As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his (or her)folly,” declares Proberb 26:11.
The dreadful tragedy of Britney’s ongoing meltdown is that she views redemption as regaining her status as the ultimate pop tart.
She bombed because she couldn’t shake her groove thing wildly enough and actually sing the same vacuous lyrics that gained her star standing in the increasingly crass, dysfunctional and self-destructive rock “culture.”
The MTV awards were a paean to bad taste, conspicuous and gaudy consumption, and juvenile behavior. Witness the closing fight between the former husbands of Pam Anderson.
Being part of this world will never save Britney (or anyone else). She needs to catch a clue and get out. Sober up, chill out, take care of her children. She needs to get past faddish, shallow attempts at spirituality and she she could get the education she clearly lacks.
It’s inifinitely more important to be a person than a star.

I hope you’re right about Britney. But in that video I just watched, I saw no sign of a prodigal daughter longing to return to her “spiritual home.” I saw only a fallen pop star desperately grasping to return to her past pinnacle of worldly success. Two very different destinations.

My curiosity runs to whether the people at MTV were expecting a catastrophe as an attention-grabber. I watch very little television and probably haven’t seen MTV since the 80′s but I saw an ad a few days ago for the show and it was almost entirely focussed on Britney. My first thought was “they have to be kidding,” but this post is here, the catastrophe was in the LA Times and is a headline on CNN.com so now I’m wondering if that wasn’t the whole point. To lure her into a disaster that people would be talking about today. That would be low even by TV executive standards.

Thank you, David, for not judging Britney Spears. That was, indeed, a painful thing to watch last night. God has an agenda and he’s always working toward that agenda. His agenda is restoration and wholeness and I would never dare think I need this less than Britney Spears. We do not know her heart, but I too believe she is deciding she no longer wants a part of what she’s doing.

I know I’m splitting hairs here, but I have to disagree with this observation. A prodigal, by definition, is someone wasteful or extravagant. Ms. Spears fits that definition. Also, the ability to have children does not necessarialy mean you are a mother. As far as her performance goee, from what I’ve read (I did not actually see it), she strikes me as someone reluctancy participating in the dog and pony show that is the music industry. The greysuites have money invested in an upcoming album, and she is contractually obligated to promote. Does not have to like it, but she has to do it.
She very much strikes me as having embraced the hedonist lifestyle by both actions and words, to the point of self destruction. It’s a sad situation to watch someone so young piss their life away, but she does not strike me as someone with any interest in finding some level of self respect, let alone her spiritual home. You can’t fix something if you don’t think it’s broken.
Phil

I don’t think there’s any need to kick Britney while she’s down. After all, giving a salacious (and just plain bad) concert performance is the least of her “prodigality.”

This poor woman has no education, no spiritual or intellectual tools, nothing to fall back on except her displays of sexuality. She has been used by relatives, employees, friends and we are all fascinated with her fall.
Our fascination is perhaps worse than anything she has done. We are as addicted to watching such nonsense as she might be to alcohol or drugs. One addiction feeds the other.
I watched only a few seconds of the performance – it was too painful – it was tragic and we are feeding it.
God bless her and bring her to peace.

At least she hasn’t (yet) done the Michael Vick thing and dragged Jesus into it.
Some of these stars that suddenly find God remind me of a car I once saw sitting in the middle of an intersection after it had plowed into a light pole – the front license plate read: “God Is My Co-Pilot.”