Paris Hilton and the Pursuit of Happiness

This coming week we will celebrate our nation’s independence, the gift of liberty and the soaring words from the founding that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Many of us will heed the call to once again be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

You probably know (who doesn’t?) that this past week our nation has been dedicated to the task of obsessing on Paris Hilton’s new found freedom from the tyranny of the LAPD and a new pursuit of happiness that she says will not include anymore DUI citations.

During her 23 days in jail, Paris says she got to know herself through prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible, though she can’t remember any of the verses she read. She described her fellow inmates in the women’s section of the county jail as “really sweet.” But the food “wasn’t that tasty.”

"I've definitely matured and grown a lot from this experience," she told Larry King. "I could be a more responsible role model."

Though she says her life is changed forever and that she feels stronger than ever, Paris also thinks she’s done a pretty good job of running her life to this point.

So has it come to this? A nation obsessed with a self-obsessed young woman who happens to have been born with a famous last name?

Maybe it has come to this, but maybe it’s also come to this: young people from Beaver, PA, who travel to West Virginia and spend a week of nights sleeping on the concrete floor or a community center in order to share by day some of the that with which the Creator has endowed them with children not so far away who have whole lot less. Or the youth and adults who will give up two weeks of vacation in order to offer hope and encouragement to people who happen to have been born in the deep urban poverty of far-away Brazil. Maybe it’s come to this, those caring people who always stop to ask, “How’s Ruth?” “What about Olive?” “Any word on Marcia?” “Is Scott doing okay?” And then they go and visit Ruth, Olive, Marcia or Scott. Maybe it’s come to those from all over our community who will work with Tiger Pause and Hosanna Industries at the end of July and the beginning of August on a “housing blitz” in Beaver Falls. Maybe it has come to those Park Presbyterians who will travel to New Orleans this fall to add their love and their labor to a task that two years later is still before us.

We’ll hear a lot of talk this week about the American spirit. I am always intrigued with Lincoln’s undefined term, “the better angels of our nature,” coined and used in the First Inaugural. Whatever the American spirit or the better angels of our nature are exactly, we know that they have to do with the American character and its biblical roots.

I am not a big church and state fan. While I am not particularly fond of Jefferson’s “wall of separation” or its recent misuse, I am, nevertheless, wary of a casual mixing of religious and national values. Prayers need not be led by the teachers in the public school classroom, nor crèches displayed on courthouse lawns. But the naked public square, to borrow John Richard Neuhaus’ phrase, also poses a grave danger to our nation.

I know nothing about young Paris Hilton as a person. I affirm that she was fearfully and wonderfully made by a loving God. Her public persona, however, is one of moral vacuity and ethical bankruptcy. Our fascination with her is dangerous.

I don’t expect Larry King to interview a Park Church Brazil Team member or the CNN helicopters to track and film the return of our West Virginia Mission team. But this week, this Fourth of July week, I will celebrate the American spirit and the better angels of our nature and I will know the well from which they spring.