Saturday, September 26, 2009

Miley Cyrus is "All Grown Up"

Miley was at the center of attention today with a handful of friends of mine on facebook after I asked a question if parents would allow their children to watch this video.

Should we be at all shocked to see this transformation? We have seen this happen to the majority of child stars with parents who havn't a clue. Don't get me wrong - I like Billy Ray and have him quoted on my facebook profile. I even have a sealed "All Gave Some, Some Gave All" vinyl in my office! But when I heard that Miley has been living apart from her parents since she was 14.5 out west I knew that her "free spirit" was not the only driving force behind her migration.

Disclaimer: If my life were on display for millions to see I'm sure that my parenting skills would be called into question as well but this seems to be a toxic rhythm in the Cyrus Family.

The Cyrus family has God-given gifts suited for a public life and I'm sure that it was not long after Miley was born that her parents knew that they would someday be sharing her with the world. It's exciting to see a child that has these gifts early on but giving a child exposure to fame at an early age creates a skewed and unquenchable desire for constant public affirmation. I have a problem putting young Christians on the stage to lead worship simply becasue of this principle.

This next exerpt comes from a friends blog dated late last year after the "photo shoot":

The picture doesn’t show any nudity, but it shows the shirtless Miley covering her front with a blanket and showing her bare back to the camera. Even though this picture isn’t pornographic, it disturbed Disney and Miley enough that they both issued statements. And most people agree that Miley had been duped so Vanity Fair can just sell magazines.

Obviously this makes me sad. Miley is one of the few superstars that I've felt pretty good about my kids watching and listening to. She seems to have a faith (I've blogged on that before), although I've never heard her talk too specifically about it (Remember people, just because she said "I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" at the recent awards, that doesn't mean anything. Don't ask me to list the people who have said those exact words receiving awards). But, as I've mentioned in a previous blog about Miley, her parents are once again proving to demonstrate questionable judgment.
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We should'nt put any stock into hearing someone drop the J-bomb on a crowd of celebs. Most of them have not known genuine saving faith and their faith is a result of social determinism. If their faith in Jesus is real than it is very shallow and void of lasting fruit. I am not calling Miley's faith into question. It is what it is. If Miley does subscribe to faith in Jesus than she does have a tremendous responsibility to represent Him faithfully. Typically that will never happen. Abe Lincoln said that "Every man at 40 is responsible for his own face." Miley has a while to go until she's 40 and a tremendous ammount of influence to boot but at this point in her life most of her decisions are based on multiple 40 year old's definition of true success. Jesus was very strict in this department.
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Luke 17:2 (NASB)
It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
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The Bible says further that the world can be pretty convincing in their lies, so much so that their lies sound like the truth at the moment. It talks about escaping this kind of thinking and letting Christ influence us instead of the world.

Ephesians 4:14-15 (English Standard Version)

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
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I'm not giving up on Miley but I will be very cautious in what I allow my children to see. It's not just the skin.. it's what god we allow our children to see other very popular people serving.




Tuesday, September 22, 2009

My Dad is Sending Text Messages..

Me texting Dad today: "It's a go for Saturday" (Michigan Indiana game @BigHouse)

Dad "Looking forward to it. Love ya".

Me "Dad, that was the first text you've ever sent me. I'm proud right now."

Dad "...This is the second"


Friday, September 4, 2009

Happy 40th birthday, Internet

Ok so I'm a couple of days late but read the whole article Here: September 2, 1969: Forty years ago today, in Leonard Kleinrock's UCLA lab, a group of computer scientists managed to pass bits of data from one computer to another over some some gray cable. In doing so, they created the first node of what we now call (long dramatic pause)... the Internet.

Caption Please..