Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America

Most of us recognize a desperate cry for help when we see one. God help Miley Cyrus. Just like Whitney Houston, Anna Nichole Smith, Heath Ledger, and many others who once fought the demons of fame, worldly success – and lost, I pray Cyrus is not too far gone.

It’s apparent Miley lost her innocence, inhibitions, and self-respect. Her flesh-toned rubber bikini and gyrating performance during the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night caused most American mothers to cringe. I am embarrassed for Cyrus.

Just like Lady Gaga, Cyrus has chosen the path paved by Madonna, using sex and outrageous behavior to get attention.

Imagine how God, her Creator sees her. He had a plan and purpose for her life to be a beautiful influence on young women everywhere and model good, clean values for them.

One mother wrote to her daughter and said Cyrus’ lacked self-respect, acted like an “overheated hound dog” with her tongue hanging out, and is simply screaming for attention because Miley hasn’t heard the word “no” very often. She concluded:

“Dear daughter, I am going to fight or die trying to keep you from becoming like the Miley Cyruses of the world. You can thank me later.”

Imagine being in Miley’s shoes, hearing most of your life that you’re the greatest. Every picture you post and every comment or tweet gets thousands of approving, fawning responses. In her mind perhaps she can do no wrong. Fame has a seductive, worldly lure and temptation that comes from being in the public eye.

So what in the world happened to Miley?

She was raised Christian and baptized in a Southern Baptist church, but we know there are plenty of folks claiming to be Christians and not living according to the Bible they profess to believe in. They fail to build a foundation on faith in God’s eternal Word. Whatever faith she had was not strong enough to endure the high life of celebrity.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car. Miley went to church growing up and even wore a purity ring. To the world, this is another excuse to call Christians hypocritical; to true believers, this is a sad and tragic fall.

Is Miley a victim of culture, Hollywood, or herself?

She moved to L.A. in 2005 and it took less than five years for her mind to become corrupt and polluted. Her image changed along with her music, and here we are witnessing the awful result of her godless transformation.

Admitted Satanist, Marilyn Manson once said, “Raise your kids better or I’ll be raising them for you.”

He wasn’t joking. Most of us understand the power of music, media and the whole entertainment industry so we had better warn families who have impressionable children. Christian parents, be reminded kids will emulate the fashion, speech, beliefs, and lifestyle of their favorite stars. It is well documented that in many cases, pop culture has been responsible for increased drug use in America, teen pregnancy, murders, suicides, rapes, abortions, and domestic violence.

To better understand the rapid decline of Miley Cyrus, all we need to do is go back to 2009.

Miley turned sweet sixteen and her performance at the Teen Choice Awards included a brief pole dance featuring her in a provocative outfit. She went from Disney’s Hannah Montana to teen idol in a hurry, and through her best-selling single “Party in the USA,” she seemed to take her adult image and sex appeal to the next level when she was seventeen years old.

In 2010, she released Can’t Be Tamed, basically a sexed-up version of her evolving party image. That project excluded any theme alluding to her Christian faith – a subject she had previously been outspoken about.

In the lyrics for Miley Cyrus’ Can’t Be Tamed, she talks about getting crazy and getting her way and describes herself by saying, “I’m hot,” and “I’m built like that.” The song also talks about her getting lots of attention from guys, and that “I go through guys like money flyin’ out the hands.” Her video for the single featured “half-naked dancers and risqué bumping and grinding.”

At her nineteenth birthday party in Hollywood, her friends brought out a Bob Marley birthday cake, and Cyrus said,

“You know you’re a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake. You know you smoke way too much fu**in’ weed.”

Finally, in the 2012 remake of a film called LOL: Laughing Out Loud, in a role Cyrus said she fell in love with, her character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted, and kisses two girlfriends on the lips.

Maybe some of her more conservative fans have caught on after all.

According to The Hollywood Gossip site in 2011, for the second year in a row, Miley Cyrus was named the Worst Celebrity Influence in a poll of nearly 100,000 people.  Ironically, the site’s main audience is ages nine to fifteen, which was once her core fan base. Cyrus even beat out Lindsay Lohan, who has earned her share of negative awards.

There are some who are concerned Cyrus is in danger of becoming the next Hollywood train wreck. We need to pray for her. Though she seems lost, no one is impossible for God to reach, but it appears she’s headed down a destructive path similar to Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or worse. Where are her true friends?

We shouldn’t expect secular celebrities to live according to God’s Word because Christian values are either foreign or offensive to them. As for the salvation of Miley Cyrus who claimed to be a Christian years ago, only God knows her heart.

She and countless other celebrities need the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. No one is without hope, but the Bible warns us the Lord’s return is close. It’s time to wake up and speak up because “now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

Will she and other prodigals return to the only God that can save her before it’s too late?