Thanks, Danielle.  I’ll be watching! The better the ratings and attention they get specifically for Maddy and those like her, the more they’ll show and support people like her in the future.

American Idol is the only tv show that I watch, but with the news of Ellen Degeneres added as a new host, like you, I thought I would just be keeping the tv off permanently this season and skip it all together.  Now this video has been circulating the blog and I know I’ll have to watch and cheer Maddy on.  For Maddy, I say “Hallelujah!”

I wasn’t able to watch American Idol last year, and after hearing about the vulgarity at the end of the season, I figured it was the Holy Spirit who’d kept me otherwise occupied and away from watching this show.  When I heard Ellen Degeneres was going to be a celebrity judge this year,I decided that I would not be watching it this year either, even though I have always enjoyed watching the truly talented young people perform each week.  Then someone sent me the link to Maddy’s audition video.  I probably won’t watch AI, simply because I want to retch everytime a picture of Ellen Degeneres crosses my line of sight, but I certainly will be following Maddy’s journey through the competition and sharing links to her performances and her family’s beautiful story with as many people as I can.

Go Maddy!!

There is a way to promote Maddie and give American Idol the message that promoting the homosexual agenda is not ok with America.  Keep hitting her facebook page with visits and DONT watch American Idol until Degeneres is removed.

A very large mintority of actors are gay.  Are you going to refuse to watch every show in which gay actors appear on screen?  If so, you might as well throw away your television. 

The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.  This smug superiority directed toward Ellen is despicable.  Look to the evil in your own hearts and ask yourself if you fit the criteria for casting the first stone.

Lizzie, I don’t refuse to watch gay actors and I don’t hate Ellen DeGeneres. In fact, I think she is quite a talented and entertaining woman. Especially in recent years, though, she has been promoting an agenda with regard to gay “marriage.” She has no musical background and so I think AI is definitely trying to make a statement by including her. I won’t be lining my family up in front of the television to hear it.

Danielle, thank you for your kind response to Lizzie.

I would add that a refusal to watch television programming in which a gay agenda is promoted, or an agenda in which any kind of sinful behavior is promoted, is not being smug.  It is sending a message to the studios that we do not want certain kinds of programming. 

So, yes, Lizzie, I have just about thrown away my TV—it’s this big black screen in the corner of the living room that collects dust.

Certainly, the Church is, as you put it, “a hospital for sinners,” and I thank Jesus for that; otherwise, I’d be out in the cold.  But Jesus also said, “Go and sin no more.”  I don’t think we help any sinners, ourselves included, if we remain silent in the face of sinful behavior.

Though “American Idol” does veer into salacious behavior at times, there’s also no other venue on secular TV where talented people with a genuine commitment to their faith are featured on a regular basis.  I’ve interviewed a number of them and am always impressed that their example (if not always overt witness) can have an effect on viewers.  Maddy Curtis’ audition impressed me most out of all the auditions so far this season so I hope we see more of her.  But even if she doesn’t advance all the way this time around, she’s already accomplished a great deal by highlighting the fact that people with Down Syndrome can lead rich and fulfilling lives.  It’s also important to remember that the show’s producers chose to produce a segment on Maddy’s family.  TV producers are often maligned for making bad decisions.  They also need to be praised when they make good decisions.

Good point, Tony.  Thank you for putting a different perspective on it.

Dear Lizzie, Your three prescious children are only safe when you cooperate with the homosexual agenda.  If you don’t believe me, speak out against it and see what happens to them.  This is one battle where the children are used as a weapon.  I do not try to discover anyone’s orientation before watching a show.  As a Catholic I know that homosexuality is one of many sexual sins.  We were made for greater things.  It is a sin like any other that can be overcome by God’s grace.  Some activists, and I believe Ellen is one, would like to deny the sinful nature of the relation.  Two females are not anatomically compatible.  Nature points that out.  Something is awry.  Love is the answer. Not denial.

Lizzie, When the patient goes to the hospital, they at least want a check up or admit they have a problem. There are people who need love but do not need to be encouraged in their sin.  Have you read the emperor’s new clothes?  It’s a fairy tale. We have been living it for many years now.  Your prescious children are being asked to deny the teachings of Jesus Christ to accomodate someones lust.  I say lust, because love would be best girlfriends or boyfriends, not sexual partners.  All sin can be overcome by grace. “Do not be deceived.  No sodomite, nor fornicator, nor adulter will enter the gates of heaven.”