About Me: My Childhood

I was born on October 26th, 1979 in Georgetown, Ohio. My parents had been married for just over a year when I was born. We moved to Phoenix, Arizona when I was 6 months old, so I'm virtually a native, though not technically one.


My sister was born a few years later, on August 22nd, 1982. After having the two of us, my parents decided that was enough, so I'm the oldest of two kids.

My childhood was relatively uneventful. To this day I've never broken a bone, and I've only had stitches once, but that was from oral surgery. I've never been admitted to the hospital other than at birth. Let's just say I was a careful child.


My parents would spank us when we were disobedient. Only once do I remember being spanked with anything other than my parents' hands (I got the wooden spoon once when my mom caught me in the driveway out front walking around the Ford Bronco while urinating). As we got older, groundings came into play more. I remember once in 5th grade when I was grounded for an entire week. That was earth-shattering to me, especially since I felt it was unjust (I had gone with my friend to the video store without telling my parents I was going somewhere, but I HAD told my sister and SHE was supposed to tell them). You see, I was a "pleaser". I wanted to please my parents, my teachers, and anyone else who had authority over me.


I went to public school, and I was a smart kid. In the mandatory IOWA testing, I scored in the 99th percentile every time. I didn't get my first B in school until high school (it was an Advanced class, so for GPA purposes, the B was the same as an A). Once old enough, I was put in the Gifted program at school. I was a member of the National Junior Honor Society in Junior High, and then the National Honor Society in High School. In High School, if there was an Advanced or AP class, I took it, and did well in it. God gifted me with a good memory, so I could memorize facts and figures very easily. I didn't study for my first test until my Junior year of high school. When it comes to a trivia game, you want me on your team (converserly, when it comes to sports, I'm the LAST one you want on your team).

The year before I started Kindergarten, I was invited to something called Vacation Bible School. Hey, going to school was cool back then, so I was all for it. By the end of the week I had accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. My parents then asked if I was interested in going to Sunday School. Like I said, school was cool back then, so I was all for more school. So, my family started going to church for pretty much the first time in my life. We attended Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona.


We then were told about this club for kids called Awana. I was all about doing more stuff, so I started in Sparks the fall of 1985. I was a shy child, so I always wanted my parents with me. My dad decided he would come and be a listener/helper my first night of Sparks. By the second week, they had made him a leader. By the third week, he was the Game Director for all of Sparks. And, just like that, my family became active in Awana.

A couple of years later, my parents decided it would be better to live closer to work for my dad, so we moved to the west side of Phoenix in April of 1988. This was the only time in my life that I had to make a major move (major of course being a relative term since we really only moved 45 minutes away). I had to make new friends and join a new school with only a month or so left in the school year (I was in second grade at the time). That made things difficult for me at first, to the point that I didn't really make any friends until I started third grade the following year. That's when I met my best friend growing up, Sterling.


Sterling and I did things together almost every day during the week. I'd go over to his house, or he'd come over to my house. We'd play basketball at his house, or Super TecmoBowl on the Nintendo, or football in the backyard with his older brother. At my house we'd play my Nintendo or play with my toys. During the summer, we'd go swimming at each other's houses. Almost every Friday night, we'd sleep over at one or the other's house. For some reason though, Sterling wasn't able to play on Sundays. I asked my mom about it, and she told me that Sterling was Mormon, so he wasn't allowed to play on Sundays. I had no idea what a "Mormon" was. It turned out my best friend was a completely different religion. Sterling and I never spoke about each other's religion. He came with me to a few church activities, and I went to one at his church, but that was it. We never tried to convert each other or even discuss our conflicting beliefs. Sterling was my first exposure to a different religion, and I never even tried to talk to him about it.


Sterling and I were best friends until around Junior High. At that time, we started to drift apart more and more. By the time we went to high school, we barely even spoke to each other. It was by far the most painful separation I ever went through. We just didn't have the same interests anymore. I drifted more into the "nerd" clique, and he started to drift into the "cool" clique. I developed a closer friendship with someone named Brian, the nerdiest person I've ever known (he'd admit it himself). Brian and I got through Junior High together. Then, right before promotion (we got in trouble if we called it "Eighth Grade Graduation", it was "Promotion"), he told me that his family was moving back to Nebraska. So, with High School looming, I had lost my best friends.


