The stats are in and not surprising: Immediately following my post claiming to include Kate Middleton’s clothing-optional moment I received a whopping 373 hits on one day. Just a few days earlier I ran a post on the power of grace received 16.
There is no mystery here. People used search engines to peek in on Kate and dropped by my blog on the way. But not many were on a quest for the inner wisdom of grace. That contrast between those two interest levels is not a new one.
The media knows what sells and what does not; it is reflected in stories covered and pictures published. It’s pure capitalism: the public is injected and re-injected with what the market demands. Really, who cares what a celebrity happens to be wearing, if they have divorced, or were arrested with the DWI? Such matters are not newsworthy. But they make the front page … over and over they do. If, that is, all publishing decisions are left to market forces.
373 to 16. That’s a ratio of 23 to 1. That sounds about right as regards the ratio of interest between voyeurism and spirituality. If we allow the market to sort it out we will never hear anything but stories like Kate enjoying the sun, stories that sell. But life is more than the thickness of a tabloid. An informed perspective on life deserves more than what happens to be trending at the moment or the conclusions of markets because markets and their trends are values-neutral. What is required instead? People with more substance than the froth on a brew. How else can attention be directed toward weightier matters?
Nothing personal, Kate, but your story just doesn’t merit 373 hits. I know, the search engine stats don’t lie about what people are looking for. But they also don’t tell the whole story. It is impossible for stats like these to reflect what is truly important. Of that, importance, popular culture has always been a terrible judge. It still is. And if market statistics tell us the truth about some things, they lie about others, namely, that truth is somehow revealed through the quantification of a search engine.
To the contrary, truth may be ascertained by an inverse statistical relationship: The lower the hits, the more true it may actually be. At least when it comes to Kate and Grace, that is.
vitalwholeness 
Amen–and the truth is that voyeurism require the work that seeking grace or examining spiritual matters does.
My thumbs have left words unsaid: voyeurism DOES NOT require the work that spiritual examination does.
It seems to me that you have been saying the same thing in your new sermon series, Tim. Jesus spoke the truth, and became less and less “electable” until hardly anyone was interested at all. Should we expect less?
Kate and Grace? The same comparison might be said of stories about “war heros” and “peace.” Speakers/writers pay lip service to matters of making and keeping the peace. But war heros, with their action packed stories of bomb dropping or rescuing their buddies, have much more drama and get the applause.