What's the Message

I am curious about the election that just finished. I admit I don't generally follow politics real closely so I may have missed a few things along the way that may actually answer my questions. Still, I'll throw this out there any way...

Leading up to the election when ever I checked in on the things all I ever heard the presidential candidates talk about was Iraq. When I looked at the papers briefly following the election I saw that the exit polls indicated that those who voted for Bush made their decision based on moral values. What did I miss here? Where did the candidates show their moral values? When did war become the soul determinant of moral values?

I would like to think that it's a good thing that people are making decisions based on moral values, but do we really know what they are any more? Where is our societies compass? We have shows like "The Biggest Loser" and we say it's good because people are losing weight. Or is the show on to make fun of these fat people? We have people taking novels like "The Davinci Code" to be proclaiming religious truths? Where is our moral compass?

When we put these things together I wonder what sort of message we should hear? What kind of message is being sent to the church? How will the church, and church leaders, respond? Society wants to act based upon moral values, but how will they be determined? How can we help people make moral decisions? Or have we changed how we make moral decisions? If we have changed, is it a change for the better?

Real (?) World

Okay, I'll admit it, I've been sucked into the world of reality television. I'm not sure and I'm not sure why, but there is a lot of it I enjoy. I don't know how much I care for some of the newer stuff, but some of the "originals" that kind of put reality television on the map I like. I still enjoy "Survivor" and "Real World", those sorts of programs. So this morning I was watching the latest installment of "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" and I was struck by something. I began to wonder what it's going to be like for some of the people there who have been living their life, largely, on camera for the last six years or so. Some of the people on that program like Coral, the Miz, etc. have been doing this "Challenge" for the last six years, plus their season on MTV. What will their life be like when they are 60 and the cameras are no longer on them? It struck me as Coral was caught saying something in effect to, "I've never cared for someone like this before." Really? Because just a few seasons ago she was saying that about another guy. So much is getting played out on camera in this surreal, formulated world of theirs. In the past celebrities would fade into relative obscurity, but they could at least point back and say, "I won an Oscar for that movie" or "I won three championships" or something to that effect. What are these people going to say when they fade into obscurity? "Man could I eat cow brains fast" or "I was the biggest bitch to ever be on that show" There is something increasingly more sad about that... I think...