The program opened with a homily by President Bush about American values, teamwork, dedication and the National Football League.<\/p>\n\n
It ended with Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem, with the glare of red rockets reaching the dome of the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n\n
Washington Redskins great Joe Theismann reverently called it \u201ca national moment of remembrance,\u201d saluting thousands of uniformed military personnel in the crowd. ABC Sports and \u201cNew Pepsi Vanilla and Diet Pepsi Vanilla, the Not-So-Vanilla Vanilla\u201d simply called it \u201cNFL Kickoff Live 2003.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This pre-packaged spectacle on the National Mall was business as usual for most American viewers. But it may have taught a lesson to the 7,000-plus pastors, parents and youth ministers who read and passed on one of Walt Mueller\u2019s email alerts to punch \u201crecord\u201d on their VCRs and use this as a religious education lab.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis kind of stuff has become so mainstream that we don\u2019t even blink,\u201d said Mueller, founder of the Center for Parent\/Youth Understanding (www.cpyu.org) in Elizabethtown, Pa. \u201cThe whole thing is about mass marketing, of course, but those messages are mixed in there with patriotism, sex, entertainment, sports and everything else. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis was a peek into the American soul. It said, \u2018This is what we value. This is what we think is acceptable, good and, of course, cool.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
The show had something for everyone, from the generic rage of tattooed suburban rockers to bluesy power chords by graying superstars who are eligible for the AARP. Football legends hugged military heroes, while TV producers wrapped everything in red, white and blue.<\/p>\n\n
But the reason many tuned in was to see what former Mickey Mouse Club boy toy Britney Spears would do to top her girl-on-girl love fest with Madonna on the recent MTV Video Music Awards. The one-time Southern Baptist babe gave it her best shot, lip-syncing her way through gender-bending \u201cfreak dance\u201d moves that mimicked sex with reed-thin female dancers as well as the hunky males.<\/p>\n\n
Washington Post critic Tom Shales was amused, in a tired sort of way: \u201cWhen they weren\u2019t being groped or fondled by her, dancers helped Spears strip her pants off, revealing a bikini-like black bottom. \u2026 They even helped straighten out the little pixie\u2019s shorty shorts so that they didn\u2019t reveal too much. Or maybe so that they did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It was a pathetic sight, said Mueller, and many viewers probably laughed. But it\u2019s important for adults to see this through the eyes of millions of girls who started watching Spears \u2014 with parental blessings \u2014 when they were nine or 10 years of age. Now they are entering a time of tremendous physical, emotional and spiritual changes.<\/p>\n\n
What did they see on their television screens?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cTwelve- to 14-year-old girls are not going to watch something like this and say, \u2018Oh, what a cynical attempt to be shocking in the name of commercialism,\u2019 \u201d said Mueller. \u201cNo, the girls who grew up with Britney \u2014 whether they want to admit it or not \u2014 have to see this and think: \u2018This is how Britney looks now. This is how she acts now. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The program opened with a homily by President Bush about American values, teamwork, dedication and the National Football League. It ended with Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem, with the glare of red rockets reaching the dome of the U.S. Capitol. Washington Redskins great Joe Theismann reverently called it \u201ca national moment of remembrance,\u201d saluting […]<\/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":[67,144,579,844,940],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apolgetics","tag-britney-spears","tag-music-video","tag-television","tag-youth-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n