After moving to the west side of town, my family started attending First Baptist Church, Garden Lakes. They didn't have an Awana program, so that following year, my parents started one. They were the Awana Commanders during our entire time there. I was deeply involved in Awana, participating in Olympics and Bible Quizzing every year. We even went to Craft Camp a couple times. Then, at Craft Camp one year, we met the Awana Missionaries, Wes and Dianne Stewart (they ran the Craft Camps), who told us about Scholarship Camp. I started attending Golden West Scholarship Camp in the summer of 1991 as a camper going into 6th grade. Now, if you'll remember from earlier, I was a shy kid. Because of that, my dad went with my to Scholarship Camp, and he was my cabin counselor. He slept on the bunk below me. And I STILL got homesick 5 of the 7 nights that week. I cut it down to 4 out of the 7 nights the following year. And then, the summer before my 8th grade year, my dad was moved up to Varsity, and I was still in JV. Instead, I had a new counselor by the name of Bob Gordon. That year Bob helped me work through my homesickness. I had some problems still that year (always at night though, usually because I couldn't sleep), but Bob helped me through.


So, there you have it, my childhood in a nutshell. Why am I telling you all of this? So you'll know me better. In order to listen to and understand a person's position, you have to understand the person. I want you to see that I agree with the way I was raised in some ways, and that I disagree with it in other ways. I want you to see that when I take a stand, I have the loving support of my family behind me. I want you to know who I am before you listen to what I have to say.


Stay tuned next time for the High School and College years.

The PEG System

While teaching the High School class at church, we were introduced to a new way of "grading" music called the PEG System. The beauty of the PEG system is that it can be applied to more than just music. You can use it to grade TV shows, movies, and pretty much anything else you spend your time doing.

So, how does it work? Well, you have 10 points, and you get to split these 10 points among the three categories, which are P(rofitable), E(mpty), and G(arbage). So, a hymn like "Amazing Grace" would be something like 10-0-0. A song like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" would be 2-6-2 (it's useful for teaching kids music, but really, the song doesn't MEAN anything). A song like "More Human Than Human" by Rob Zombie would be something along the lines of 0-4-6 (bad language, but the song really doesn't MEAN much at all if you listen to the actual words).


Now, here's where it gets tricky. The way you use the scale will depend on your values. For example, if you are a high schooler, you probably aren't going to say there's any profitable parts to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", but as a father with two kids in Piano, I see some profitability there.


If you let your Christian values slip, then you'll miss the point of the PEG System. If you start to think things like drugs, alcohol, and bad language as somewhat profitable, then you'll slew the rankings and water them down.


It's not much, but it's a pretty simple way to grade Pop Culture elements as you encouter them. Are they Profitable, Empty, or Garbage?

TST: Use a Reader

The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.


Today's tip is to use an RSS Reader to surf the Internet with more speed and precision. I personally use Google Reader (www.google.com/reader).



An RSS reader (a.k.a. Atom or Feed Reader) takes info from a website and plugs it into individual articles that are easy to read and quick to skim through.


For example, I have subscribed to several blogs (you can see part of my Blogroll on the right sidebar). Whenever a post is made to one of those blogs, Google Reader creates it into a new article to read. After it's been read, it no longer shows up on my list to read. Google Reader uses the same Read/Unread system that most email services do, except that Google Reader will hide the articles once they are "Read". This means that whenever I log in to Google Reader, I am guaranteed to only be reading and perusing articles I haven't read before.


An RSS Reader is NOT only for reading blogs. Any popular website will have an RSS feed as well, such as USAToday (broken into the different sections of the paper), Amazon (for Gold Box Deals), and ESPN (broken down by authors and/or sports). That means that whenever one of those websites posts are article I haven't read yet, I get a copy in Google Reader.


How does this save time? For one, I don't have to visit through every one of those websites every day looking for stuff I haven't read before. Instead of having to click on a bookmark for each individual blog, news site, or whatever, I can just go to Google Reader and get it all at one time.


