Thank You, Carrie Prejean

Stephen R. Bolt

May 13, 2009

The recent drama played out in the Miss USA pageant portrays a microcosm of why the United States is rapidly spiraling out of control - economically, politically, and spiritually. As Miss California, Carrie Prejean, gave a very polite, but non-PC answer to Judge #8's intentionally politically charged question about gay marriage, there were two dynamics at play evidencing where we are today on the spectrum of good versus evil that began when Eve took the first bite of the Bartlett pear in the Garden of Eden.

First, the fact that a hand picked judge for the pageant had the political and cultural authority to even ask that question is a manifestation of how far we have strayed from the values that America's founding fathers intentionally built as the cornerstone of this republic. Can you imagine that question being asked in 1950? How about 1980? In my mind, the tipping point was reached in 1997 as I read an article in USA Today that Ellen Degeneres would be "coming out" in prime time that night. So, if we started there, and in roughly a decade have come to the point where multiple states now recognize gay marriage, and a judge at the Miss USA pageant blatantly attempts to humiliate a contestant who personifies traditional values, how will it be possible for our culture to not produce a Perez Hilton in, say 2012 that asks the question, "How do you feel about women having more than one wife?" And while we're at it, where is the logic in our political organism today that vigilantly, and criminally prosecutes polygamy when there is no longer a uniform definition of what and who constitutes a marriage?

OK, so much for stating the obvious regarding the current benchmark of our cultural morass, but the intriguing question that immediately jumps to mind is… how did we get here?

In the answer to that question lies the blueprint to the only way in which we can turn things around, and it is this: in the intersection of a political agenda bent on destroying the messenger, and the unprecedented ability in this information age to turn private indiscretions into public information, is the vile combination of both the will and the means to destroy the opposition. In other words, to the extent that someone comes forward attempting to articulate traditional values, the opposition utilizes the advances in information technology to exhume something from that person’s life which represents a mistake, a lapse in judgment, or is otherwise humiliating and then sets out to publicly amplify that wart in such a way as to imply that the person carrying the traditional values message is an imposter, a hypocrite, and entirely disqualified from the debate!

This personal destruction of the messenger campaign is extremely effective in silencing the opposition. After all, who among us doesn’t have something in their life that they are not proud of, or at a minimum, could be maliciously and intentionally embellished in an attempt to humiliate us? In the past, indiscretions by public figures such as John F. Kennedy’s (affairs), Thomas Jefferson (indebtedness), or Ullyses Grant (drunkenness), were kept to a large extent private. Not so, today.

But we must ask two questions: 1, does God call only those without blemish to advance His kingdom (I’m thinking of Paul the persecutor of Christians, Peter who denied Christ three times in public in one 24 hour period, and James who apparently suggested that his brother Jesus was a bit nuts), and 2, if all have sinned and therefore are disqualified vessels, who is it that will carry the pure message?

It is time that we who are cracked vessels realize just that – we are cracked, broken, in constant need of repair, entirely imperfect and entirely unable to fully meet the standard of the message that we carry. We also need to continuously reinforce the distinction between the message and the messenger!

“You’re right, I did get divorced. Now, back to my point”. “You’re right, I did do drugs in college. Now, like I was saying…” “You’re right, I have had financial setbacks. Now, about the need for less government…” “You’re right, I have had multiple speeding tickets. Now, about the definition of marriage…”

“Don’t confuse me – the imperfect person – with the intrinsic and timeless value of the message I am articulating and which far transcends any particular person who happens to articulate it!”

Thank you, Carrie Prejean. Scandalized as you may be (at least from their point of view), thank you for not allowing them to keep you from articulating a most important, timeless message.

Stephen Bolt is the Executive Director for Recalibrate Associates, Inc.

Recalibrate2009.com

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