Different standards for different people?
Michael Phelps, winner of eight gold medals in swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, has been in the news lately, for all the wrong reasons. Seems he was smoking pot from a bong while visiting the University of South Carolina campus this past November, and a fellow party-goer took a picture of him and sold it to News of the World (a publication out of Great Britain).
In the aftermath, Phelps has been suspended by the US Swim team for three months, and has lost his sponsorship from Kellogg’s. It has also been learned that his agents and handlers did their dead-level best to bribe the publication from printing the picture and story, offering all kinds of incentives and deals.
In the midst of all the hubbub, there has been much written about how a high profile celebrity, one that is recognized world-wide, is held to a higher standard and should behave that way, as if the camera is on him or her each moment of the day (as it probably is!).
That statement bothers me, though. Not that I don’t think Phelps and others of his fame should be held to a higher standard, I think we all should be held to a higher standard. Are we telling ourselves that just because someone is famous, they need to mind their P’s and Q’s?
In the Bible, we are taught that we are all equal in God’s eyes. His law is for everyone, His son died for us all. It isn’t up to others to uphold these laws, it is up to us all. It isn’t up to the famous and talented to live morally (at least when the spotlight is there), it is up to us all.
Just because the News of the World won’t be interested in a picture of me smoking from a bong doesn’t mean that it’s ok for me to do it!
We often talk about double standards in today’s world. But God only has one standard that we should live by, His standard, His rules, His morality.
Anything less is not worthy of Him!
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