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Background: In contemporary American society
"celebrities" are fair game for all the sick hatred that seethes just beneath
the veneer of civility that masks American life. By the fact that people have become
public figures they lose their right to their privacy, their good names, their basic human
decency. The tabloids one can find in the supermarkets depend for their huge revenues on
the delight with which Americans rejoice in tearing apart the reputations
of the famous. One might argue to use the old term whether these journals are an occasion
of sin. The glee with which we celebrate the public faults, for example, of a famous
African American clergyman, suggest not only racism but hypocrisy. Jesus, knowing human
nature very well, suggested that we leave
judgements about the sins of other people to God. In contemporary America we are afraid
that God won't strike the sinner down quickly enough, so we try to save him the trouble. |
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Story: Once upon a time a woman was running for a position in the State
Legislature.
She had all the moves - wife, mother, attractive, articulate, moderate. In
her district if you won the primary you won the election. Her opponent had
been in office for many years and seemed to be a blundering politician of the
old school. She was way ahead of him in the polls. However, he discovered
that she had once born a child out of wedlock while her husband was away in
the service. He turned this information over to an ambitious young reporter
whose editor thought it was a great story. Go after it for all its worth.
They spread the story all over the front page of the paper. The woman's
husband and children did not know about the child. Neither did any of her
friends. She was denounced by clergymen, politicians, and feminists - either
for having the child or for her adultery or for both. Her child was found
with adopted parents and pictures of him appeared on the front pages of the
paper. She withdrew from the race in order to stitch together her family and
the ruins of her life. The paper congratulated its reporter and itself for
defending the public's right to know. After her opponent was reelected
youthful extra-marital indiscretions in his life were discovered and
revealed in the same paper. No one ever reported, however, that the young
reporter beat his wife.
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