Jessica Simpson's Daisy Duke flap

Anyone hear about this? There has been a brief chatter about this "intolerant Christian group" that is bashing Jessica Simpson for her racy Dukes of Hazzard video, "demanding" that she reshoot the video. The story is that Jessica's dad is/was a minister and now is her manager and the mastermind behind her moral decay, which is reminiscent of Brittney and other pop divas.

I am not going to list the group's name here but I immediately suspected something might be up. "Christian groups" gave up trying to reform MTV a long time ago, and "demanding" that a singer re-shoot a video seems like begging for abuse. I tracked it down, you could too but I don't recommend using your time that way. It certainly is "intolerant" and somebody might believe its claims to be "christian", but it was one of the most accusatory websites I have ever stumbled across.

The site is basically the home of all sorts of conspiracy theories and sets up its web presence with a picture of President Bush standing in front of a swastika flag. It is possible that John Connor, the author of the site and its published "manifesto" (19.95 + tax) believes in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and maybe has prayed a prayer of repentance and allowed Jesus to be the boss. But impression that I received from his site is certainly not one of love, joy or peace.

I clicked on his audio feed an heard something akin to a super-villain, laughing about how successful his ploy was, to stir up controversy about the trivial Jessica Simpson thing so people could hear about really important stuff: his 9-11 theories. Apparently he concocted this whole protest singlehandedly to attract traffic to his site. Meanwhile media people are scooping this up, talking about "intolerant christians".

THE PROBLEM

The only reason the media can report so sloppily is that believers have a huge propensity to focus on God's judgment and the expense of His mercy. Many people associate the church with hellfire & damnation rather than unconditional acceptance and grace. People don't bat an eye at sloppy reporting since we are often argumentative and antagonistic. The next thing that has happened is that under the buzzword of "tolerance", there is huge pressure to be politically correct and to twist the Bible around so that it endorses just about anything. Those of us who don't want to either be antagonistic or of this anemic brand of "tolerance" are stuck in the middle trying to figure out what to do. The "tolerants" and the antagonistics seem exempt from this quagmire. It's easier to be a black/white thinker.

WHAT TO DO

What is the appropriate response when people who call themselves "christians" act in this manner?

Pray for them. Pray for John Connor, the webmaster and voice behind this trumped-up false controversy. Don't pray out of anger or fear of other people's reaction, just sincerely pray that God will cause truth to be apparent. Pray that John becomes overcome with God's love. Ask God to use this person's boldness and his writing and technical abilities for redemptive purposes. Also pray for Jessica Simpson and her dad.