What to think about Britney
In the wake of the disaster that was the VMAs the internet is abuzz with talk about Britney Spears and her “comeback” performance. The range of emotion seems to have gone from shock and disgust to pity and back to disgust again. The critisizm has come hard and fast and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. I wonder though whose really to blame? Is it Britney for wearing that outfit and being unprepared? Is it the record label whose trying to convince us that that song is worth our dollar? Is it the MTV for putting her on stage when they more than likely knew what would happen? Or is someone else to blame? Maybe it’s us. I think MTV gave us exactly what we wanted. Something in our nature delights in seeing people train wreck their lives. We have an insatiable appetite for celebrity that must constantly be satisfied by the next sexiest star. We love to see people fall, especially if we think they are above us in some way. What is it inside of us that wants this so badly? We have a simultaneous desire to worship and to rebel. Our hearts are inconsistent creatures, both giving and taking affection as it serves our needs. This is how we treat God and it’s how we treat each other. The Bible calls it sin. So what are we to think about Britney? I guess I can’ t answer that question for anyone but me, but personally I’d like to think of her as a person. A person whose made mistakes and taken some missteps. A person not really any different from myself (expect for the bikini.) You see “God so loved the world,” (John 3:16) and that means Britney as profoundly as it means you and me. So I hope that before my heart rises up in judgment it will break with remorse over our culture and the way that it uses people and then discards them like yesterday’s garbage. I pray I’ll be moved to see people around me not as objects to be used but as people with dignity, value and worth and that includes Britney.
