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By Andy, June 25, 2009 9:56 pm

I was 6 years old, just 3 months shy of my 7th birthday, and my family and I were on a vacation down the central California coast to check out Hearst Castle.  We were driving from our home in San Francisco in our 1969 Buick Skylark coupe, listening to the AM band, when the news came over the radio that Elvis had died.

The quintessential pop icon of my parents’ generation had gone.

Twenty years later, over Labor Day weekend, I was in Las Vegas with Will and a cast of other young twenty-something men for a bachelor party weekend.  We had piled into 2 cars that Saturday morning to tour Hoover Dam, and upon our return, after a dinner at a nearby In ‘N Out Burger joint, we got ready for a night of gaming at the Hard Rock Hotel.  Television tuned to CNN, we saw the breaking news…Princess Diana had been killed in an auto accident.

The princess who’d had the storybook royal wedding when I was 10 years old had gone.

Twelve years later, sitting in a cubicle high above downtown San Francisco, I learned that Farrah Fawcett, one of the blonde bombshells whose beauty marked my childhood and adolescence, passed on after a battle with cancer.

Jill Munroe, an original Angel, had gone.

And on that same day, sitting in that same cubicle high above downtown San Francisco, following the Twitter feed of a couple of friends, I learned that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson had died.

The “Thriller” will thrill no more.

Four pop icons, whose lives have left their mark on global pop culture, have passed within a 32 year span.  Who could forget the royal wedding in 1981?  Who could forget Jill, Sabrina, Kelly, and later Kris, in various syndicated repeats?  Who could forget the moonwalk, the lighted sidewalk in the Billie Jean video, the Eddie Van Halen solo in Beat It?

A large piece of my generation’s pop culture history passed today.

Farewell.

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By Andy, June 23, 2009 11:56 pm

I admit it.

I watched it on Monday night.

In fact, it’s been a show that our family has watched, on and off, since it first aired.

My kids, in particular, have enjoyed watching the antics of the sextuplets as they’ve grown up from crawling babies to curious 5 year olds.  But now…all we feel for the sextuplets and their twin older sisters, is nothing but sadness.

For all the flaunting of their Christian faith in the early years of their reality show (they took a trip sans kids to speak to a large church in Fresno, and Kate’s book tour last year took her to a variety of churches across the country, nevermind that their book was published by a major Christian publisher and can be found in the Christian book section), the fact is that it appears, at least from the 30 minute episodes we’ve seen, that it wasn’t as large a part of their life as we’d been led to believe.  Admittedly, some of that is editing, of course, but the pattern of behavior that we’ve seen on the show between the two parents has not been healthy for a long time. On Monday night, Jon, the father, admitted as much when he shared that he had allowed his wife to boss him around while he reacted passively (although I would argue rather passive aggressively) and that he’d finally had enough.  There was truth in that statement, as we could see that pattern throughout the life of the show.  We saw a time when Kate flipped out when Jon dressed the kids in clothes other than what she set out (because they matched) rather than accept the fact that he got them dressed and out the door for a family outing (which is what would happen in most healthy marriages).  The level of criticism she has leveled at her husband, on screen, to his face, during those love seat interviews, probably wasn’t fair much of the time.  And he should have stepped up to work through those rather than accept them the way he did.

That said, he’s a coward.  For all the criticism that I can level at the wife, I reserve my harshest for him - because as a father and a husband, he is called to more.  If he truly believed in his vow of marriage, if he truly loved his wife the way he is supposed to, he would have stepped up - would “man up” - and be the Ephesians 5 husband that God has called all husbands to be.

25-28Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

Ephesians 5:25-28 The Message

Unfortunately Jon’s actions in recent months, clubbing with another woman, is worse than anything that his wife might have done to him in the past. He should be loving his wife, faults and all, the way Jesus loves us - the sacrifical love, the love that brings the best out of us.  As a husband that’s what I want to do, to love my wife in such a way so as to bring the best out of her.  I don’t always succeed, but I’m not about to take the “easy” route and run away from the problem.  Besides, doesn’t it make sense that it would be easier for the wife to respect her husband when he is loving her the way that Jesus loves His church?

There is so much more that could be said, including the materialism that both parents seem to enjoy from the income from the show, but that’s a discussion for another day.  The sad truth is that eight more children will become victims of divorce, victims of two selfish parents, one of whom has a highly critical streak in her personality, and one who is unable to rise up to the challenge of becoming a real man…a man who should be loving sacrificially, the way Jesus loves us, the way that He commanded us to love.

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By Andy, May 15, 2007 5:33 am

41″Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Matthew 26: 41 (NIV)

This passage came into play during the season finale of…”Survivor”. Late this season, one of the contestants, Yau-Man, cut a deal with Dreamz (great names, eh?) after he (Yau) won a pickup truck after a challenge. He told Dreamz (who grew up on the street and does not own a vehicle) that he would give him the truck in exchange for the immunity idol if:

1) Both of them are in the final four.

AND

2) Dreamz wins the immunity challenge at the final four.

Dreamz agrees, and both know full well that while this deal has been struck (in front of several cameras, 4 fellow contestants, and the show’s host), there is no way to enforce it within the context of the game, other than through peer pressure and the valuation of one’s own integrity balanced in the context of a game in which the management of deception is critical to advancement in the game.

So the final four rolls around, and both Yau and Dreamz are part of the final four. Dreamz goes on to win the immunity idol at the final four…so it is assumed by the remaining 3 contestants that he will give Yau the idol because of the deal struck.

At tribal council, this does not happen, and Yau is voted out to become the final member of the jury that will select the winner of the game.

The next night, at the final tribal council in which the final 3 contestants are grilled by the remaining members of the jury, jury member Boo (yet another great name) comes up and calls out Dreamz on his faith as a Christian. (Now having seen the entire season, I do not recall Boo or Dreamz speaking of their faith - but such is the power of editing…)

Boo calls out Dreamz for not holding true to his word, telling him “I still believe in you, but I still believe you’re an immature Christian, and I hope that one day, you will be a strong Christian man and be able to tell the devil, ‘Dangle all the money you want in front of me; this Christian is not for sale.’”

Boo recognized his Christian brother as having fallen into temptation. He called out his brother for his transgression, but then heeded the words of the apostle Paul in the letter to the Galatians (chapter 6, verse 1 and 2): Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

While it certainly was a moment made for entertaining TV viewing, it was also an excellent example of a brother gently restoring a fellow brother the way we as Christians are to gently restore those who have fallen in our Christian community. As we live under the law of Christ, we may also call out our fellow Christian brothers and sisters who err under that same law.

It was a Christian teaching moment that played out on national TV.