Well, it has happened. An American hit has decided it needs to do more. And the premise sounded so good. American Idol Gives Back is a great concept. Get people to donate money for the purpose of fighting disease and hunger around the world. But I have to be honest, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Let me explain.
For one thing, the whole show seemed somewhat exploitive. It almost seemed like they were hoping someone in the African village would die to make the story more poignant. How sad. The tragedy of AIDS and malaria and poverty around the globe is very real. I don't want to make light of real suffering. But I resent the producers of American Idol using this tragedy for their gain. We should never forget that TV is all about ratings and this kind of tug-your-heart-strings programming is intended to boost ratings. I am not impressed. Nowhere in Scripture does it talk about parading the suffering in front of people in order to gain. There is a difference between informing of suffering and exploiting suffering. Too bad American Idol doesn't know that difference.
And to hear Ellen Degeneres personally donate $100,000 to the cause at first brush sounds pretty good. But then you start to realize that she makes nearly 10 times that amount per week with her talk show, plus endorsements, plus guest appearances. As you add up the amount of money she is raking in, it becomes apparent that what seemed to be a great gift turns out to be hardly anything in comparison. Using rough figures based on my salary, I should have called in to American Idol and pledged $1 and my gift, in proportion to my income, would have been greater than Ellen's. How sad!
Those of us who claim Christ as Lord do need to get much more serious about meeting the needs of the hungry and sick from our backyard all the way around the globe. After all, James writes: Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
(James 1:27). The cause of the orphans and widows should not be out of the church's sight. We can not stop with filling their bellies and healing their maladies, however. We need to not only meet their physical needs, we need to lead them to the one who can meet their spiritual needs. It is good to feed the hungry, but if we don't tell them about Jesus in the process we have only solved a temporary problem when there is an eternal problem on the line. I am saddened that worldly people like American Idol have decided to take the church's role. It only meets half the problem.
Unfortunately, I predict that American Idol will talk about how great a job they did on April 24 & 25, 2007. They will still be talking about it after all the money they raised is spent. There will still be children and moms dying in Africa and there will still be kids unable to read in America. Suffering on the globe will continue, but those involved with American Idol Gives Back will have eased their own sense of guilt by saying they tried to help.
One time...
Back then...
How sad.
2 comments:
We also need to remember that only the "proceeds" from the "donations" will be used to help. The question then becomes, how much is left over when all the "expenses" are deducted. I wonder if American Idol offers this information.....
...Ellen Degeneres personally donate $100,000 to the cause at first brush sounds pretty good. But then you start to realize that she makes nearly 10 times that amount...
This is something that drives us crazy. When we see celebrities on the air begging for money to help this cause or that. When in reality if all the celebrities gave even %20 of their weekly income to a cause there would be no need for them to beg for money.
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