Finding Neverland....The passing of Michael Jackson into eternity last week has been called everything from the 'sad end' or 'death of an icon,' to the 'passing of Peter Pan.' But what is most fascinating to me in Jackson's adult life and death is it's similarity to 16-year-old pop diva Miley Cyrus' ("Hannah Montana") revelation of a new nose piercing and what that might say about America's obsession with appearance. What does the death of Jacko and Miley's many piercings have to do with each other? Simply, it's an illustration of our modern-day discontent with who and what we are and look like, and our fascination- particularly by celebrities, to alter what God has created us to be.
In Jackson's case, his history does reveal a harsh if not abusive childhood under the tyranny of father Joe, as well as challenging skin problems as a youth - those not terribly uncommon to many kids today. That might explain a natural inclination to make some physical adjustments. However, to say the 'King of Pop' went through a little make-over from childhood to manhood would be an understatment, as evidenced by the fact that at his death he looked NOTHING like the boy born in Gary, Indiana. As Newsweek reported, " Jackson arguably looked his "blackest" on the original cover of 1979's Off the Wall; by Thriller, the transformation had begun. Off the Wall was his declaration of manhood: it came out the year he turned 21, and it was his greatest purely musical moment. Why did he feel so deeply uncomfortable with himself? The hopeless task of sculpting and bleaching yourself into a simulacrum of a white man suggests a profound loathing of blackness."
What is it about ourselves - celebs and now youth today that drive them to body piercings and tattoo markings of every sort and plastic surgery of every kind? We know that many, if not most, plastic surgeries are attempts to meet emotional voids in physical ways, to attract attention, or to seek approval from others. The most commonly performed cosmetic procedures include breast augmentation/lifts, liposuction (the removal of body fat), facelifts, buttock lifts, botox/fat injections, and nose and face reshaping a la Jackson, who had more thorough plastic surgery than what you get in the witness-protection program. Amazingly, two million people subject themselves to these kinds of procedures each year, shelling out money and sacrificing much time and comfort. When vanity motivates a person to undergoing surgery, he/she has become his/her own idol (Commandments 1 and 2), therefore regulating God to the status of an afterthought, which is why the Bible warns us not to be vain or conceited (Philippians 2:3-4) and not to draw attention to ourselves by the way we look (1 Timothy 2:9).
Tell the kids and write your favorite star that even the most skilled surgeon cannot hold back the hands of time, and all cosmetic surgeries will eventually have the same result—aging. Those lifted body parts will sag again, and those cosmetically altered facial features will eventually wrinkle. The Bible says, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). Therefore, it is far better to work on beautifying the person underneath, “that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight” (1 Peter 3:4), than the piercing, marking and alteration of God's good will and purposes, which ultimately is for the make-over of our hearts, minds, souls and spirits for relationship with Him- for eternity.
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