she left the church as a teenager over its position on gay people, and the reason was her brother. the rest follows from that.
the short answer
she was raised roman catholic and has practised kabbalah since her teens. she has said she left the church over its stated positions on homosexuality and on women, specifically because her brother frankie is gay, and that she and frankie found kabbalah together through a centre near where they grew up in florida. practising kabbalah does not make somebody jewish, and she has never said she is.
what she has actually said
the account she has given, more than once and consistently, has two parts. the first is the leaving: she has said she moved away from catholicism as a teenager after remarks by pope benedict about gay people, and that the deciding factor was her brother frankie, who is gay — her position being that she was not going to belong to something that did not want him.
the second is the arriving. a kabbalah centre was opening near where the family lived in florida, she and frankie went to look at it together, and both stayed. she has credited what she learned there with a great deal of how the last decade has gone, and she describes the core of it in ordinary terms: that being decent to people has consequences that come back to you.
what kabbalah is, briefly
kabbalah is a tradition of jewish mysticism, centuries old, concerned with the nature of creation and with the practical business of living well. what she practises is the modern, non-denominational form taught by the kabbalah centre organisation, which is open to people of any background and is why the answer to the follow-up question is what it is: studying it does not make somebody jewish, and she has never claimed to be.
where it shows up in the work
less than people look for, and more than she says. the songs are not devotional and she has never made religious music. but the recurring preoccupations of the catalogue — that pain is not wasted, that you are responsible for what you send out, that the work is to get through rather than to be avenged — are considerably closer to what she describes learning than to anything else in pop, and they are as present on sweetener as anywhere.
one place it is explicit rather than implied: god is a woman, which is not about her religion but is unmistakably about a religious frame being turned to a different use.
what gets asserted and is not true
- that she converted to judaism. she has not said this. the kabbalah centre's teaching is open to non-jews and that is the arrangement she has described.
- that she is no longer religious. she has not said this either. she has spoken about kabbalah as a current practice, most recently in interviews around the wicked years.
- that she rejected catholicism over doctrine in the abstract. her stated reason is specific and personal, and she has named it: her brother.
questions people ask
what religion is ariana grande?
she was raised roman catholic and has practised kabbalah since her teens.
is ariana grande jewish?
she has never said she is. the modern kabbalah centre teaching she follows is open to people of any background, and studying it does not make somebody jewish.
why did ariana grande leave the catholic church?
she has said it was over the church's stated positions on gay people and on women, and that the deciding factor was her brother frankie, who is gay.
what is the red string ariana grande wears?
a kabbalah centre practice — a thin red bracelet worn as protection.