Freeing My Mind

If you haven’t heard by now, one of the hottest stories of the past few days across television and the Internet is the recent events surrounding the Heene family, specifically Falcon Heene, aka “Balloon Boy”. You can watch the video, but let me sum up the story. The Heene family, made up of three young boys and their parents, had previously made appearances on the reality series, Wife Swap. The parents seem to be quite the conspiracy theorists, scientists, storm chasers, but also aspiring actors. Reports say that the father, Richard Heene, believes the world will end in 2010 as predicted by the Mayan calender. Reports also say that the Heene family has been in negotiations with a network to star in their own reality series. Last Thursday, 911 authorities received a call saying that the Heene’s six year old son, Falcon Heene, had crawled into a homemade weather balloon device of some sort. The balloon was accidentally launched, filled with helium. The media was soon all over the story and Americans watched the balloon drift thousands of feet in the Colorado sky. The scene seemed like something to the affect of the OJ Simpson slow-speed chase. When the balloon finally landed, it was discovered that little Falcon was no where to be found. While the media feared the worst, the truth was that Falcon was hiding in the attic of his home the entire time. After the dicey interview with Wolf Blitzer (featured in the video above), the police began a thorough investigation as to whether the whole thing was just a publicity stunt set up by the parents in order to gain some notoriety for their forthcoming show. All indications are that Sheriff officials will be making an arrest some time next week.

An Open Letter to the American Public:

What is wrong with you? You would think at least a few people would have learned their lesson through the Jon & Kate Gosselin debacle. Here we have a family, with 8 children, who’s lives are put on television for America to devour like a Big Mac in front of a McDonald’s junkie. Through the new found riches and fame, the family is torn apart and once again Americans set reality TV records while watching the destruction of these people’s lives. More importantly the public and the media begin a crusade to defame and judge both Jon & Kate Gosselin. All the while not realizing…. it’s mostly our fault.

Now we have the story of Falcon Heene. A six year old child who has seemingly been used by his parents to conjure up their own version of the 99 cent burger. It’s terrible for you, there is nothing good that can out of it, yet we continue to divulge in it at a record breaking rate.

Now as for the Christian Church of America. I love you. Not only am I supposed to, but I really do. But, let’s get honest for a moment. We spend countless resources in order to proclaim the dangers of violence and sex on television. We write books and hold seminars declaring the demonic nature of magic and supernatural phenomena in books and movies. All while using The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia at least as objects of Christian symbolism and at most touch tones of the Christian faith. We champion the cause of good verses evil in some cases, although in other cases we abhor it. While I agree with many of these stances, I believe that we have allowed ourselves to be swayed by an understanding of what is evil that limits it to that which is concrete. Have our lives become so mundane and boring that we actually find satisfaction in not only watching the lives of people as they self destruct, but taking sides and actually assisting in their destruction? Has arrogance, pride, greed and the like become so much part of our “Church” culture that we use the world’s promotion of those ideas to make us feel more comfortable with ourselves?

I knew this would end up being a rant. I hope it doesn’t ruin your evening. Here: Rainbows, daisies, grandmothers, gold dust.