Our Celebrity Culture

What is our world coming to? What has happened to us? We allow those who are famous, or make a lot of money, or are beautiful, or talented do whatever they want. Celebrities surround themselves with "yes" men who keep telling them how wonderful they are. It does not take long for a celebrity to lose touch with reality. They can quickly forget where they came from. It is a tragedy that is repeated over and over again on an almost weekly basis.

Celebrities feel as though they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want. They believe that there are no consequences for them because they are famous and have money. Too often this is true.

But the biggest problem with our celebrity culture is that when a celebrity get too big for his/her breeches and does something bad, we reward their behavior. Amy Winehouse wins a bunch of Grammys, Barry Bonds sets the home run record and Martha Stewart is on television every day.

We are, in essence, rewarding this bad behavior. What is wrong with them? WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

And it is not just in the movies and in music. Every walk of life can point to celebrities "gone wild."

• Now we have learned that a whole crop of seemingly heroic baseball players cheated. The great Roger Clemens, the best pitcher of our time (maybe of all- time), among others, used steroids and human growth hormone to get an advantage.
• Richard Robert, son of the legendary Oral Roberts and the head of his father's ministry, has mishandled funds and lost his job. Tragically, Roberts is not a rarity in the field of Christianity. Catholics have their abuse scandals, and protestants have financial and sexual scandals. (Currently six televangelists are under investigation by the US Senate.)
• Britney Spears has become a "scandal a day." It is almost tedious to even recount. The pop princess has lost her children, her family, and maybe her soul.

Gratefully, there is an answer. The world does not have to bow at the altar of the 21st Century celebrity culture. We do not have to pay attention to tabloids (on the news stand or on the television). We do not have to support those who are too arrogant to return to mainstream society. It is our world. There are more of us than there are of them.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The entertainment world continues to go crazy. There is no other way to describe what is going on. Britney Spears married an idiot back-up dancer and it turns out he is the better parent. She has lost custody of her children and made headlines for substance abuse problems once again. Having violated a court order, Britney's children seem to have no hope for a positive future at all. But she is not the most screwed up person in her family.

Although she has publicly stated that teen pregnancy is not a good idea, Britney's 16 year old sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, has announced that she is pregnant. Everyone seems surprised about this event. How could it happen? Jamie Lynn's boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, lives in Jamie Lynn's home. What are they thinking? What are her parents thinking?

There is one more news item that bears mentioning in this context. Amy Winehouse is a mess. There have been canceled concerts and tours. There have been arrests and public debacles including intoxication from various drinks, plants and pharmaceuticals. And yet we learn that she is still hoping to perform at the Grammy Awards this year (that is, if she can get a visa to get into the US).

All three of these young ladies- the oldest is Britney at 26- have had success in entertainment. They are hailed as great entertainers and personalities who shape the opinions of our younger generations. And there is the problem. A stint or two in rehab, an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, run-ins with the law are all dismissed as incidental to the all-important value of pop-culture.

Let's not kid ourselves. When we allow Britney and Jamie Lynn and Amy set our values for us, we are in big trouble. It is not acceptable to screw up your life. There are consequences when you make mistakes, so do not make mistakes. An unplanned pregnancy for an independently wealthy teen is less problematic from an economic standpoint than it would be for the average student at Eastside High School. But socially it is at least as devastating for that unborn child. If you have enough money, or friends in the right places, you may get out of legal jams, but it does not mean that it is alright.

Hit Me, Baby (One More Time)

Britney has done it again. I do not know how she can be more outrageous or more irrelevant. And yet, somehow she is. She has done it again. This week court records were released showing the spending of Britney Spears and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline. Their divorce is final, but these figures are needed to determine the ultimate custody of the couple's two children.

Britney makes a lot of money. Even though she is certainly past her heyday as a revenue-generating celebrity, Britney still brings home about $737,000 each month. Not bad for a has been. That is not the problem, though. The difficulty that Americans should have with Britney's life is not the amount of money that she makes, but what she does with her money.

She has all the normal expenses that everyone else does. She makes two mortgage payments each month that equal almost $50,000. She spends $16,000 each month on clothes. Her largest reported expense is entertainment, which costs the pop princess $102,000 every 30 days. Britney spends over $4,700 eating out each month.

There are three problems with Britney's spending:

1. Britney Spears spends more money on her clothes than she spends on her children. (Britney pays $15,000 each month in child support.) Now I am sure that there are out of pocket expenses that Britney has for the children when they are in her care, but she is certainly more committed to herself than to her children.
2. Britney gives about $500 each month to charity. Just so there is no misunderstanding, she gives about .06% of her income to charity. That is not 6%. It is .06%. To give it some context, if you were to give away .06% of $1000, you would be donating 60 cents.
3. The things that would make Britney a better person, education, savings, saving for her children's educations, do not appear in this report. That does not mean that she is saving and it is not reported here. There is no question about the fact. Britney is not saving. She is not planning for that future. She is not becoming a better person.

