Idolatry

Regular readers will have noticed that I have not written about Britney Spears or Paris Hilton or any of the other icons of modern day popular culture. Don’t worry; I am not going to start now. They are more than capable of bringing ridicule on themselves, and nothing I could write would top that. The question arises, why does our society worship at their altar, as it seems to. There are daily television shows, some in prime time, that actually use the phrase celebrity news. I have heard this with my own ears.

On page 64 of the October 1st, 2007 edition of Macleans magazine, there is a two-page spread dedicated to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (known as TIFF). The report consists of several short articles along with a few pictures of some of filmdom’s celebrities. The first article was about the fan-caused traffic jams that some celebrities endured at the 2007 TIFF. Traffic jams are routine to people in Toronto, but I guess when it happens to someone who has been in movies, it’s considered news these days. One limo ride of the star-pair of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt was especially annoying. I will quote part of the piece:

…Hundreds of fans didn’t just crowd around their vehicle, some climbed onto it, and one woman thrust her baby against one of the windows. When a publicist begged the mother to withdraw for sake of the child’s safety, she refused, screaming, “I don’t care, I want my baby to see Brad.

I have had some enthusiams during my life. I understand what it feels like to get excited about something. I think that most people do, and I think that it’s perfectly normal. I have never stood up screaming at a concert, but have grown accustomed to others doing so. I think it’s a little over the top but some people are more expressive than others. Some of it may be show, some of it may be genuine; who am I to judge, how can I look into their brain to tell the difference? However, I lack the literary skills required to properly express my revulsion toward a woman who is so profoundly stupid that she could think that her baby gives a toss about Brad Pitt. Brad may be a perfectly nice guy, but why would her baby care. In our culture, it’s normal for teenage girls to scream and cry when there are stars around. Once you procreate though, it’s time for a little maturity.

The old testament god turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt because she dared looked back at the fun house she was leaving. After a few years of booze, sex, and general debauchery in Sodom, Gomorroah, and a couple of other places, yahweh had had enough and made it known to Lot that it was time to leave. Don’t look back he said, pack up your kit, family, and scram. But on the way out of that neighbourhood, Lot’s wife disobeyed and looked back. For that, the big man turned her into a pillar of salt. That’s cold, man. She had just spent a few years in sin city, probably enjoyed it, so was it so terrible for her to want to take one last look. I wonder whether it was really the look back that bothered the old man, or that she looked back longingly? Maybe at the last minute she started wondering whether following her hairy old husband out the party was such a good idea. Maybe she had originally joined the party because Lot was a little boring. We’ll never know. I think it was pretty harsh punishment no matter how you look at it, but that’s how things seemed to be in the old days, or so we’re told. You couldn’t worship at the altar of booze, sex, and drugs in those days, not for long.

Extreme salination was the steep price of idolatry two or three thousand years ago. Now, it’s everywhere all around us every day and we press out babies up against the windows for a better look. How empty does your life have to be to act this way?