It also saves me time because I now have more precision in my web browsing. If I want to read Sports, I click on my Sports label in Google Reader, and I only get websites that I have labeled as Sports. If I don't have time to read all the articles on Deals, I just click on Deals and then mark them all as Read.


As far as RSS Readers go, I highly recommend Google Reader because it's web based, so you can log into it from anywhere (and you aren't taking up more space on your hard drive). They also let you Share articles, which you can have linked to your Facebook account (or friends using Google Reader) and they all see the article too. If none of your friends use Google Reader, there's also an option to email the article to them, which links directly to your Google Contacts. Very handy.


If you'd like more information on RSS feeds, I recommend visiting the Google Reader website (www.google.com/reader), which obviously concentrates on Google Reader itself, but also has good information on RSS and Atom feeds in general.

Tools: ClearPlay

Today I'd like to introduce you to a DVD player that takes the bad out of most movies.

ClearPlay (http://www.clearplay.com/) is a DVD player/service that removes the "bad stuff" from your DVD's by seemlessly editting it out.

How it works is pretty simple. You download the filters for whatever movies you plan on watching (or have in your DVD library) onto a jump drive. You then plug the jump drive into the ClearPlay DVD player and it will pull the info when you watch your movies.

You get to set the level of filtering done based on a variety of categories, such as gore, violence, sex, and language. For scenes containing things you don't want to see, the ClearPlay DVD player seemlessly removes the scene so that you don't even notice it was missing. For language, the player mutes the DVD whever bad language is used. The people at ClearPlay do their best to maintain the plot of the movie (if they didn't, then there'd be little point in WATCHING the movie) while cleaning it up.

If you're wondering if they cover movies you might already own, you can go to their website (http://www.clearplay.com/) and search their list of over 2,000 movies that they cover.

The only problem with this system is how it might affect your testimony if you run into someone you know while at Blockbuster with your arms full of R-rated movies. That could have a negative impact if they don't know that you are running the ClearPlay system. Just something to consider.

TST: Follow the Rules!

The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Today's tip is a great way to save time when it comes to email. And the tip is to use Rules.

Every email client and most online webmail services offer a feature called Rules. You create a Rule and set parameters for email, and when you receive or send an email that meets those parameters, the Rule does whatever you tell it to do to that email. That means YOU don't have to do it, which helps save time.

One example of a good rule was sent in by reader Mandy. Mandy receives emails from Borders that have coupons. She has set up a rule that whenver these emails come in, the email is sent to her Borders folder and marked as read. This keeps her Inbox clean, and then, whenever she needs her Borders coupons, she just goes to her Borders folder and can check out the latest coupons. She can also easily delete older emails that contain expired coupons. So, instead of trying to keep an excess number of emails in her Inbox, Mandy uses rules to help cut down on clutter.

I use rules both at work (I use Microsoft Outlook) and for my personal email (I use Gmail, a web-based email service). At work, I have emails from certain departments or that contain certain words in the subject that go straight to my Deleted Items folder. I don't need to see those emails, so I get rid of them without ever having to touch them. This works well for work since I can't just Unsubscribe from those emails.

At home, I keep most of my emails sorted by subjects and/or who sent them. For example, I have a folder entitled "Clarinda" for all my emails from my lovely bride. Whenever I get an email from Clarinda, Gmail automatically labels it as "Clarinda". That way I can keep her stuff sorted and easy to find.

You can use Rules to do LOTS of stuff. Take a look at what your email client has for Rules and play around with them. They are pretty straightforward to set up, so don't be afraid to use them. You'll find you spend less time having to wade through useless emails and performing menial tasks if you use Rules to do it all for you.

Christianizing Pop Culture

Tonight I wanted to introduce a concept I call "Christianizing". Christianizing is taking some secular (or "of the world") and tweaking it to make it "Christian". It's important to note that the secular being Christianized is not intrinsically bad or evil, but it's not definitively "Christian". So, in order to justify listening to certain music or reading certain books or watching certain movies, we as Christians try to either invent Christian undertones in the work or we take the work and tweak it to make it Christian. We're going to look at some examples of both today.

