Idols, Scandals, and the Bible

Having recently been sick and watching what seems like thousands of hours of TV, I somehow missed “sweeps week” and was stuck with “death-and-scandal week”. It seemed like I was endlessly watching the life of Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Michael Jackson, as well as the confession of Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carolina, and the ensuing commentary. It seemed like what hell may be like – hearing a voice telling you that you will be forced for the rest of your life to watch this kind of TV. It seemed like more than enough punishment for anyone’s sins.

I came across the following paragraph written by Martin Marty, who makes an observation about the death of Michael Jackson and the recent scandal of Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, which sums up my feeling better than I could:

Any phenomenologist looking in on the idol-worship upon the death of icon Michael Jackson would say that in this celebrity-adulation she has located our real religion. And we have only a line or four left for the most religiously-covered event of the week: the confessions of Governor Mark Sanford, who came back from one of history’s most publicized trysts to apologize for his “mistake” and to announce that he’s been rereading the Bible. He’s used the Bible for years in his political efforts to smash everyone who reads it differently than he does. Now it’s a more personal issue: He calls in King David, to identify with that lecher-of-old. What a week!—in “secular” America.

I guess most of us have our own way of interpreting the Bible, so that it agrees with what we think. Maybe it is just good to let the Bible address our lives, and let the chips fall where they may.