3 years ago to the day (6/25/09) I wrote the following:
The judgment that must begin with the house of God must also reach our streets, schools, homes, businesses, media outlets and the entertainment industry. With the passing of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, symbols of the god of sex objectification and lewd dancing respectively, a judgment has been pronounced and executed. I believe the death of both Farrah Fawcett, the quintessential sex symbol, and Michael Jackson, the quintessential pop idol, on the same day is more than a simple coincidence. Of course, there are no simple or even complex coincidences under our sovereign sky, but we are often oblivious to the reality that contains these pertinent facts. In the case of both Farrah and Michael, however, I believe we can be illuminated and come to some understanding; indeed, until people experience His judgments they will not learn righteousness (see Isaiah 26:9). Most people are no longer oblivious to the hand of God which has begun to administer judgment against the United States of America
God’s pattern for judgment can be clearly seen and understood in His dealings with ancient Egypt in the time of Moses, when “The Lord …executed judgments on their gods (Numbers 33:4, partial).” What was bad for Egypt Israel
When posters of mere mortals hang upon our rooms and we become so enamored over their lives and looks we have lost all sense of proportion. God is a jealous God that has every right to expect our full and undivided attention and sympathies. This is no personal indictment against either Farrah Fawcett or Michael Jackson, per se, but what they represented; of course, they could not have been anything less than complicitous but I will let God judge them and apportion them their eternal reward or condemnation as He sees fit. Their fruit, or lack thereof, however, I will judge. What value did their lives hold and what was their contribution to humanity? I confess, I was a young man that most certainly enjoyed looking at the beautiful image of Farrah Fawcett; I also danced and gyrated to the sexually suggestive and lewd music and singing of a master vocalist in Michael Jackson. My complicitous behavior aside, did it do me or others any good? The proliferation of sex and sexual innuendo is mindboggling today and hardly any of us is, or was, immune to its impact. Where has it taken us though? I personally find myself channel surfing incessantly for anything remotely original and worthwhile, not to mention, wholesome enough not to have to blush while watching it. Of course, I have become desensitized and can watch most any sexually suggestive humor, outright nudity and violent scenes without the slightest rise in my blood pressure; I have become calloused and unfeeling –virtually unable to blush anymore. This indictment of myself does not mean I do not care; I do, however, hold a higher moral position than my behavior suggests. It is exactly because we can be tempted and allured by television and movie imagery that I suggest we limit or even eliminate appeals to our baser desires or appetites.
There was nothing wrong with Farrah being physically beautiful and even noticed because of her beauty. To accentuate and market/advertize her beauty without other considerations, however, was unwise and ultimately unprofitable to her. It may very well have had the effect of superseding other possibilities in her life; any competing consideration or enterprise could never see the light of day and was therefore never realized. This is purely speculative on my part; I do not know her personal history and I do not want to be presumptuous. I do believe, however, that any life founded upon its outerwear is ridiculously doomed. We never needed Farrah to grace us incessantly. The Bible declares that beauty is vain (empty); wisdom, therefore, dictates that we ought not to venerate superficiality or surface qualities and traits.
Michael Jackson was as plastic as his physical deformities suggested. He was a deeply disturbed and disfigured individual throughout his entire makeup and being. His sexuality was as confusing and ironic as his use of it on the stages he paraded himself throughout his lifetime. His originality and obvious talent aside, he had been ever sinking into deeper chasms of weirdness for years. His whitening mask could not belie his inner turmoil and strangeness. God only knows the perversions his family and the music industry led him into. One can hardly know the impact that stardom and idol worship had upon this young child. Before he understood sexuality he was a sexual object; he sang songs about love and romance while still figuratively hiding behind his mother’s apron. Now, today, there are millions that mourn his death for all the wrong reasons. I am deeply saddened and moved by the injustices leveled against him; I am glad that our Creator alone will judge him now. The disfigured symbol that he was, however, is judged today. I would that God would open the eyes of the blind and show these idol worshippers that Michael—even with that undeniable God given talent—is not worthy of the worship that God alone is to receive.
God is setting us and the world free from many delusions in this hour. MJ and FF clearly represented specific areas of these delusions. Being set free from delusion hurts in the beginning stages because we obviously believed in what they represented; we are disheartened when the process of dismantling and destruction occurs before our very eyes. But once the dust settles we begin to see things in their proper perspective: God is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and full of abundant mercy. We need deliverance from our entire western mindset, the trinkets of advertizing and marketing, and the lying bling and false glitter of film and TV imagery. God has arisen and is on His way; whether the brightness of His coming is our salvation or our destruction, however, depends entirely upon what we hold dearest to our hearts. “Little children, guard yourselves from idols (I John ).”
