Take this blog for what it is. Don’t read too much into it and try not to decide too much about my character based on this blog.
Yesterday I watched the American Idol Gives Back fund raising show. Pretty impressive. Lots of money was raised and will go to very important and worthy causes. Almost equally important is the awareness that it brings to our American culture. Last night people all around America were told by people that they revere as gods (aka, celebrities) that it is important to care about people in extreme poverty, people who are dying of AIDS and malaria, and people who are suffering due to Hurricane Katrina among other needs.
But here’s my beef. It takes a lot of gall for some of those celebrities to get up there to challenge average middle class America to give their money to these causes. How can those people get up there and challenge us to raise millions of dollars when our average annual salary is around 40,000 while they’re making that in one month. Kobe Bryant, who implored us to give, makes over 200,000 per game (that’s not counting his endorsements), how much did Brad Pitt make last year? What, upwards of thirty plus million? If Brad chose to wear $75.00 dollar jeans instead of $300.00 ones that would be a good start. It’s insulting. And, don’t get me wrong, I love worship music, I even love the song Shout to the Lord, but talk about odd! Apperently some exectuive did a study and found that this would be an appropriate way to tug on some heart strings as one final push to get money donated. It just felt out of place, like if a worship song was sung at the half time of the super bowl. I mean, for me, it’s not out of place, in that I think that taking care of those in need is what Jesus wants us to do and all that jazz. But when it comes on American Idol it just doesn’t feel the same.

Ok, I’m glad I got that said. Again, I want to make clear that I’m cool with money being donated no matter who’s asking for it when it goes to serve people who are starving and dying around the world. I honestly don’t care if it takes a bunch of self righteous or smug millionares to motivate us as long as people are helped. And I’m sure that there are many famous people who do great things (if you really want to know somethign about rich sacrificial giving look no further than two of the NBA’s tallest men in Dikembe Mutumbo and Manute Bol). And I’m cool with the whole word singing and hearing music that gives glory and honor to the God I love…But…I just felt like ranting…so there you go…