This is a new category for me, the “Rant”. Quite frankly I have some serious observations and questions when it comes to celebrity status and what we as a culture find news worthy. For instance, I think Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer that ever played the game. He brings an excitement to a golf tournament like no other. With five holes to play, he can be four strokes behind the leader, pull an eagle out of his bag of tricks and end up on the eighteenth hole winning the match by one stoke after sinking an unbelievable 37 foot putt. Now that’s worth watching. That, my friend, is news worthy. The celebrity value that Tiger offers the world is his remarkable skill at playing the game of golf. That’s it, that’s all there is, there ain’t no more. As tragic as the events of this week are, I am not interested in his moral failures and I don’t care if he wants to redesign the look of his Escalade by merging with a tree and I don’t care if his wife pounds the windows out of the vehicle with a nine iron. This isn’t any more interesting to me because he is a celebrity as opposed to the average guy down the street who might get an honorable mention on page twenty of the local paper.

          Yet we find all the major networks covering this soap opera as if we should care. We are told that he has been unavailable to discuss his actions with the police. Try that excuse on for size the next time they knock on your door. Here’s an observation that raises a question. Observation – It’s an extreme rarity to turn on any TV show or movie where infidelity is not only portrayed but featured as a normal part of life. Question – Why do the same networks that promote this tripe across the airwaves (and cable) as normal everyday human behavior act so shocked when it manifests itself in real life. During prime time TV it is standard fare but when the 11:00 news comes on it’s a breaking story. The media gurus suffer from their own schizophrenia. One minute they are de-sensitizing us and the next minute they want to play up the shock value.

          Here’s another question for us to deliberate. Why do we expect people who have no moral center in their lives to behave morally? Why should they? Tiger is far from the first of the rich and famous to embark on this path. David Letterman speaks of his infidelities as though he forgot to take out the trash. There was a time in our culture when society would have turned their back on such behavior. Where have our sensibilities gone? Some would say that we are more enlightened than our predecessors. I think not. The truth be told the candle of our enlightenment has been flickering for some time. Those of us who hold to Judeo-Christian values are called to be the light of the world. It’s time to let our light shine. The enemy is making great strides in deceiving even the elect. The most popular trend in naming new TV episodes is to name them after sin itself. Greed, Wife Swapping, Desperate Housewives and the unbelievable latest, Californication. It would also seem to me that a large majority of movies being produced today feature horror, violence, nudity and moral degradation. OK you liberal minded, tell me, who is being glorified in all of this?

          So why then are we so enamoured with those who have acting skills, sports skills or entertainment talents? I think it’s time for some ground rules. Let’s value these people only for their area of expertise and contribution to their craft. More often than not I hear them complain that their  private lives are invaded by the paparazzi and I agree. Let’s leave their private lives out of the news. I’m really weary of it all any way. And while we are at, I would find it refreshing if they would keep their political views to themselves as well. Just because a person can sing well doesn’t make them my candidate for telling the rest of us how we should live. Let’s give them boundaries like the rest of us.

          The moral of the story is just this. Those who think they have it all, often find out that really have nothing. Recently I read this quote by Luis Palau, a Christian pastor, author and broadcaster. “A self-made man doesn’t make much.”