-my childhood
-my education
-my two marriages
-my children and step children
-my faith in God the Father, Son & Holy Ghost
I try to put the last one, my faith, first. I fail at this probably more than I succeed,
but, as the Reliant K song so boldly avows,"The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." Moreover, I try very hard to inculcate my children with a value system that is Christ-centered. That, dear friends, is the job that never ends. Not only must I pitch the whole Jesus thing with passion and conviction, I have to prove to these little people in my house that I believe all this craziness I'm expounding. When I fail, it can require some humility and a little damage control. When I fail on Facebook, it can require that I take up my knife and fork and sit down to a feast of crow. I can say from experience that things like this are pretiumque et causa laboris.
Anyway...
Last night, Deb and I were engaging our nightly ritual of having coffee with our neighbor, Gene, on his front porch. Also present were Gene's son, Jake, and our daughter, Coralie. As cosmic events would have it, we were all supremely uninterested in the recent transition from royal fetus to royal baby that occurred in England earlier that day. And, since there was nothing interesting either on the Kardashian front or in Taylor Swift's love life, the conversation naturally shifted to Miley Cyrus. When asked who had seen her new video, "We Can't Stop," I said no. So...I had the unfortunate privilege of getting to watch it.
Everything that is wrong with this little piece of Mapplethorpesque filth is even more unpalatable to those parents (like Deb and I) whose children put much of their social identity in the pop divas mass produced by Nickelodeon and Disney, including Miley Cyrus, Miranda Cosgrove, Selena Gomez, Amanda Bynes, Ashley Tisdale, Debby Ryan and Demi Lovato. They have been the answer to our children's search for usable icons. While under legal obligation to their corporate overlords, these girls exude an aura of innocence tempered by a sugar coating of vacuous Hollywood social engineering. The unhealthy way these girls are held in check is evident by their subsequent public tomfoolery both when they leave the care of their benefactors (Amanda Bynes) and when they are kicked out BY their benefactors (Demi Lovato).
All we can do us pray for Debby Ryan.
Miley Cyrus is a special kind of nausea. Investing as much time and money into Hanna Montana as we did made my disgust at the wretched imagery flashing across the screen palpable and unpleasant. Miley Cyrus, it would seem, is hell bent on permanently distancing herself from her bubble gum pop roots; and she's taking no prisoners. The foolishness of this mindset is paralleled only by the depths to which she has sunk. 
Somehow, being a positive influence on millions of tween girls while becoming filthy rich in the process kept Miss Cyrus from fulfilling her dream of becoming something like Lady GaGa...but without any vision, talent, restraint or taste (GaGa, at least, attended NYU's prestigious Tische School for fine arts). Rather, Miley is fast becoming a tragic caricature of fame; a sick cross between Marilyn Manson and the legions of faceless things that have adorned the pages of Hustler since time out of mind.
Ultimately, my take on the depths to which Miley Cyrus has sunk is not the subject of this little rant. Rather, it is concerning my gut reaction, and my subsequent post on Facebook...which, incidentally, looked just like this: 
The reaction to my take on Miley was one of overwhelming agreement. The one dissenter in the ranks came from a most unexpected place. The comment, which I deleted almost immediately, simply stated...In love. Matthew 7:3. For those of you not familiar with this particular verse in Scripture...
And why behold you the speck that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye? KJV
The author, it would seem, was giving me a digital slap on the wrist for bad mouthing Miley. On one level, he is right. Christ admonishes us to refrain from judgement and love one another as he loves us. I know that my opinion on Miley Cyrus's artistic failings mean little to her. But, in taking Christian dogma to its logical conclusion, we must recognize that these admonishment are more for our own souls than they are to spare the feelings of angst riddled pop divas. Moreover, I assume that those who read my post understood that my allusion to Avril Lavigne was aimed at a metaphorical fight-not an actual one. To think otherwise would be foolish. Avril, despite being Canadian, does a very good job of maintaining her punk diva persona while maintaining her dignity as a young woman AND her integrity as an artist. In any event, I maintain that while my analysis of the video was spot on, my criticism was unnecessary and contrary to my faith.
But...
The author of this barb is certainly not a close friend, or even a close acquaintance. Like many of my Facebook friends, I know him through my church.
I am convinced that the main motive for making this comment was that he believes in this important aspect of Christian faith. But, despite
my best efforts, I cannot discern his ancillary motives for this little barb. Aside from the occasional 'Like' to a picture On my wall, he has never commented on anything I have posted (as far as I can remember), and he has certainly never made an unprompted post to my wall. So, I ask again...why make this admonishment now. Is he a HUGE Miley Cyrus fan. I very much doubt it. Were I being overly critical of someone I actually knew, someone who cared what I thought or were my criticism not an accurate portrayal of the subject at hand, I could understand expending the effort to publicly criticize someone on Facebook that you have otherwise never spoken to. Moreover, had he taken the time to be more delicate and private...through an email or private message, this would be a nonissue. There is something to be said for delicacy and subtlety; two human traits largely alien to anyone who has not reached their two-score age.
Ultimately, he was right. I don't like his methodology.
Calling me out publicly seems to be a heavy handed way of telling someone not to be judgmental. I admit that the voracity of my reaction to Miley's little near-porn experience was largely fueled by the esteem my daughter once held her in; something my daughter has abandoned because of Miss Cyrus's new moves.
Oh well...C'est-no-mal. Indeed.
A parting thought...when you see fault in others, take a moment to consider what the impact of your moral admonishment might be before you slap it, bold as brass, on someone's forehead in a public setting. Is that REALLY the way to show someone the error of his or her way. Is moral rightness really right when it is inefficacious?
I admit that in penning this post, I searched for Scripture to supplement my own words. But, given the nature of this post, that seemed somehow ...disingenuous. Moreover, I didn't want my Scripture quoting skills to mask the fact that, at the very core of all this, I was wrong.
So, I turn to another source of wisdom...Glinda and Elpheba, the enigmatic witches from the musical Wicked. 
The final exchange of friendship between the two is expressed in the song For Good. While certainly not inspired by Christian faith, the words nevertheless describe exactly what human friendship and Christian love is all about-vis-a-vis bringing out the best in each other and learning from each other. To wit...
I've heard it said,
That people come into our lives
For a reason
Bringing something we must learn.
And we are lead to those
Who help us most to grow if we let them.
And we help them in return.
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you.
When I'm staring into eternity, that's what I hope I can say about my life and my faith. That, as a Christ-follower, I made a difference, that I helped others find their way, and that I let them help me find mine. As a wise man told me once, "Tomorrow is not promised to us. We have to make a difference today." I cannot and will not speak to the motives of others, but I will admit that "tearing down" Miley Cyrus as much a fiat for positive affect for someone as is watching her videos. It's not a modus operendi to change someone's life "for good."
