The Theological Implications of Christina Aguilera

I was riding home Sunday evening right before the Super Bowl, listening to Christina Aguilera sing the Star Spangled Banner (kind of).  I noticed immediately when she missed some of the words and I wondered if the radio announcers would make note of it.

As soon as she finished, Kevin Harlan started talking about the 60 yard long video screen above the field, and how close ups on it of many of the players showed them to be quite emotional.  Without missing a beat, Boomer Esiason responded, "Maybe they're emotional because she forgot all the words!"

Where am I going with this?  Well, J B Boren makes some good points in a post today.  The popular reaction to this particular rendition of our national anthem has been overwhelmingly negative.  Boren notes what makes this interesting is the fact that this is in a relativistic culture that often claims what matters is not so much the content of what you believe, but rather how passionately you believe it.

"Now, if we judge Ms. Aguilera's performance on passion alone, she was perfect. You couldn't ask for more passion than what she put into that song. But she didn't get the content right."

This, he points out, is analogous to how we view the gospel.  The gospel is not just an opinion on how you should live your life.  Rather, it  is the proclamation of certain events which took place in time and space, namely, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This same Jesus Christ who proclaimed in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

As such, it matters not only how passionately we believe.  The content of what we believe matters immensely as well.  Boren goes on to sum up his thoughts pretty well in his closing comment:

"So next time you are interested in having a lot of passion for what you believe (and there's nothing wrong with that), take a cue from Christina...make sure you get the words right first."

Click here to read the entire post.