My First Time Voting

One theoblogianâ€™s response to Idol Gives Back

Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 by Sam Yeiter
Categories: Popular Culture

My wife and I have watched three seasons of American Idol…this one, and the ones where Fantasia and Carrie Underwood won (Carrie shouldn’t have won…Bo was waaaaay better). Anyway, until this week, we had never voted. I actually poked fun at people who cared enough to vote, caricaturing them all as 12 year old girls with nothing better to do. But this week, all of that changed. We put down the popcorn and voted. Why? Read on.

This week was Idol Gives Back, an event focused on raising funds for underprivileged children in Africa and America. Part of the fund raising included some mega-corporation that donated 10 cents for every vote cast this week (up to 50 million votes). My wife and I wanted to make sure they hit the 50 million mark. We even let our daughter vote…she was so excited to be helping raise money for impoverished kids.

Tonite I felt like I had to write this brief post…not because of some deep theological truth that suddenly dawned on me…but because I was again touched by one of the most basic of God’s expectations of us, “to love mercy” (Micah 6:8). Certainly, what we saw tonight was human-on-human mercy.

At first I was tempted to go off in the direction of, “Why is it the pagans are always having to take care of social needs? Why isn’t the Church doing this? Why does Bono have to bail us out again?” But then I realized that the Church is doing much to help in these areas, and suddenly something else struck me. Isn’t this a beautiful picture of Psalm 50:10 merged with Proverbs 21:1. God owns everything…all of Ellen DeGeneres’ cash…and he turns it where he desires. When God wants little children in Africa or the Appalachians to have the money of the wealthy (the American demi-kings, if you will), he stirs them to part with it willingly. How beautiful is that? So, rock on, American Idol. You may not have realized it, but you have been about God’s business this night.