The first I want to cover is a growing trend of people writing books that invent a Christian undertone in popular works of literature. One example is Harry Potter. I'll leave the debate about whether Christians should or should not read the series for another time. However, what we can look to is that the books were not written with Christian themes or elements in mind. However, several books have come out that try to say just that. Head on over to Amazon.com and search for "Finding God in Harry Potter" (or click here and I'll do it for you). The very first result is a book entitled "Looking for God in Harry Potter" by John Granger (hey, that is pretty similar to what I said to search for!). From the books own description the author "contends that Rowling is writing in the tradition of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Are they just a good read, or do they nourish the soul as well?"

I think it's very important at this point to say that yes, I have indeed read and thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series. I have also read Tolkien's works and some of C.S. Lewis and I can tell you that yes, the Harry Potter series is written similarly, but not in the sense the author is saying. Both Tolkien and Lewis were professed Christians when they wrote their masterpieces (The Lord of the Rings saga and The Chronicles of Narnia series, respectively). J.K. Rowling has made no such claim and some aspects of her life point to her not being a Christian (that doesn't give Christians an occasion to judge, but since only God knows the heart, I'm working with what I've got). Also, the thematic elements in Tolkien and Lewis are the central emphasis of the books, whereas in the Harry Potter series, they are more to push the story along and have you rooting for the right side (we all love a good underdog story, don't we?).

Another series that pushes this ideal of over-emphasizing Christian themes to justify reading secular material is the "The Gospel According To" series. What they have done is gone through secular life and grabbed popular materials to "Christianize". They cover everything from Disney to Dr. Seuss to The Simpsons. While these books do indeed point out the good aspects of these various works, whether they be TV, movies, or books, they are often used as a way for Christians to justify reading/watching/partaking. Reading Dr. Seuss is not a bad thing in and of itself, but most of the books are pretty empty of real content or values. Dr. Seuss is a great example of something that is neither good or bad, just kind of there. What books like "The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss" try to do is make an arguement that the books are indeed Christian by making weak arguments and real stretches to connect the dots. Again, Dr. Seuss isn't bad, but don't try to make his works into a great theological work.

One more example I'd like to cover is the realm of music. I personally listen to sports talk radio and Air1 (http://www.air1.com/). Air1 plays both Christian music and clean secular music. It's important to make the distinction that there are indeed two different types of music being played. What some Christians do is listen to a station like Air1 and hear music by "Lifehouse" and "The Fray" and tweak the meaning of the songs to make them reflect Christianity. This happens most often to love songs. Christians like to take that love song and tweak it to be talking about Jesus or God instead of the person the song writer intended. It's important to say right here that there are indeed wonderful love songs written to both our God and our Savior, but in order to justify and "Christianize" other artists, we change the meaning of ANY love song to be about our relationship with Jesus. Love songs referencing a godly love between a man and a woman are perfectly fine (you may have heard of this little book called "Song of Solomon" or "Song of Songs", depending on your translation). Love songs to our God and Savior for all the wonderful things they have done for us are great too (you may have heard of the book of "Psalms" too). However, it's important to remember that not all love songs were meant to apply both ways.

When it comes to Christianization, what we need to ask ourselves is if we really need a book to point out Christian themes and elements, should we really be involved in the first place? Like I said, I have read the Harry Potter books and I enjoyed them, but I don't pretend that they strengthened my relationship with Christ. So the real question is, if it doesn't strengthen my walk with the Lord, then what DOES it do?

The Bible tells us to not be "conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). I'm not supposed to try to fit in with the world around me. I'm supposed to stick out like a sore thumb. The calling of Christ pushes me to transformation. Instead of looking like everyone else, I'm supposed to look more like Christ. It's become a cliche over the past 10 years or so, but I'm really supposed to ask myself, "what would Jesus do?" Would Jesus read Harry Potter? Would Jesus watch The Simpsons? Would Jesus listen to "Lifehouse"? If Jesus is the true standard of my life, then everything I allow in is supposed to please Him. What Christianization does is makes us conformers. It trys to make us look just like everyone else. We are supposed to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). We're supposed to shine the light of Jesus and direct all people to Him. If we look and act just like everyone else, no one will ever notice us, and we won't be pointing the way to Christ.

