Britton Christian Church

Good Morning Everyone,

I was at the Y getting in my morning run earlier today and Carrie Prejean and Donald Trump were making their rounds on the morning shows. You would have to have been locked in a closet not to know what has been going on with Miss Prejean. Miss Prejean shared her beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman and a firestorm was controversy ensued.

At the end of Robin Roberts interview she said to Donald Trump, “You have a young daughter. Is this the image that you want to have for the pageant? With the photographs and such?” What she was really asking is, “Is Carrie Prejean a role model for our young girls?” I have heard that phrase, “role model,” used about Miss Prejean several times in the last few days, but this morning, when I heard Robin Roberts question, I had a thought: “There is only one.” Carrie Prejean is not a role model any more than Michael Phelps is a role model, any more than Carrie Underwood or Oprah Winfrey is a role model, any more than… you fill in the blank. Charles Barkley, several years ago, did a TV ad in which he said, “I am not a role model.” Charles was right. There is only one role model that we can look to and not be disappointed and His name is Jesus. We are to follow Him, and if we do so we will never be disappointed.

I can appreciate Carrie Prejean’s boldness to be honest about her belief that marriage is not between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, but between a man and woman. I applaud her willingness to not compromise her beliefs for a crown. At the same time Carrie Prejean is not a role model for my daughter, your daughter, or anyone else for that matter.

They showed the pictures that are in question this morning while Miss Prejean was being interviewed and they fall far short of 1 Timothy 2:9, “I want women to dress modestly…” Last night, in another interview I saw, Miss Prejean talked about her Christian faith and her dream of being a Victoria’s Secret model almost in the same sentence. I don’t know about you, but that troubles me.

In the day in which we live we cling to anyone who appears to be larger than life. We look to them to be something more than we are, something different than we see in ourselves. We, as people, are “just” people. That goes for the wealthiest person in the world, the most beautiful person in the world, the most gifted athlete, musician, or intellect in the world. We are just people. Flawed at our core, needy in the truest sense of the word, and limited in so many ways. We need to keep this in mind when we feel the urge to make Carrie Prejean, LeBron James, or the next “American Idol” an “idol” we can look up to. There is only one whom we can follow and never be let down and never led astray. His name is Jesus.

In His Steps,
Mike