The Beijing Olympics and Rick Warren’s Political Interviews … Not All They’re Purported to Be
Like most of you, I’ve watched too much television recently – most of it given to the Olympics from Beijing. My wife and I marveled at the opening ceremonies, at the technical expertise of song and dance, and at choreography of thousands of actors, dancers and drummers not to mention all the behind-the-scenes techies who made the show so spectacular. The Olympic architecture still takes my breath away even after first seeing these buildings two weeks ago. The buildings themselves live and breath as though they had come alive.
We all knew the Chinese were world-class designers of fireworks and it showed on opening night. But we’ve since learned some of the effects were computer generated and not every fiery explosion was really an explosion. Some of it was CGI enhanced - such as the helicopter fly-by that was choreographed with the fireworks. So much had been so mind-bending up to this point. It all seemed so plausible - why would they do that when they were so capable of taking our breath away with the real thing?
Then we learned the sweet little Chinese girl with the angelic face was not the same Chinese girl who actually sang the song – instead, she was lip-synching! Seems the beautiful voice was not coming from a child deemed pretty enough to put before the world to sing. What a tragedy! How will this little girl grow up knowing she could sing well enough for the world to enjoy but was deemed too ugly to put forward as the face of China’s children? Have our American television values been exported like a virus that’s infected the whole world? As we say at our house, “there are no ugly women on TV.” Enough said.
Michael Phelps was unworldly like a fish. All eight races won with gold; most of them for world records. Has there been another athlete with these kinds of gifts? Well, yes, say the historians who cite Jim Thorpe, an athlete capable of very similar acts of dominance over his peers along with bouts of extensive drinking at night between the scheduled events. But I still like Phelps’ chances of being the record-holder into old age with no one coming behind him to challenge the record … after all someone would have to win 9 events to break the record!
But the coup de grâce over the last few weeks was watching Rick Warren sit with Senators McCain and Obama on a balmy summer night asking questions folks from around the country had submitted. No trick questions and all asked equally of the two Presidential candidates. Make what you will of their answers, both handled the moment well and both gave very thoughtful answers leaving a nation with a lot to think about. Or was there more to the story?
Some have challenged the honesty of the evening as Warren assured the viewers that while Obama was on stage, McCain was sequestered in “a cone of silence” (whatever that is), when in fact, McCain had not yet arrived and was actually en route to the church. Did he listen in to what Obama was saying thus giving him an advantage or not?
On another front, the interviews have picked up criticism over the fact that any pastor would interview presidential candidates in a public forum with questions containing strong religious implications. There’s the schmarminess of two candidates pandering themselves to a powerful conservative pastor who has done some flip-flopping on his own about his involvement in politics. Warren has a scattered past on using his power as a pastor-author to encourage other Christians to vote on a particular candidate based on their moral views. Our democracy is set up where one’s religious views should be considered private and not to be scrutinized (no religious test) and that we choose our leaders on their ability to lead and on the covenants they make with the citizens to rule for the good of all and not just to the views of a few based on their religious views. The whole thing helps us see how our politics have turned into a form of prostitution serving lobbyists, corporate money for funding, and right-wing religion that compromises the system for the sake of votes no matter what the candidate really thinks or believes. We should do all we can to steer clear of this kind of faith-baiting.
Still, a lot was learned about the candidates and perhaps lessons were learned about the process whereby a well-known pastor would crawl in bed with the candidates about an election that should be about the candidate’s vision of leadership and not their religious views. These are interesting days and they make for fascinating television, don’t they?
By the way, have you registered to vote?
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August 23rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Concerning the “cone of silence,” it was something popularized on the Get Smart TV show in the ’60s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_silence
Concerning “not about their religious views”: It sounds like you’re setting up some sort of impossible dichotomy. Leadership and religious views are not mutually exclusive. Since our faith/beliefs inform/guide our choices– including the leadership choices we make– then I want to know about a candidates faith.
pax,
meb
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I thought Warren handled the event and the candidates with remarkable fairness and warmth. He asked intelligent, important questions that matter to all of kinds of people.
And, I was just pleased to see a pastor, any pastor on television who did not come across like a salesman, a pharisee, a pervert, or an idiot.
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Gosh, you make a good point about the fact that a pastor could come across so well!
I agree there was the appearance of fairness in the questions but the setup was faulted as it was built on the platform of conservative Christian beliefs … seems to be a further endorsement of one particular faith at the exclusion of all others … seems to suggest that our leaders must now come before whomever the conservative Christians of the day deem to be the anointed one to ask all the questions … seems also to be a temptation for the candidates to stump their faith to fit the questions whether they believe in their answers or not. Or at least that’s how I see it.
The implications of those issues are not good for government and they’re not good for faith. Doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened every election year since Jimmy Carter said the words, “born again,” but it doesn’t mean it’s a sign of a healthy process.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I have registered. Voted for Obama in the primary and will again. I’m sorry the Chinese seemed to have so much riding on these games. But then again, maybe every host nation does. It did seem like they were going to great lengths to show us all something.
And they did. But it would have been just as great without hurting the little girl and without faking the fireworks.
Are you sure those buildings are real? We’ll probably find out they were in a run-down gymnasium with a cgi overlay for the tv.