Amid the media hysteria around the death of the King of Pop, one aspect of his life that will probably be overlooked in retrospectives is his religious formation. Until 1987, Jackson was a practising Jehovah’s Witness, which would have meant that the Bible was central to his outlook on life.

His career brought him into conflict with both the local elders in his congregation and even the movement’s international HQ. He was criticised by fellow Witnesses in 1984 for glorifying demonismduring the video of Thriller (Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that ghosts are really demons, not dead people). In response, he was quoted in one of the organisation’s periodicals, Awake!, as saying: “I realise now it was not a good idea. I’ll never do a video like that again.”

In an interview with Ebony magazine later that year, he stated his belief in the Bible, his desire to adhere to it and his frequent prayer. And as late as 2001, he was referring to the Bible as an authorityfor his interest in childlike humility.Declarations of faith in the Bible may not have put a stop to his outlandish behaviour, but his 1988 release Man in the Mirror was firmly based on the biblical passage of James 1:22-25. The song is about changing yourself before you try to change the world. Given Jackson’s troubled past, it’s fair to say that he saw himself as the Man in the Mirror – i.e. someone who knew his Bible, but who sometimes forgot to put it into practice.