazine=Billboard |date=28 April 2016}}</ref> However, Prince later reunited with Melvoin in 2004 to perform a stripped-back acoustic version of the song "Reflection" on the Tavis Smiley Tonight Show<ref>{{cite web |title=Prince and Wendy reunite for TV |url=https://goldiesparade.co.uk/prince-and-wendy-reunite-on-tv/ |website=Goldies Parade |date=February 20, 2004 |access-date=23 January 2024}}</ref> and subsequently performed "Purple Rain" with her and Coleman at the [[Brit Awards 2006]]. Anti-[[gay marriage]] comments were attributed to him in 2008 but later denied by his management<ref>{{cite news |last1=Elan |first1=Priya |title=Can Prince really be anti-gay marriage? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/nov/20/prince-gay-marriage |access-date=23 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=20 November 2008}}</ref> and walked back by him personally, as he later stated, "I have friends who are gay, and we study the Bible together."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Powers |first1=Ann |title=My Night with Prince |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-jan-11-ca-prince11-story.html |access-date=23 January 2024 |newspaper=LA Times |date=11 January 2009}}</ref> Despite his ambiguous, contradictory and evolving personal convictions throughout his lifetime, Prince is often considered a [[queer icon]] by his fans for his influence on music, fashion and culture in a manner infused with religious themes.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kornhaber |first1=Spencer |title=Prince: Gay Icon, Whether He Wanted to Be or Not |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/prince-gay-homophobia-conservative-liberal-progress/479502/ |access-date=23 January 2024 |work=The Atlantic |date=22 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Reiss |title=Years after his death, Prince's queer legacy and influence on LGBTQ+ culture is as muddled as ever |url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/04/21/prince-gay-lgbt-ally-legacy/ |access-date=26 January 2024 |work=Pink News |date=21 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Reynolds |first1=Chelsea |title=I'm a gender and sexuality scholar. Here's how the media blew it on Prince. |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/4/24/11495344/prince-queer-theory |access-date=26 January 2024 |work=Vox |date=24 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Nathan |title=The Queer Legacy of Prince |url=https://www.out.com/music/2016/4/22/queer-legacy-prince |access-date=26 January 2024 |work=Out |date=7 June 2016}}</ref>

García said of Prince's religious beliefs: "He was always a spiritual seeker ... fascinated in all possibilities to integrate the [[Astrological sign|signs of the zodiac]] and [[third eye]] and [[reincarnation]] into the Christian beliefs his [[Baptists|Baptist]] mother and Seventh-day Adventist father had exposed him to."<ref>{{cite book|last=Vogel|first=Joseph|author-link=Joseph Vogel (author)|date=2019|title=This Thing Called Life: Prince, Race, Sex, Religion, and Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nl9LDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|edition=Reprint|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]]|page=150|isbn=978-1-5013-3398-9}}</ref> At the time of his passing, Prince's display picture on [[Twitter]] was an illustration of him with both eyes closed and a third eye on his forehead open.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lopez |first1=Napier |title=Prince's Twitter icon has become an instant tribute to the late artist |url=https://thenextweb.com/news/princes-twitter-honors-passing |access-date=23 January 2024 |work=The Next Web |date=21 April 2016}}</ref>