A wise man once said, 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6.21)' It is pretty apparent that Britney Spears' heart is all about Britney Spears.

for more information on Britney Spears financial disclosure refer to http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307492,00.html

Oops! We Did it Again

What is wrong with us? I mean we Americans? What are we thinking? Are we thinking? Here is the situation as I see it.

First of all, ten years ago Britney Spears became a superstar by singing a song that was too old for her (Hit me Baby, One More Time). The video became famous because although she was a teen-ager at the time (15??), she appeared to be very sexy. Her dress, her dance and her attitude were all very sexy. She was an overnight sensation. And against all odds, she seemed to maintain a 'good-girl' image, at least for awhile. There were a string of hits and television and video appearances that reinforced her position as pop star innocence with a naughty side. Songs like Oops, I Did It Again and Drive me Crazy reminded us of young love and sent teen and pre-teen girls into a frenzy. They bought the music, but unfortunately, they began to buy the image as well.

Then the wheels began to come off the cart. First there was the 24 hour marriage to her high school sweetheart, rumors of drug use and wild parties, and then the squeaky clean image was gone. By now Britney was an adult. And as we should have expected, she started to make adult mistakes. She married (her second marriage) one of her dancers. Everyone seemed puzzled by this. Then there was a reality series on MTV that focused on the sex lives of the pop star couple. Two children followed, and then all hell broke loose.

The couple broke up- which was unexpected by no one. Britney was spotted at parties, drinking, drugging and more. Pictures of Britney, always considered pretty, in various stages of immodest nakedness appeared all over the internet. But now it has all changed. Last week a judge ordered Britney to give her to children to her ex-husband. She has lost custodial rights with her children. And all of this happened before her 26th birthday.

But really, as sad as this story is, the worst part is still to come. Britney, who refuses to get help for her addictions, who has performed publicly in various stages of intoxication, and who has shaved her own head in an apparently substance-induced haze is still a star. Now, Britney's most recent record, Gimme More, has moved to number 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Last week, the same song, was the most downloaded song in America. It is Britney's biggest hit since Baby, One More Time.

The cynical side of me wonders if Britney has made the connection between her messed-up life and her record sales. I hope not. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if all of the scandal, the trouble and the heartbreak have been orchestrated to a marketing advantage for Britney's career. I hope not. The pessimist in me wonders if Britney has done all of this on purpose for the sake of rejuvenating her career. Again, I hope not.

I think that the story of Britney Spears' fall is a tragedy. We should all learn from her the lessons of stardom and the dangers of self-importance. But most of us will never be stars. We will never have hit songs. But a whole lot of us are buying Britney. We have done this to her. We are doing it to her by watching the Britney update on the television news every day. We are ruining her life by loving the tabloid newspaper and magazine coverage of her every mistake. And now we are making it worse. By buying her music, we are buying Britney Spears. And when we buy Britney's music we are sending the message that this is all okay.

I Feel Petty (or is it the rest of the world?)

I am pretty fed up with the so-called celebrity culture in our society. Things are seriously upside down when Britney Spears in rehab, American Idol contestants and Anna Nicole Smith's burial hearings make the evening news. Why do we care? What difference does any of that make to me? It is no wonder that we are on our way to hell in handbasket. I have to work hard to find out the latest news on the war in Iraq, but the latest on Paris Hilton and Linsday Lohan is everywhere.
Could it be that Miss USA and her sex and drinking problems are easier to think about and understand than what happens on Capitol Hill? If I get past the feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donell will I have to use my brain and make my own decisions?
Here is the truly difficult and scary part: When we get consumed with Entertainment Tonight and InTouch Magazine, we lose touch with real life. I do not believe that normal people get married and divorced in a few hours, or enter rehab routinely. It is my conviction that regular people, the ones I know anyway, are pretty boring. They do not have what it takes to get on Extra, or in the pages of People. In fact, they would be mortified if they ever found themselves there.
When I spend too much time and energy focused on celebrity gossip I begin to think that maybe I should leave my wife; perhaps drug use is not that bad; I think I will party all night, no matter what anyone else says or thinks. After all, if it is good enough for Brad and Angelina, why not me?
So here is a commitment and a challenge:

• I recognize that celebrity gossip has nothing to do with my life. Therefore, I am going to pay it no attention. I will turn off the television, radio, etc. if I cannot avoid the tabloid world.
• I am going to be purposeful in using my brain. It takes work to think, but I think that God gave me a brain for thinking. Celebrity scandal and gossip do not allow for that.
• I will try to affect change in those around me. I am going to help others see how ridiculous and potentially hurtful all this celebrityism is. My part will only be small, but it will be something.