Whose the real Michael Jackson

Last night I was able to watch a few minutes of an NBC special on Michael Jackson in between failed attempts to make my three year old son stay in bed.  It was fascinating and a bit bizarre as the camera and reporter followed Michael into an upper end antique store where he purchased millions of dollars worth of furniture simply by pointing to it and saying “that one”.  I don’t think he ever stopped to look at the price tag which the reporter did stating that the vase or light set or whatever they were cost around $250 grand.  It was like following the emperor and the reporter made the remark that the stuff had the feel of royalty. 

There are many opinions and theories about the eccentric and iconic life of Michael Jackson.  What gets lost amidst the dehumanizing jokes and screams of sickeningly over adoring fans is the humanity of the person who lived like a king.  Behind the mask whether it was real or fake is a human being created in the image of God with the capacity to love and be loved. 

It’s hard to see Michael’s humanity amidst the crazy media circus and bizarre lifestyle.  Still it exists while at the same time being hidden by our attempts to latch on to and squeeze to death the very icon that we’ve created.  Michael and the Jackson family made their choices.  But, the choices were offered by us, the one’s who followed the stories, bought the albums and attended the concerts.  Even if we weren’t fans, I wasn’t, we participated in this demigod creation through the pop cultural system that most of us allow to speak for our ideals as much as we use it to smother ourselves in false identities to escape the pain of the real world. 

The icon of Michael Jackson became a false reality that hid the real man.  We might not like it, we might actually hate it, but Michael Jackson was more than a pop star, a wealthy artists, and all the other stuff; he was a human being.  One who allowed the fame and wealth of the pop cultural world to create a false person hiding the real one.  And still it was there.  But, there is not where we are in our screams of adoration and curses of hate for an icon of America’s desires to possess the hearts of the masses only to realize the more you have, the more you possess, the more your face is an icon of fame the more you die not knowing who you really are. 

Let us not continue to demonize but love even the wealthy and powerful among us so that the iconic demons of pop culture can be overthrown in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It’s not the pop culture that’s the problem but the worship of something that is a lie and distorts not only us the worshipper but dehumanizes the artists.  Artists are human beings too just like you and me.