TST: Just Record It!

Today we're going to be starting a weekly series call Time Saver Tuesdays, or TST (guess which day of the week I'll be posting these). The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list. Today's tip is to record those shows you want to watch. Use that DVR, DVD-R, or VCR (yes, I know people that still use a VCR) and record the shows. This'll save you loads of time. First off, you get to skip the commercials. Did you know that the average 1-hour show is really only 42 minutes long? That means that roughly every time you watch an hour-long show on TV, 1/3 of your time is spent watching commercials.

Second, you are now free from the time constraint of having to sit down and watch a show at a specific time. You don't have to be at home in front of the TV every Wednesay from 8:00 - 9:00 PM watching LOST (yes, I like LOST). You can watch it later and be able to pause it when life happens (phone rings, kid gets sick, etc). Clarinda and I have gotten into arguements because I want to get home and watch LOST and she wants to keep socializing with people after Wednesday night service. Come on lady, something deep and unexplainable is probably happening right now on ABC! You have to ask yourself (like I had to), which is more valuable: watching TV or building relationships (if only I had other friends who liked/watched LOST, then I could do both!)?

Finally, you can avoid the biggest time kill of all when it comes to TV: watching the NEXT show too. TV executives know that you are most likely to watch a TV show that abuts a show you are already watching, so they advertise the shows that are on immediately before and after. So, while watching an 8:00 show, the commercials are mostly concentrating on the show coming up next (9:00), with a slight mixture of the show that was just on as well (7:00). Yes, they advertise other shows too, but their biggest concern is getting you hooked on the following show so you stay tuned into their channel. This is the most noticeable during the beginning of a season because they want to get you hooked early on. If you record the show and watch it later, you won't run the risk of watching the next show as well.

About Me: My Family

While most of you know me, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a little taste of who I am. I'm going to start off telling you about my immediate family.

Clarinda and I have been married now for over 10 years now (our wedding was July 17th, 1999). We met through Awana (Varsity USA, which is now called Summit) and dated for a couple of months before I popped the question. The only reason we waiting as long as we did to actually get married was her dad's Army National Guard Reserve unit was sent to Bosnia for 9 months, and we thought it was kind of important for her dad to be there (I know, call us old-fashioned), so we planned our wedding during his 3 week leave in July. If he hadn't been able to take his leave at that time, our back-up date was September 11th, 1999, which would now be really easy to remember.

We decided to wait a few years before having kids because we wanted to make sure we had built a strong foundational relationship between the two of us before we added kids to the mix. We now have 3 kids and another on the way (baby Ella is now due on December 26th according to the ultrasound, so go buy her presents at Target now before the Christmas rush!). Our current plan is to stop at 6 kids. We'll see how that goes.

Savannah is our oldest. She's 7 years old and very "motherly" (which means she can be very kind and nurturing, but also very bossy). She's very talented musically and intellectually, and also somewhat shy (she's getting over that more and more lately). Her personality most closely resembles mine.

Hunter is next at 6 years old. We had planned to have kids roughly every three years so there'd be a decent gap between them. God however had other plans, so Hunter came 16 months after Savannah. Hunter's favorite thing right now is playing video games (just like Daddy). Hunter is also our emotional one. He really has a heart for other people's feelings which makes him very kind and loving, but also easily manipulated. If another kid cries or is hurt because they want to toy Hunter has, he'll (usually) hand it over and find something else to play with. He most closely resembles Clarinda's personality.

Then we have Dawson. Dawson will turn 3 this month (August 20th). Dawson's personality is still developing, but he is by far our most animated. Cries of "woohoo" will let you know when Dawson is happy. Dawson also has a VERY high pain tolerance, which makes it easier for him to take risks since pain isn't really a deterrent for him (yes, we've been to Urgent Care with him bleeding already). His favorite thing to do right now is rough-house, which he knows to do with Daddy and not Mommy (he usually tries to take me out at the knees when I get home from work). We have no idea where his personality came from.

