A Life Divided?

July 9, 2009 at 3:16 pm (Popular Media, TV & the Media)
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I just watched Bill O’Reilly interview Rev. Al Sharpton on the issue of Sharpton’s remarks at Michael Jackson’s memorial service.

Bill O’Reilly and Al Sharpton video

A victim of my own curiosity, I watched part of the memorial service as it was broadcast live, and I did get to hear Al Sharpton’s speech.  During his remarks he directed this statement toward Jackson’s children: “Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy; it was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”

That comment caught me the moment he said it.  Opinions aside, isn’t this statement dishonest, at best? Nothing strange about Michael Jackson — seriously?

The O’Reilly interview got me to thinking: Why is it that people think life can be so easily compartmentalized to the point that what we do in one sphere has no bearing on another?  Al Sharpton essentially said in this interview that Michael Jackson’s success in entertainment should be viewed apart from his personal life.  But people aren’t pie charts and life isn’t a school lunch tray.  Benefit of the doubt is one thing, but are we not able to examine a person as a whole, integrating the good and the bad in an honest and healthy way?   If we were really honest with ourselves, we might realize that in life we don’t get graded just on our “best work.”

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“A little bit pregnant?”

August 20, 2008 at 2:44 am (Philosophy & Religion, Popular Media)
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I just watched a commercial for the First Response brand pregnancy test in which an actress starts by saying, “There is such a thing as ‘a little bit pregnant.’”  The point of the ad is apparently that this test detects pregnancy as early as possible.

I think everyone knows that either you are pregnant or you aren’t.  What is this ad trying to convey by saying otherwise?  Just how quickly does a woman really need to know that she’s pregnant?  What I take away from this commercial is a very subtle message that if you catch pregnancy early enough, at the “little bit” mark, you have more options — such as abortion.  If a woman is only just a little bit pregnant, is a fetus only just a little bit human?

Call me paranoid, but I find that this “little bit pregnant” premise leads too easily down this slippery slope.

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Golden Compass: What’s the big deal?

December 5, 2007 at 11:38 pm (Philosophy & Religion, Popular Media)
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The Golden Compass has added itself to the list of popular media releases that have enraged Christians. So what’s the big deal?

My sincere hope is that people realize that behind every movie, every TV show, every book, is a philosophy, a worldview. Intentionally or not, every storyteller is selling an agenda.

That’s because a story, especially one told visually, and particularly one told well, has a unique ability to imprint its underlying philosophy on the hearer. Stories sink into us deep down, and stick.

That’s why a movie isn’t just a movie, a book isn’t just a book. That’s why it’s important to care about movies like The Golden Compass and The Chronicles of Narnia. We have to realize that, for better or worse, movies aren’t abstract works of art that play out in a vacuum. I don’t necessarily want to support one movie or decry another because it agrees or disagrees with my own opinion, but because I recognize its greater effect.

In this case it’s about more than a C.S. Lewis-wannabe pretending not to be. It’s about what the children who see this movie are going to walk away with. Inevitably many parents are going to inflict on their kids what is at best a potential source of deep-seated confusion. Some don’t see it as such a big deal. But in reality it’s an insidious burden that is too big for our children to deal with.

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