As I sit at my desk on this Wednesday afternoon I am struck at the sad state of affairs in our country.  No I am not referring to the health care bill or the latest Washington scandal.  My little corner of the world has been turned on it’s ear because a football coach resigned after only one year on the job.  Now granted that is news, especially when he coaches at the largest university in our state and makes nearly $2 million per year.  And certainly I am interested in knowing about it as I am a Tennessee football fan.  But let’s face it this thing has taken on a life of itself.

At approximately 8:15 last night news began to break about the earthquake in Haiti at about the same time the news of Kiffin’s departure for the University of Tennessee to take the head coaching job at the University of Southern California was announced.  On each of the local television stations the news departments broke in with a special report.  One might think that would be a report of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, but no it was a special report on the Kiffin story.  Eventually, every reporter in town was on the story.  Live updates were sent directly from the UT campus to keep the public up to date on this most important story.  Students were rioting in the streets.  Yet not a peep about the tragedy in Haiti, not a word.

By the time the 10 pm news was on, the entire 30 minute news cast was preempted by the Kiffin departure, with analysis by former players, sports experts, and man on the street interviews.  Thinking the subject had been exhausted I stayed up for the 11 pm edition of the local news, more of the same although they did find time to give a weather update.  Yet not a word about the thousands who had died and the multiple thousands injured in Haiti.

Whats my point?  Am I anti-football news, not at all, in fact I have talked my fair share about the Kiffin catastrophe.  My point is simply this, the reaction of the local media to the departure of an overpaid, egocentric, football coach, whose greatest achievement in life would be to be part of a group of men who win a bunch of football games, (there is a reason they call them games, it is because they are a form of play, they don’t matter) and declared to be the make believe “National Champion,” was so unbalanced.  I suspect the unbalance was not due to the people at the TV stations valuing the Kiffin fiasco higher that the earthquake in Haiti, no it was that the public valued news on a coach leaving over the tragic loss of life on the poverty stricken island of Haiti.  Herein lies the tragedy, as a society we value entertainment over eternity, laughter over life, and our own happiness over the health and well being of others.  Had one of the stations dared air the Haiti story as its lead they would have suffered at the hands of an entertainment addicted community and would have lost significant market share.  Oh the depths to which we have sunk.

Perhaps Amos had us in mind when he wrote… “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgression of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals- those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted.’”  Oh that God would grant us the grace to sober up and view life as he does.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Missions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.