thoughts on Don Imus and daughters
Had some thoughts about this from my perspective...
So Don Imus was fired last week from the radio show he's done forever and the TV simulcast he'd done for a few years. His firing was only the latest fallout from the reaction to the names he used in reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read a USA Today piece on the subject here.)
I listen to the local ESPN Radio affiliate often during the work day, and the fallout from Imus' words sparked a lot of discussion about the intersection of sports, race, capitalism, morality, and just plain bad taste. People were interviewed and asked their thoughts about what Imus said, how it made them feel, what punishment he should receive, and the like.
As I listened to it all, something jumped out at me.
Twice, I directly heard men being interviewed say that, as the father of daughters, they found Imus' remarks offensive. Without any prompting from each other, and at different times of the day. (I'm certain others expressed this view, but I'm speaking here only of what I directly heard).
It was as if, up until the point that these men decided to marry and have children and take care of those children, the remarks would simply have been inane and stupid. But, having had said children, these men now look at the young ladies of the Rutgers University women's basketball team as, well, young ladies - young ladies like the ones they're trying to raise and provide for and see grow up.
I found this interesting because, well, Rutgers University women's basketball players have been daughters all their lives. If someone having a daughter suddenly helps them see other young women as someone's daughter, that's a good step, but it's also an indication that that person has isolated their view of someone, or perhaps of an entire age/gender group.
And as it turns out, God has something to say in this regard, especially to those living out His values as part of a faith community.
Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
- The Bible, I Timothy 5:1,2
We live in a world that has disconnected us from each other in every way except the ways in which someone else can be used to feed our own desires. So, Hugh Hefner can, on his 83rd birthday, be dating three women, the sum total of whose ages is - you guessed it - 83. And President Bill Clinton can, in point of fact, have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. And Don Imus can refer to a women's basketball team with the terms he used, in an effort at tawdry humor.
And in each of these high-profile examples, their public persona is hardly the worse for it. Millions buy Hefner's magazines, Clinton travels the world being hailed as a hero, and Imus lost his job only after more than twenty years of massive popularity and profitability in his medium spewing similar and worse rhetoric as part of his regular shtick.
So, in our culture, sometimes it takes something like having your own children to see other people as someone's children. It's a connectedness that we'd be better off to keep from losing.
Because the Rutgers University women's basketball players are someone's daughters. So are Hugh Hefner's girlfriends. And Ms. Lewinsky.
And the dancers at the clubs you pass on your way to church. And the waitress who looks like she could care less whether your steak is brown, pink, or chartreuse. And the Walmart checkout clerk who rang up your dollar-fifty-nine Cheetos at two bucks.
And the story of God shows us that these women aren't just someone's daughters: they're His masterpieces. Made to be respected, cherished, encouraged, and relationshipped in ways that reflect His dreams and plans for them.
You know - like if they were your daughters.
- - - -
Some other thoughts:
- The basic timeline of the Don Imus debacle is this: Don Imus says what he says, a week passes, he offers a sarcastic "get off my back" apology, an uproar ensues, it's splashed all over the papers, Don Imus tries to really be sorry and does so on the radio show of that paragon of integrity Rev. Al Sharpton, CBS suspends him for two weeks, advertisers start to jump ship, MSNBC cancels the simulcast and expresses outrage, CBS cancels the show and expresses said outrage.
All of which to say: the morality governing the marketplace in our culture is some weird concoction of political correctness, unadulterated greed thinly veiled as free market capitalism, and the moral relativism that is simplistically summed up in "if it feels good, do it." And that can't be good.
- Now that Don Imus has been fired, he should hit up Stevie Wonder for some of the boatloads of royalties he's making off the Imus story. Did anyone else notice that every time a radio program did a story about Imus, the bumper music was Wonder's "I Wish"? There wasn't a lot of humor to this event, but that - now, that was funny.
- - - -
In closing, I offer the following as proof that I know where the aforementioned fathers of daughters are coming from:
my oldest daughter, Gracie, with her first love
my youngest daughter, Audrey, taking her first walk through Walmart
without having to ride in a cart, just last week
some of our daughters in the faith (miss you guys!)
