The Roman’s treatment of the Christians in the first century is well-known. According to tradition, Romans went to the Coliseum to watch people ripped to bits by animals, all for the sake of entertainment. This is exploitation: the Christian had a purpose, to stay alive, while the Roman also had a purpose, to be entertained; the attainment of the Roman’s purpose involved over-riding the Christian’s purpose. Today, fortunately, we have evolved as a society. There are no more socially acceptable forms of exploitation this disturbing. Right?
Consider American Idol (AI). As most know, the first few weeks of the show consist of the auditions, of which there seem to be four kinds, three of which are valid entertainment. The first is when someone auditions, and they are basically a joke, but you get the feeling that they are ‘in’ on the joke. So ha, ha, they get their 15 minutes of fame by being silly, and then go back and brag to their friends. Another two types are those who are decent singers, and make it, while some are decent signers, but don’t.
The fourth type of audition, however, is disturbing. These consist of contestants who made the journey, confident that they are in the second or third categories I mentioned (i.e. at least they have a shot at making it). Unfortunately for them, they are there for a very different reason: to be publicly mocked and humiliated (check out this video, starting 2:30 into it). This is exploitation, because this kid goes to his audition, hoping that this may be the first step to a signing career. He realizes this may not happen, but he believes he is being auditioned in good faith. So his purpose is to achieve fame through music. AI also has a purpose, which is to boost ratings. In order to achieve this purpose, they bring in the kid for an audition in order to mock him. The kid doesn’t realize until after the audition that he has been exploited; the audition was not in good faith, as he had believed.
So the result of this exploitation? AI’s ratings inch ever upward, while a teenager was humiliated and destroyed for our entertainment. So who has it worse? The exploited Christian, or the exploited AI contestant? In one sense, of course the Roman Christian had it worse, because the Coliseum created orphans and widows. But besides that, here are some brief considerations in favor of the AI contestant:
1) The Coliseum only held a few thousand, while several million joyfully watched the humiliation of this unsuspecting teenager.
2) The Christian does not have enduring pain (his pain only lasted 20 or so seconds), while the AI contestant will remember it with great embarrassment for the rest of his life.
3) The AI contestant experienced emotional and not physical pain, and thus could easily develop some antisocial behaviors, depression, etc.
4) The Christian was not humiliated in the sense that he was proud and then brought low for all to see. The AI contestant, on the other hand, clearly had the rug pulled out from under him. That is, what he was most proud of was the object of mockery.
5) The Christian, while awaiting the public execution, took heart in the persecution because he believed it is a sign of God’s blessing (Matt 5), while the experience was just purely bad for the AI contestant; there is no silver lining.
For these reasons and perhaps a few that I am not thinking of right now, I just don’t buy that we are any more civilized than those who had season tickets to the Coliseum.
