Wine has robbed my people of their understanding. They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute serving other gods and deserting their God. They offer up sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops. They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees.
(Hosea 4:11-13 NLT)
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A short while ago Anna Nichole Smith passed away. It was something like 2:30 or 3:00 when it first started hitting the news. I found out about it sometime around 4:45. In switching from a lunch to a dinner shift at work I was now near 4 TV's. 3 of them were playing various news channels and on all three her death was taking center stage nonstop with virtually everything else subjected to the scrolling news reel on the bottom. I think it was sometime around eight when I finally saw something besides the same various clips or photos or interviews with friends.
On the same day, North Korea reopened talks on nuclear weapons. China confirmed six new outbreaks of the bird flu virus. The senate voted on a major asbestos bill. The new "Green California" environmental website was launched. South Africa launched its biggest AIDS vaccination trial ever. A judge excused a contractor who has twice been accused of scamming the US military. Employees at Harley Davidson were on a major strike. Turkmenistan announced it was fully prepared for what is to be their first ever free elections.
Granted none of these news stories are really edge-of-your-seat, the-world-stops-and-watches stories. But for virtually none of them to get any airtime on any of the major news networks for over five hours straight? That's ridiculous. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to make light of anyone's death, but what really did A.N.S. really do? She didn't win a Nobel Prize. She never orchestrated a major treaty, or submit a bill to Congress. She never even held an office. She never gave any famous speeches or founded any orphanages. OK, her estate might have done some charitable work but it is not what she is known for and to my knowledge nothing like this was getting any airtime.
Even if we get into the more frivolous aspects of culture: She never won a national championship. She didn't even participate in any sports at even a semipro level. She didn't win any major music awards or even have any chart topping hits. She never won an oscar and if she did have a lead role in any movies I can guarantee they aren't the type you could find at your local blockbuster. She didn't really do much of anything. She simply was.
Every day millions of people die and it will not be noticed by the media at all except for a few who will be noticed on the obits section of their local newspaper. Every day multiple thousands who have made a far greater positive impact on world will die and go virtually unnoticed except by the lucky few whose lives they touched. And here we spend the first five hours on every major network exclusively covering Anna Nichole Smith's death. In the couple weeks that have followed these news networks are still spending a major chunk of their daily coverage on the details surrounding her death. It just seems foolish.
That is exactly what our longing after cultural icons (or should I say idols) has made us. There are daily shows that cover such trivialities as who is marrying who how many days after their divorce from so and so and what this other person wore to their wedding. Just yesterday CNN spent quite a bit of time covering Brittney getting a hair cut. If I had hair I'd pull it out in frustration right now. WHO CARES! ! !
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The sad fact is we do. These are our idols. And our television screens are our mountaintops where we go to worship them. And the time we spend and the words we speak about them is the incense we burn up to them. And the angels in heaven weep. And the demons in hell laugh And our foolishness goes on.