So Don Imus was fired last week from the radio show he's done forever and the TV simulcast he'd done for a few years. His firing was only the latest fallout from the reaction to the names he used in reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read a USA Today piece on the subject here.)
I listen to the local ESPN Radio affiliate often during the work day, and the fallout from Imus' words sparked a lot of discussion about the intersection of sports, race, capitalism, morality, and just plain bad taste. People were interviewed and asked their thoughts about what Imus said, how it made them feel, what punishment he should receive, and the like.
As I listened to it all, something jumped out at me.
Twice, I directly heard men being interviewed say that, as the father of daughters, they found Imus' remarks offensive. Without any prompting from each other, and at different times of the day. (I'm certain others expressed this view, but I'm speaking here only of what I directly heard).
It was as if, up until the point that these men decided to marry and have children and take care of those children, the remarks would simply have been inane and stupid. But, having had said children, these men now look at the young ladies of the Rutgers University women's basketball team as, well, young ladies - young ladies like the ones they're trying to raise and provide for and see grow up.
I found this interesting because, well, Rutgers University women's basketball players have been daughters all their lives. If someone having a daughter suddenly helps them see other young women as someone's daughter, that's a good step, but it's also an indication that that person has isolated their view of someone, or perhaps of an entire age/gender group.
And as it turns out, God has something to say in this regard, especially to those living out His values as part of a faith community.
Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
- The Bible, I Timothy 5:1,2
We live in a world that has disconnected us from each other in every way except the ways in which someone else can be used to feed our own desires. So, Hugh Hefner can, on his 83rd birthday, be dating three women, the sum total of whose ages is - you guessed it - 83. And President Bill Clinton can, in point of fact, have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. And Don Imus can refer to a women's basketball team with the terms he used, in an effort at tawdry humor.
And in each of these high-profile examples, their public persona is hardly the worse for it. Millions buy Hefner's magazines, Clinton travels the world being hailed as a hero, and Imus lost his job only after more than twenty years of massive popularity and profitability in his medium spewing similar and worse rhetoric as part of his regular shtick.
So, in our culture, sometimes it takes something like having your own children to see other people as someone's children. It's a connectedness that we'd be better off to keep from losing.
Because the Rutgers University women's basketball players are someone's daughters. So are Hugh Hefner's girlfriends. And Ms. Lewinsky.
And the dancers at the clubs you pass on your way to church. And the waitress who looks like she could care less whether your steak is brown, pink, or chartreuse. And the Walmart checkout clerk who rang up your dollar-fifty-nine Cheetos at two bucks.
And the story of God shows us that these women aren't just someone's daughters: they're His masterpieces. Made to be respected, cherished, encouraged, and relationshipped in ways that reflect His dreams and plans for them.
You know - like if they were your daughters.
- - - -
Some other thoughts:
- The basic timeline of the Don Imus debacle is this: Don Imus says what he says, a week passes, he offers a sarcastic "get off my back" apology, an uproar ensues, it's splashed all over the papers, Don Imus tries to really be sorry and does so on the radio show of that paragon of integrity Rev. Al Sharpton, CBS suspends him for two weeks, advertisers start to jump ship, MSNBC cancels the simulcast and expresses outrage, CBS cancels the show and expresses said outrage.
All of which to say: the morality governing the marketplace in our culture is some weird concoction of political correctness, unadulterated greed thinly veiled as free market capitalism, and the moral relativism that is simplistically summed up in "if it feels good, do it." And that can't be good.
- Now that Don Imus has been fired, he should hit up Stevie Wonder for some of the boatloads of royalties he's making off the Imus story. Did anyone else notice that every time a radio program did a story about Imus, the bumper music was Wonder's "I Wish"? There wasn't a lot of humor to this event, but that - now, that was funny.
- - - -
In closing, I offer the following as proof that I know where the aforementioned fathers of daughters are coming from:
my oldest daughter, Gracie, with her first love
my youngest daughter, Audrey, taking her first walk through Walmartwithout having to ride in a cart, just last week
some of our daughters in the faith (miss you guys!)
posted by pastor mike at 11:16 PM
1 comments
