A tale of two runner-ups

Media coverage in the entertainment world has been looking at two people famous for coming in second place.

On the one hand, we have the unpleasant and agonizing Carrie Prejean saga finally coming to an end as she was abruptly dismissed from her role as Ms. California. It was inevitable that this would happen. She was marked for removal from the moment she answered that question on stage. No way that in a hyper-PC environment like a beauty pageant and especially representing California in the midst of Proposition 8 controversy was that going to be allowed. Ironically what did her in had nothing to do with the multitude of inappropriate photos that have surfaced. She was done in by a brief comment expressing her opinion in response to a question soliciting her opinion. The pageant officials waited until the furor died down and the American public sought new and more exciting distractions, but the end was foreordained that night during the pageant. I am sure she will be OK, in fact with all of the uproar over this I expect Ms. Prejean to be far more famous for a far longer time than she would have been by winning the pageant. I would imagine that she will be a sought after speaker at conferences for a few years and a book is probably in the offing.

On the other hand, we have the media fawning over Adam Lambert, the runner-up from the latest American Idol. The guy who won (whose name escapes me) seems like a regular, normal guy so he is pretty much persona non grata for the media. Who cares about a normal person? Oh no, in this case we want the guy who should have won, “should have” determined as much by his, ahem, flamboyant demeanor as his singing voice. This week he came out as being a homosexual and the media was all a-twitter with excitement and feigned surprise. Adam Lambert “coming out” as being gay is like me “coming out” as being short. You can sort of tell just by looking at us. The number of people surprised by that announcement could comfortably sit in my living room and have tea. Nor was I terribly surprised to read that he has a fondness for illicit drugs. So the ‘shroom eating, pot smoking, make-up wearing homosexual certainly is going to get more attention than the clean-cut, married guy regardless of who won or who is more talented.

This should serve as a lesson for Christians who want the world’s acceptance while still maintaining their core beliefs. Carrie Prejean’s crime in this whole situation was a clumsy defense of marriage as it has existed for millennia. It was hardly a strongly worded statement or “hateful” or anything like that. She didn’t use words like “sin”, “perversion” or “deviancy”, she just made a simple, honest statement of her beliefs which mirror the majority of Americans. For that she was hung out to dry. You have to appreciate the irony of liberals being so closed-minded and hateful about someone speaking their mind and expressing themselves honestly.

The world doesn’t want a person who speaks their mind, even a person who has made some really poor choices. What the world wants is Adam Lambert, sprawled out on the cover of Rolling Stone like a twisted pin-up girl. The world doesn’t want people who hold fast to their convictions, even people who might be willing to abandon some convictions to get the world’s acclaim. It is all or nothing and our response needs to be “nothing”.