THIS morning I was thinking about Paris Hilton when a topless lady stood next to me.
Thinking about Paris Hilton is easy, when you’re in a job like mine.
She’s done time and in the middle of it, professed a religious conversion. Religion is what I do, so when somebody has something to say about it, I want to know what gives.
The topless lady was my six-year-old daughter, and as I was shovelling porridge in my mouth she was looking for her clothes.
Paris and my daughter are related topics, as I hope to show.
Let’s start with Paris. In my opinion and for what it is worth (which is precisely nothing in this case) Paris Hilton’s conversion to Christianity comes across like another makeover job that is all just a part of the Paris entertainment bandwagon.
So convincing me of its actual value in terms of either news or religion is always going to be pushing brown substances uphill with a stick.
I don’t know why the media are interested in it. I don’t know why I’m writing about it. I don’t know why you’re reading about it.
But there is great value in thinking about shame, and even though that is one of my least favourite feelings in the world, I am thankful to Paris and my six-year-old for making me face that terrible emotion once again.
Basically this is the story. If I even for a moment lift my mind’s gaze away from Paris and back onto myself, I’m not pleased by what I find.
Why would I be interested in the latest news of someone like her? Who, if I reflect on it for a moment, seems confused, out of control, and hypnotised by behaviours and a lifestyle that are mainly hurting herself whilst playing up to the voyeur and scandal monger in each of us.
How would I be thinking about it differently if she was my six-year-old daughter, grown up and in the full glare of the publicity machine? I can tell you I wouldn’t be happy.
That’s always assuming that any of the stuff we hear about is actually true. I have a pretty low opinion of people who would report this stuff as news, and my opinion extends even to include their capacity to get the details right and not make stuff up.
My low opinion is really only tempered by the slightly shameful feeling that here I am, writing about Paris as well.
Enough of that then. Here’s how Jesus dealt with people’s shame, especially when he crossed paths with various women who may or may not have said or done things they felt ashamed about.
Without exception he treated them with respect.
He was so respectful that he would’ve treated Pauline Hanson with respect. If he hadn’t been so smart and insightful and compassionate as a human being, his high regard for losers and outcasts would have set him up for regular public mockery.
Well, actually, it did anyway, since his enemies kept trying to link him to the losers and outcasts that he spent time with, and suggest that he was pretty much the same as them.
Jesus, for his part, had quite a lot to say about those hypocrites who wanted to push losers, outcasts and women of questionable reputation and morality across his path and onto centre stage.
None of it was good.
These hypocrites acted for a reason. They wanted to see Jesus’ reaction. They knew that if he was seen to condone immorality, then he was exposed - shown up as being just another of the immoral people he was seen to spend time with.
But if he was seen to condemn it, then he would lose his popular following amongst the crowds quicker than you could say "Brangelina" or "weight loss scandal".
But they missed out on both counts. Because in Jesus, men and women found a man they could depend on to treat them well.
Possibly where they’d never been able to trust someone before.
Paris, I hope you find what you’re looking for. I pray that your trust in Jesus, if real, will grow.
If it’s not real I pray that your contact with the fake and nauseating religion of the American self-help variety won’t put you off the true God. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
The rest of you losers who have taken an interest here.
Can you just leave Paris alone, and while you’re at it, make sure that the world is a place where my six-year-old daughter doesn’t have to face the same treatment.
They allow comments on the article at the Daily Tele, so you might like to have a go.
4 comments:
Can't believe you called your readers losers! Assuming people in that category would read your piece, at least.
It was the rhetorical 'you', Campbell, which includes me but not you. ;-)
Great article Gordon - I enjoyed reading it immensely.
Thanks David—a grumpy, narky personality like mine has all sorts of benefits if one is into producing lowbrow journalism ;-)
Not that there's anything wrong with lowbrow!
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