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Mr. Skeptical  

Posted by Ryan Woods

Take this blog for what it is. Don't read too much into it and try not to decide too much about my character based on this blog.
Yesterday I watched the American Idol Gives Back fund raising show. Pretty impressive. Lots of money was raised and will go to very important and worthy causes. Almost equally important is the awareness that it brings to our American culture. Last night people all around America were told by people that they revere as gods (aka, celebrities) that it is important to care about people in extreme poverty, people who are dying of AIDS and malaria, and people who are suffering due to Hurricane Katrina among other needs.
But here's my beef. It takes a lot of gall for some of those celebrities to get up there to challenge average middle class America to give their money to these causes. How can those people get up there and challenge us to raise millions of dollars when our average annual salary is around 40,000 while they're making that in one month. Kobe Bryant, who implored us to give, makes over 200,000 per game (that's not counting his endorsements), how much did Brad Pitt make last year? What, upwards of thirty plus million? If Brad chose to wear $75.00 dollar jeans instead of $300.00 ones that would be a good start. It's insulting. And, don't get me wrong, I love worship music, I even love the song Shout to the Lord, but talk about odd! Apperently some exectuive did a study and found that this would be an appropriate way to tug on some heart strings as one final push to get money donated. It just felt out of place, like if a worship song was sung at the half time of the super bowl. I mean, for me, it's not out of place, in that I think that taking care of those in need is what Jesus wants us to do and all that jazz. But when it comes on American Idol it just doesn't feel the same.

Ok, I'm glad I got that said. Again, I want to make clear that I'm cool with money being donated no matter who's asking for it when it goes to serve people who are starving and dying around the world. I honestly don't care if it takes a bunch of self righteous or smug millionares to motivate us as long as people are helped. And I'm sure that there are many famous people who do great things (if you really want to know somethign about rich sacrificial giving look no further than two of the NBA's tallest men in Dikembe Mutumbo and Manute Bol). And I'm cool with the whole word singing and hearing music that gives glory and honor to the God I love...But...I just felt like ranting...so there you go...

6 additions to the conversation

Yeah, I watched it too and was left with a weird feeling at the end as well. The cause was great and all, I just felt weird.

I will say this though; I think it is all a matter of perspective because to a person making less than $365 a year, people who make $40,000 are the self righteous, smug millionaires.

except for the fact that I'm not telling those poor people to give $100 to help others (which would be nearly a third of their income) while I refuse to give 13,000 which would be a third of my income. If I was doing that, then it would be at that point that maybe someone should attach some harsh adjectives to my name.

The "Shout to the Lord" song was odd for me because it just seemed incongruent with the theme of the evening. Here we are lamenting the pain and suffering of the world and we sing "Shout to the Lord"? It seemd just a bit triumphalistic to me. We have some good lament songs out there, why couldn't they pick one of those?

Secondly, my bet is that some of the Idol participants are not professing Christians (my apologies if I'm wrong). Is it ethical and fair to make someone who doesn't believe that Jesus is Lord say that he is? I agree...the whole thing was weird.

Ben.... in Hollywood, anything is possible.

I'm guessing that if anyone had a stink to raise about it (Poss the Australian? Maybe that's why he got kicked off)(oh no... i saw him sing. THAT is why he got kicked off) they prolly said something like... "Look dude/ lady.... you wanna make it in the business you do what I tell you. Now go get me a cheesesteak."
thankfully they were able to remember that most of their active watchers live in the southern, more religiously fanatic area of the US.
I bet The God Warrior LOVED that song...
Just like we all love her.

On one hand, I think God is in the business of making good things happen even when people have weird motives and misplaced intentions, and using them to His own glory. I don't think He requires us to have our acts together; it's just nice when OCCASIONALLY we are aligned with Him.
On the other hand, cynical or not, I too was creeped out by all the begging from the rich. And I certainly didn't get much of an impression that they managed to spend the 71 mil they collected last year.

Dad

(Is anyone else amused by Ben's triumphalistic concerns? 'Great word, dude!)

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I am uncertain what to call myself, but my family and I are committed to the people of downtown Vancouver, WA. We are followers of Christ and hope to be a part of a movement of hope, imagination, and transformation in our developing downtown community.

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