Former “Facts of Life” star Lisa Whelchel discusses the incident with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Superbowl.
I am deeply disturbed by what happened during last night’s halftime show of the Super bowl. I was downstairs cleaning up the kitchen when the halftime show began and when I overheard the lyrics of the songs I went upstairs to have the kids switch the channel. Too late! When it was over I called my mother and said, “Did what I think just happened, really happen?”
As a family, we immediately knelt down and repented on behalf of America and pled for mercy on our country. We prayed the scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
At the end of the game we had a family discussion and talked about how we could make our voice heard, that there were people in America who were not willing to stand back and watch our country go the way of cultures in the past who gave themselves over to the flesh and were destroyed.
MTV produced the halftime show but AOL was the official sponsor. We can’t boycott MTV because we don’t subscribe. But we can cancel our AOL service – and we did! When I called AOL this morning to cancel they asked me why I was punishing AOL instead of CBS or the NFL.
I explained that CBS would not know if our family never watched another show on their network because we aren’t a Nielson ratings family. Same goes for the NFL. I don’t hold within my hands any influence to impact CBS, NFL or MTV. But AOL does!
If enough people cancel their AOL subscriptions, you can believe me, AOL will go directly to CBS, NFL, MTV and any other acronym involved, and their voice (and pocketbook) will be heard.
May I share a personal aspect to this story? For over a year Haven has been campaigning for Instant Messenger. I have repeatedly said no, explaining that I felt it was a time-waster. Last week the subject came up again, but she had a fresh argument. She said, Television is also a time-waster and you let me watch that after all my school work is done. I responded, Good point. Are you willing to trade television privileges for IM?
When she said that she would, she gave up watching television unless the whole family was watching something together, (which is very rare.) Tucker made the same choice and three days ago Steve loaded AIM, AOL’s Instant Messenger service. (We’ve had an AOL account for over ten years!) She has had the best time since then chatting with her friends and I was happy because, as many of you know, the kids have not made friends as quickly as I thought they would since we moved.
Last night when I put Haven to bed, I told her that I felt like we should cancel our AOL subscription but I would ultimately leave the decision up to Tucker and her because they were the most who would most be impacted by the choice.
With tears running down her cheeks and onto the pillow she said, “I will make the right choice, but it is so hard. I waited so long to get IM. I don’t want to, but I will do the right thing.
I was so proud of her. (BTW, Tucker agreed, too, but he was more mad than sad.) Living in America, we don’t often have to suffer for our beliefs. I believe canceling our AOL account is a small way that we can take a stand for Christ and do our part in turn(ing) from our wicked ways. AOL may not hear, but God will and, perhaps, He will forgive (our) sins and heal (our) land.
Lisa Whelchel
www.lisawhelchel.com
