Iconography: Michael Jackson

The Death of the King of Pop has stunned the world. Yet it stuns me that we care so much (pardon me for my harshness).

"I just can't believe it!" "He was an icon!" "He changed the world!"

My initial response catches people off guard: "We're all gonna die." "Why are you so sucked into the celebrity?"

An article I read earlier this week compared Jackson's death to that of Princess Diana for my generation. So I'll try to get back into my old self and try to relate to the disturbing feelings that folks around the world are experiencing that come with this death.

I remember exactly where I was when Lady Di lost her life in that awful car wreck. I remember struggling with the feelings of disbelief. I remember holding a prayer vigil in my closet to a God I hardly knew. "Why can someone so good lose their life?" "Who will fill her shoes?" I thought to myself. I cried. I maintained a somber attitude. "What's wrong with the world?"

I think it brought up a number of things in me that folks are experiencing this week over Michael Jackson's death.

1) We are not invisible. Celebrity status tends to thrust folks into an all-access life-style that we assume promises you "the good life." It brings up all of these questions that really make us face our maker. If this person can die, then so can I. If there is no safety from death from this person--especially if they are branded a "good" person, then there is no get out of jail free card from death. In the theology world, it also leads us to questions of theodicy--how does a good God allow bad things to happen, especially to those we love and adore?

2) I think that part of the iconography that is associated with certain celebrities really has more to do with our own need for rest from a turbulent world. Michael's moonwalk can make even a handicapped person want to get up and scream in amazement. A good pop song makes a working class person's life a little bit easier. A cultural crossover can be respite and healing for our souls that things should be the way that we know that they ought to be: where we all get along. Part of our sense of familiarity, closeness and loss relates to our own memories of times when life was good to us.

These are what I would consider legitimate things to lament about the loss of someone such as Diana and Michael. Of course, I think much of it also has to do with the very real fact that we lament over the personal struggles that these folks faced and that they didn't have more time in life to experience the redemption that we longed for them to have. Our hearts seems to also be much more sensitive when children and other famous loved ones are involved--and are left without a goodbye.

These examples are some of the truths that come up with these deaths, but as a student of theology, I have to point out a few traps that are set before us.

1) We may see commendable acts in the lives of certain people, but that does not make them good. I particularly appreciated the response from the White House in that when pressured to make a statement on MJ's death, they gave condolences out to the family and fans and reminded us of the reality of the very real problems that Jackson faced in the latter part of his life. I'm not sure that I could show my own child footage of Michael Jackson grabbing his crotch every few minutes and calling him a "good" person or a role model. Perhaps I would show footage of a moonwalk or Jackson visiting orphanages or singing "We are the World." And certainly I hope to remind them of the role that he played in teaching us about life in "Black or White." But as Scripture tells us, there is not one of us who are good in and of ourselves.

2) Celebrating Jackson as an "icon" is dangerous. The truth is that he is an icon for folks. For some, he is their god as they spend more time thinking about him and their "love" for him to the exclusions of their own personal needs, knowledge of the true God, their children, their work, etc. Idolatry is a scary thing. I say this as a person who kissed ten life-size headshots of Leonardo DiCaprio on my way out the door each morning in the 7th grade. I watched my friend and I get sucked into the world of boy bands that misappropriated our understanding of men and our own desires. All of these things drew us away from other people, away from a world of suffering people and away from the God who truly wanted our love and adoration and the one who could return that affection.

All in all, these untruths lead us away from the true King. Who allows our bodies to sing and dance? Whose image are we made in to bring good into the world? Who has started and will continue the work of racial reconciliation? Who is worthy of our adoration? Who gives us redepmption? Who can give us hope and life beyond situational, physical and spirtual death? It is none other than God who sent us a King, who allows us to play a part in his celebrity.