Scholars and academics have offered different interpretations of the music video and its story line . Allen Metz , one of the authors of '' The Madonna Companion : Two Decades of Commentary '' , noted that when Madonna enters the church at the beginning of the clip , the line " I hear you call my name , And it feels like ... . Home " is played . The women of Italian East Harlem in New York call their Church as '' la casa di momma '' ( Momma 's House ) . In that respect , Metz believed that Madonna alluded herself to be one from Harlem , but also refers herself as divinity returning to the Church . This divine aspect is further explored by Nicholas B. Dirks , author of '' Culture/power/history '' , who argued that Madonna falling into a dream is the most important point of the narrative as it signified that " Madonna is really not putting herself in place of the redeemer , but imagining herself as one . " Santiago Fouz-Hernández wrote in his book , '' Madonna 's Drowned Worlds '' , that the Black woman who catches Madonna when she is falling through heaven in her dream , is a symbol for the divinity , as she helps Madonna throughout the video to come to the correct decision . Fouz-Hernández explained how the physical similarity between Madonna and woman indicated that it was actually Madonna 's inner divinity which was rescuing her . When the singer accidentally cuts her hand on the dagger , it was described as receiving stigmata by scholar Robert McQueen Grant , who believed that the scene marked Madonna as having an important role to play in the narrative . This was evident when the crime scene is shown in detail , and an identification is established between Madonna and the victim . Freya Jarman-Ivens , coauthor with Fouz-Hernández , noted that the woman cries out for help when Madonna sings the line " When you call my name , It 's like a little prayer " . However , Madonna could not do anything thus portraying failure of divinity to save . Jarman-Ivens also noted the look between the gang member and Madonna , which she thought was a complicity of " White men rape/kill women , white men blame it on Black men ; Women are raped/killed for being on the streets at night , Black men are nevertheless thrown in jail . " Other themes noted by Metz include the burning crosses scene , which he felt evoked the murder scene of three civil workers , portrayed in the 1988 American crime drama film '' Mississippi Burning '' . He also noted that when Madonna dances with the choir in the church altar , a young Black boy joins her . This was a reference to the only person who had protested against the Ku Klux Klan murders in '' Mississippi Burning '' , a Black man . For the author , it was symbolic of his protest being transferred in Madonna . Regarding the erotic scene between the saint and Madonna , Carol Benson observed that the " numerous cut-scenes of burning crosses , shocked face of Madonna , bleeding eye of the icon etc " made a point that multiple times in history , black men have been punished for kissing or desiring white women . Grant believed this was where the racial equality message of the video came across as most poignant . On the contrary , when the curtain falls and the scene shifts to a smiling Madonna among the burning crosses , professor Maury Dean felt that another explanation was inevitable . Madonna portrays a successful heroine and thus the whole video becomes about female empowerment
murder scene of three civil workers
Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
Like a Prayer (song)