Quote of the Day #1: “Okay, so you’re going to notice two things about me over the course of the semester. First is that I’m going to wear the same four outfits over and over. And second is that I’m going to get really fat.” — Nicole Kelley, professor of my Christianity in Antiquity class, telling my class yesterday that she is pregnant
Quote of the Day #2: “People need something to do on all those other planets.” — Tatia Jordan, instructor of my Article and Essay Workshop, commenting on the need for the development of the female cyborg prostitute in the movie Blade Runner
It’s been a slow week. I’ve had a lot of reading to do for my various classes. Time passes slowly when you’re in the library. This Wednesday alone I was in the library from 12:30 PM to 10:30 PM. Yeah, ten hours. I can’t say that’s the norm, but five to six hours per day isn’t too far away from average.
I need to stand up on my soapbox for a couple of minutes. Have any of you been following the story about this James Frey character? If not, here’s a synopsis. He’s an author. He wrote the book A Million Little Pieces, claiming that it was an accurate description of his life. Last September it got on the Oprah Book Club, which means that tens of thousands of people bought it simply because Oprah liked it. But earlier this month the The Smoking Gun began to look into some of the events, such as his jail time, that he described in the book and found that there were some discrepancies. For the past couple of weeks he’s been denying everything, standing by his book. Even Oprah came out and defended him. At first. Yesterday, however, she reversed her stance and on live TV confronted Frey. Frey had already begun to cave in before the appearance when he was on Larry King Live, but the whole truth (or as much of the whole truth as I think we’re going to get) came out yesterday, that he had indeed lied in his book. His book has been removed from the Oprah Book Club, and Frey is left in a very lonely position.
Here’s my take on all of this. The guy has been a liar. He has deceived countless people. And it’s very easy to take the side of the people casting stones. But think of it this way. This is obviously a deep-seeded problem with Mr. Frey. It would be hard to believe that he only lied in his book, and that at all other times he’s been completely true to his word. Because of this celebrity status he is now having to deal with one of his demons as the whole world watches. He is publicly bearing the shame that being labeled “liar” will bring. But what if it were you. You’re not a liar, you say? Think of your own dark secrets. Imagine someone revealed the worst of them to the world, and people cared about it and talked about it and slandered your name. This man needs our prayers. Listen, if you’re one of the people who feels betrayed by him or is angered by what he’s done I can understand your reaction. But he’s getting plenty of that, and it’s not going to change anything. Jesus called for us to love our enemies. How is praying for this guy going to help? It says in James 5:16 that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James Frey needs people to stand by him spiritually right now. I, for one, will go and battle on his behalf.
I could move on from here now and write more about my week but I’d rather just let that sink in. Remember, this is more than just an author’s career being ruined, this is someone’s entire worldly life being ruined. And the average person, Christian or not, will say he’s getting what he deserves. Be radical. Pray for him.
