Ciara found herself the recipient of backlash over the weekend, after appearing to suggest women should carry themselves a certain way in order to find a husband.
Ciara found herself the recipient of backlash over the weekend, after appearing to suggest that women should carry themselves a certain way in order to find a husband.
The 32-year-old singer shared a clip on Instagram of a sermon by pastor John Gray, with the words "too many women want to be married but you're walking in the spirit of girlfriend."
In the clip, Gray also says, "You're not a wife when I marry you, you're a wife when I find you. ... You become my wife when I marry you, but a wife is not the presence of a ring, it's the presence of your character.... Carry yourself like you're already taken and I promise you, when you carry yourself like a wife, your husband will find you."
Ciara shared the post with the caption, "#LevelUp. Don't settle."
Not surprisingly, the post generated plenty of comments, not all of them positive.
"I'm not a 'wife.' I'm a person," one user wrote. "I am no-one's belonging. I'm not looking to have another person belong to me. If I fall in love with someone, great. If not, great. But I'd rather be complete within myself. That's the highest level."
"When are the men causing all the single mothers out there.. going to take responsibility for their actions," another user wrote. "There are men that have to #levelup. This is what happens when people find church not religion and then want to preach this BS. If your pastor is rich from preaching then already I smell a rat. I'm tired of church brainwashing people to talk all sorts of bs."
Ciara responded to the backlash on Sunday and got personal about her own love life. The singer was previously engaged to rapper Future, whom she shares 3-year-old son Future Zahir with, though they split not so amicably in 2014. She is now married to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and she gave birth to their daughter, Sienna, last April.
“I was once that girl wanting to be loved a certain way but was making the wrong choices," Ciara wrote. "I found myself at my lowest moment. I was a single mom sitting at home, and then I realized that the perfect love I was looking for was how God loves me, how He wants me to be loved, and who He was calling me to be as a mom and a woman.”
“That’s when I realized married or not married… I needed to love myself," she continued, adding: "#LevelUp.”
ET spoke with Ciara last month, when she gushed over the "special love" she shares with 29-year-old Wilson.
Watch below:
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