Well, there you have it, my family in a nutshell. Now you have some idea what I'm talking about when I refer to these mysterious people throughout this blog (I haven't referenced the kids by name yet, but don't worry, that's coming soon).

Tools: CovenantEyes

Today we have our first guest post. I asked Charles Baldon (charlesfreedom.blogspot.com) to write a post on a great tool for helping to keep the Internet safe: CovenantEyes. He started using CovenantEyes years ago, so he knows more about it than anyone else I know. This is the first in another ongoing series that will focus on tools we can use to live our lives in a more Christ-like manner in today's culture.




Be careful, little eyes, what you see…

The Internet is an amazing place, offering us instant access to information that once took weeks to research. We can share information with friends and family with the touch of a few buttons. We can get more work done faster than ever before (if our employers have blocked YouTube and Facebook at work). The Internet has become a virtual reflection of our culture expressed in a million digital ways… which means there is a large portion of the Internet we need to avoid. Enter Covenant Eyes (link to site): as a Christian and as a parent, this software could become one of your best friends online.

Our society eats, sleeps and breathes sex. Go to the grocery store, and examine the covers of the magazines you'll find there. Turn on the TV and watch almost any prime time show. Go to church, and watch how people dress (ladies, your husbands are noticing, even if you aren't). Online, free and easily accessible pornography is everywhere. And over 70% of men and over 20% of women are struggling with it.

What is Covenant Eyes?

Covenant Eyes (CE) can do 2 things. First, it will monitor every site you visit online, scoring them for potential inappropriate content. It then emails your browsing history once a week to your accountability partners, who receive a report and can see where you have been online. The scoring system makes it easy to spend a few minutes with the report and be able to hold you accountable. Secondly, CE can be filter, blocking sexual content and protecting your family's purity.

Covenant Eyes as accountability

Internet pornography is deadly to us because it is a private sin. We can "get away with it" and we have a very good chance of never being caught. Browsing histories can easily be deleted. All traces of where you have been online can be removed. But what you have seen can never be unseen. What we need is accountability. We need our Christian brothers and sisters to look us in the eye and ask us tough questions. Covenant Eyes is a great tool, but it's not perfect and it needs a human touch. Pick two of your fellow Christians who will commit to reviewing your reports, and calling you on things they find there. Is this comfortable? Absolutely not! Is it vital to our spiritual lives? Absolutely!

Covenant Eyes as a filter

My first rule for my kids online is that they are never online without my knowledge – this is where many parents go wrong, thinking that their kids need "space" or "freedom." Letting children (even older teens) online without teaching them good rules for behavior is like letting them play in traffic on the freeway. The Internet is a dangerous place, and our kids need more protection when in it, not more freedom. With CE, you have the power to log them in if you'd like, or you can give them a login to use. Because even the simplest Google searches can lead to questionable sites, it doesn't take long for bad things to happen. Using CE as a filter, these sites (for example, YouTube) are blocked. A page will come up calling for an authorized user to either allow access or not. This lets parents be parents, and kids be safe.

What does it cost?

The price for Covenant Eyes varies, but in general the monitoring runs $7.99/mo and the filtering runs $5.99/mo. It is not just a one-time fee because the Internet is constantly changing, and CE is constantly updating their scoring and what they are blocking. In my experience, the cost is very small compared to the cost of not having it. Coming up with $15 a month is not a problem for the large majority of us, it just depends on what our priorities are. What is your – and your family's – sexual purity worth to you?

But I don't have a problem with…

First of all, most of us men DO have a problem with pornography, we just don't like to talk about it because we are embarrassed and ashamed. So we need the accountability online that CE gives us. And if you truly are in the minority that don't have a problem, great! Installing CE removes any temptation you might have while online, keeps this terrible addiction from developing, and it also protects your family. Either way, the need for protection is there, and Covenant Eyes is the best thing I've found to offer it.

