It has been an irritating week having been forced to follow the life of heiress Paris Hilton and her stint in jail. What has been even more disturbing is the fact that the mainstream media has seemingly walked away from significant stories such as Tony Blair’s resignation.
Lost in the back corner of the media room is the tragic ongoing story in Oman. The little country took a Katrina style pummling last week by a hurricane off the coast of Pakistan. People have died, resources have been depleted, and yet the mainstream media has ignored Oman, by and large, for Paris.
When asked about the addiction to Ms. Hilton, one British reporter stated that the Hilton story was simply the bigger story. “Whenever we run a story on her our ratings soar.” I was amazed at how many people I spoke with had not even heard of the Oman tragedy. By sharp contrast, no one had been able to evade the Hilton news.
I am not interested in bashing Ms. Hilton, who simply seems like a misdirected young lady with almost unlimited resources. I am also not interested in taking pot shots at the media. They run stories like this because this is what people want. Whether or not that makes them negligent or, at the very least, culpable is not interesting to me at the moment either. It is the fact that this seems to be where the eyes of people around the world are focused.
As a Christian, I am somewhat amazed at our determination to acquiesce to this mundane approach to life. I have even heard some pastors celebrate what seems like a recess ethic. The matters that are most serious to us (as Christians), namely the passionate and accurate display of God in all of life falls short of the recess ethic. However, equally inadequate, seems to be the very serious matters that one would hope that all people would understand to be important.
There is a huge need for serious minded Christians. I realize that what I just said is probably on 100 different blogsites. If so, thank God! However, if you would indulge me to make the point ever so briefly, I hope that this blog contributes to the conversion of the Christian mind (if needed) to one that is serious; serious about sex, food, drink, people, and anything else that comes up.
Pray for Ms. Hilton. She seems to need it as badly as any of us ever have. However, I would wish that you would trade in significant time with Paris to spend time and resources in Oman and other places that might not fit into pop-culture’s concept of important but certainly are important all the same.
