Miley Cyrus Kills Hanna Montana!

The view from my missionary daughter and her church planter husband's apartment - Kyle and Julie Partin in DTLA.

Hello from sunny California. I am writing this post from downtown LA. Or, as we cool west coasterners call it, the DTLA. I was out of town during the MTV’s Video Music Awards. It didn’t matter that I was out of town because I most likely wouldn’t have watched the MTV VMAs anyway. I am 53 years old and the current trendsetters in the music industry don’t set any trends for me. Rather, I find the pretentiousness, the snarkiness, and the posing really irritating.

I had MTV electronically blocked from our cable menu when I had kids at home. It was the right thing to do. Blocking MTV these days has limited benefit because the most shocking stunts are repeated online in social media the next day. Although MTV is a non issue for me personally because I don’t watch it and I am marginally indifferent about the impact MTV is having on the culture.

That all changed this week with the murder of Hannah Montana. Hanna Montana was a fictional character played by Miley Cyrus on the Disney channel. The murder of a ficticious character is a metaphor for the birth of a new career and away from an old one. As the LA Times described her performance, “ [Miley] successfully shocked the audience of the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards - stripping to her underwear, grinding on a foam finger and twerking with giant teddy bears. Cyrus left jaws on the floor (though not in a good way.)”

Below are several reactions that might be helpful if you were going to have a faith conversation with your preteen or teen-ager. (Click on the Grey link to read it)

I winced at this angry rant from the perspective of a mother who pities Miley Cyrus’ plea for attention from Chicks on the Right. I don’t think you have to be angry, pious, and threatening to make a point about poor behavior.

If you like sarcasm you will enjoy this pensive letter from the perspective of a father to a son. I enjoyed hearing another father encourage his son to be a real man through solid biblical virtues.

I prayed after I read this brief article about the gradual slide toward worldliness in the Christian life from a book called –“ A Hole in Our Holiness: Chapter 8: Saints and Sexual Immorality”

But my favorite response that I read was this wise and gentle call for prayer. I wish I had thought of this.

Before I became a pastor, I was a Youth Minister. At that time I understood MTV, its culture, its aim, and its agenda. I had conversations with students about what they were watching, learning, and how they may have been influenced. I would hear many of the same feeling coming from teens 30 years ago when another diva (in those days it was Cher and Madonna) tried to shock the audience of the 1980-1990 MTV Video Music Awards.

• Disgust • Indignation • Shock • Anger • • Mercy • Compassion • Sympathy • Grace • • Admiration • Pride • Smugness •

Like it or not these types of outbursts provide Christian parents with an excellent opportunity for a Faith Walk conversation. If you need help finding bible verses about modesty and purity. I have included a few for you.

1 Timothy 2:9-10	1 Corinthians 6:19-20	1 Peter 3:3-4
Proverbs 31:30	Proverbs 11:22	1 Samuel 16:7
Deuteronomy 22:5	John 7:24	Matthew 5:28
2 Timothy 2:22	2 Corinthians 6:17-18	1 Corinthians 10:31

Finally, I learned that Sunday night, the same night Miley Cyrus murdered Hanna Montana, was Billy Ray Cyrus’ birthday. Billy Ray Cyrus played Hanna Montana’s TV father on the same Disney comedy. He is also the biological father of Miley Cyrus. What was he feeling. Any loss? Any pride? I’m sure he been instructed not to say anything that might interfere with this emerging career and the choice that his daughter made to capture the attention of the stunned nation.

Billy Ray Cyrus was 52. One year younger than me. He doesn’t have the same opportunity as me to ignore MTV and the poison that is seems to inject in the culture.

I guess I have another hurting father for which to pray. Join me?

• We must not forget the grace we’ve been given and replace it with rancor and disgust.
• We must not ignore the slide of this culture toward worldliness, specifically in our own lives.
• We must love like Jesus loves, with others best in mind with grace as our means!