Celebrity Idolization: Michael Jackson's Death

Celebrity Idolization is a major issue in modern Pop Culture. Whether consciously or not, we look up to the people who appear on TV, the movies, and on the radio. We view them as better than us just because they can act and/or sing. The problem is that most of them don't live in such a way that we SHOULD be looking up to them.

A great example of this is the events surrounding Michael Jackson's death. Michael Jackson died June 25th, 2009 at the age of 50. Once news of his rush to the hospital and his critical condition broke, people started losing their minds. I was one of the first people at my workplace that found out about it (there's a small group of us who try to keep up on the news during downtime a twork). Once I mentioned it to one of my co-workers (people overheard me), I suddenly had 5 different people at my cubicle looking over my shoulder at the screen desperate for updates. Someone that hadn't thought or cared about 10 minutes earlier suddenly became the most important thing in their lives at that moment. People were on their cell phones calling relatives. And my workplace was just a small sample of what began happening across not just America, but the entire world (stats on Internet usage spikes once news broke).

Michael Jackson's funeral was later announced. It would be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009. People would be able to register for a lottery to receive two of the 17,000 free tickets that would be given away. The winners would be given wristbands and unique ID's that would prevent ticket scalping. 1.6 million people registered, roughly the entire population of the Phoenix metropolitan area (1.3 million at the time of the 2000 Census).

In order to further accomodate this worldwide event, the Jackson family would provide live video feeds to go out on the Internet and across various TV stations so that anyone in the world could watch. In the US, the funeral was carried on 18 channels. According to the Nielsen ratings, it was watched by more than 31 million people and earned a 20.6 share. This was for an event held in the middle of a workday (Link). To put that in perspective, the 6 major TV networks that night (CBS, NBC, ABC, Univision, FOX, and Telemundo) averaged 29.2 million viewers that night TOTAL (Link). So, with people home from work and watching TV at home that night, the funeral, which was held during the day on a work day, had nearly 2 million more viewers on TV.

The online feeds are even more telling. The funeral was carried on pretty much every major video streaming site. The Jackson funeral was, for the most part, the second-most watched event on the Internet of all time (first place was Obama's inauguration). MSNBC reports that they had more than 19 million video streams that day (not all of them were live during the funeral), a new record for them. CNN had 9.7 million live video streams. Facebook, which had an integration with CNN.com for that day, reports an average of 6,000 status updates per minute from people taking part. Ustream reports nearly 4.6 million viewers. ABC News reports nearly 6 million through it's various sites (Yahoo, Verizon, ABC, etc). MTV reports that, since his death, views on Jackson's music videos, documentaries, and interviews are up 10,193% from the week before (yes, that's PERCENT, not total numbers). For even MORE statistics about all this, I highly recommend visiting this site which sums up the information from each source (some of the same information is in the NY Times article linked above).

Is it wrong to mourn the loss of someone? Of course not. The Bible specifically tells us TO do it (Ecclesiastes 3:4, Romans 12:15). The problem is the extent to which people have taken this. Within the first week of his death, more than a dozen people in Australia had committed suicide directly citing Michael Jackson's as the reason, with over 50 people calling suicide hotlines on the brink (Link). Those are obviously the most extreme examples, but are very telling. The videos of people weeping in the streets and laying flowers on makeshift memorials across the world showed us exactly what it looks like to mourn like you have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And all of this was over someone that the vast majority of people had never met in their lives.

As Christians, whenever someone dies, the first question to enter our minds should be where that person will spend Eternity (the second question is what we could have done to make sure that person spent Eternity in Heaven). I have never personally heard a testimony of faith from Michael Jackson, but that doesn't mean that he never accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. However, that was not the focus most people took when they mourned his death. Instead, we focused on the great loss to this world and to ourselves (nevermind the fact that Michael Jackson hadn't been culturally relevant except as a punchline for over 10 years). Most people had lost their idol.

I really do hope that Michael Jackson was saved and is now in Heaven, but his death really shouldn't mean any more to me than any other death. I have never met him nor anyone in his family. All I know about him really is that he could sing and dance. Is that enough to make him someone to look up to? Unfortunately, according to American Pop Culture, yes it is, and that's pretty sad.