American Idol

I am an American Idol fan. It is my guilty pleasure. I even sat through the whole "We are the World" Idol Gives Back extravaganza. I sighed and squirmed through 2 1/2 hours of listening to how we all need to give, even just a little bit, to make a difference in the world. I was starting to get more and more aggravated as the show continued.

Have you thought about it? Do you see it? Here are all these famous actors, singers, comedians, politicians, sports legends, etc. urging us to give, to make a difference. We determine our destiny. We are each the captain of our own ship. Look how wonderful we are. We help orphan children with AIDS, we provide mosquito nets to protect the destitute from malaria, we provide childcare for the people of New Orleans. It is within our power, wonderful television audience, to save the world!

I was struck by the void. Did you feel it? God was not there. He had nothing to do with anything. It is humanity that must save itself. It is the way that the world thinks in this awful postmodern age.

So, when the Idol contestants started singing "Shout to the Lord" to close out the show, I perked up. I looked over at Kathleen, the only one remaining to watch with me after 2 1/2 hours of raising money, and we both couldn't believe that they were singing that song!

But something didn't sound quite right.

"They changed the words! I can't believe they changed the words!" I cried.

The first stanza is:

My Jesus, My Savior
Lord, there is none like You.
All of my days
I want to praise
The wonder of Your mighty love . . .

But they changed the "Jesus" to "Shepherd". Just like that, they managed to make the song politically correct, because now you could sing it and apply it to any god you wanted. Everyone would be happy. No would would be judging. No one would be intolerant. We'd all go to our beds that night happy that we'd just raised millions of dollars for charity.

I was fuming. I fussed. I squirmed. I threatened to boycott the show.

Tonight, to my surprise, in the American Idol results show, the contestants opened up the program with the same song! Only this time, the words were changed back to "My Jesus"! I couldn't believe my ears. I wondered who had stepped in and how much they had had to change of their original programming for the night to make that work.

Some day, the name of Jesus will get a lot more respect. Let us never forget who He is and what we are to Him. Without Him we are nothing . . .

Philippians 2:9-11

9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.