British tabloid veteran Dan Wooding knows a good headline when he hears one.<\/p>\n
Here a good one for grocery checkout racks: \u201cChurches pray for the Osbournes.\u201d Or even better: \u201cBleeping Baptists asked to pray for the Bleeping Osbournes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That second headline is true, minus the \u201cbleeping\u201d parts.<\/p>\n
The media juggernaut led by Ozzy \u201cThe Prince of Darkness\u201d Osbourne and his wife Sharon is back in the news, with mom and dad renewing their marriage vows before a flock of family, friends and the 1970s disco group \u201cVillage People.\u201d The 20th anniversary rites were delayed several months by Sharon Osbourne\u2019s life-and-death struggle with colon cancer.<\/p>\n
All of this is, of course, fodder for the hit \u201creality TV\u201d series about life in the family\u2019s Beverly Hills mansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was watching their show and I thought to myself: we should have Ozzy Osbourne day in churches across America,\u201d said Wooding, now a California-based writer for Christian radio and news. \u201cI mean, these are some people who truly need our prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Wooding wrote a commentary for the Baptist Press wire service and others asking why Christians don\u2019t try praying for distressed entertainers, instead of just cursing them.<\/p>\n
Wooding wasn\u2019t joking, in large part because his own life once veered into the media wonderland occupied by MTV\u2019s First Dysfunctional Family. He was born into a missionary family in Nigeria, but raised in Birmingham, England. As a young man, Wooding worked on the warped side of journalism, serving as London correspondent for the National Enquirer, the Sunday Mirror and the Fleet Street tabloids. He chased the Beatles, Monty Python, gangsters, movie stars and everybody else.<\/p>\n
It was in 1980 that Wooding \u2014 drunk in London\u2019s \u201cStab in the Back\u201d pub \u2014 hit bottom and vowed to return to the faith. He changed gigs, but also retained his intense interest in entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristians are so QUICK to judge and write people off as lost causes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe end result is that the only image of Christianity that someone like Ozzy may ever have is angry protestors marching around outside his shows. \u2026 Christians need some option other than pointing a finger at people and yelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is evidence, said Wooding, that Ozzy Osbourne is aware of his own \u201cspiritual desperation,\u201d which is symbolized by the myriad crosses in his wardrobe and home Dr. Ozzy has had private talks about faith with superstar keyboardist Rick Wakeman of Yes, who is also one of Wooding\u2019s close friends.<\/p>\n
And, as Sharon Osbourne told journalists when their MTV series first hit cable: \u201cThe best neighbor we\u2019ve ever had is Pat Boone. We miss him terribly.\u201d Of course, that meant the born-again Boone was on one side and cleaned-up rocker Meat Loaf was on the other, daughter Kelly reminded her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was,\u201d quipped Ozzy, \u201csort of like a Satan sandwich.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s funny and so is the family\u2019s show. But there is also an undercurrent of unhappiness and pain \u2014 with the children trashing each other, Ozzy living in a daze and Sharon waging war against the \u201cnext door neighbors from hell,\u201d said Wooding.<\/p>\n
What is clear to even the most casual viewer is that whatever peace and stability the clan enjoys is rooted in Ozzy and Sharon\u2019s marriage and, especially, in her commitment to support him during his legendary struggles with alcohol, aging, depression and the other forms of madness that accompany heavy-metal superstardom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she goes, I can\u2019t even imagine what happens to that man and those children,\u201d said Wooding. \u201cSo right there, that is something people can pray about. This mother is holding this family together and she has cancer. Pray for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a way, the Osbourne family can serve as a wake-up call for church people who tend to focus only on life in their own sacred circles, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Osbournes are not, believe it or not, the most dysfunctional family in America,\u201d he concluded. \u201cMillions of families are just as messed up as they are. The Osbournes at least have the courage to admit how messed up they are. The point is that we need to be praying for messed-up families in general and maybe praying for the Osbournes would help some people realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British tabloid veteran Dan Wooding knows a good headline when he hears one. Here a good one for grocery checkout racks: \u201cChurches pray for the Osbournes.\u201d Or even better: \u201cBleeping Baptists asked to pray for the Bleeping Osbournes.\u201d That second headline is true, minus the \u201cbleeping\u201d parts. The media juggernaut led by Ozzy \u201cThe Prince […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[324,575,676,694,750],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-entertainment","tag-mtv","tag-prayer","tag-protests","tag-rock-music"],"yoast_head":"\n