It seems all I need to do to create a flood of comments here at Idol Chatter–something that make my editors very happy–is to post my thoughts on either (a) Michael Moore or (b) Kathy Griffin. It’s the latter comedian who put me in hot water with some readers, because I went on a minor rant last week about her acceptance speech at the creative Emmys.
But after watching Kathy Griffin on “Larry King Live” this week as well as reading about the advertisement Christian entertainers from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee took out in USA Today, I am forced now to backpedal a little bit on my reaction.

While my post was a momentary frustrated reaction to what I heard without seeing the entire context of the quote–something I saw when I watched the Larry King interview (and lessened the sting of the quote a little)–the Christians working at Miracle Theater took a more drastic stance when they spent almost 100,000 dollars on the USA Today advertisement to show their outrage over Griffin’s remarks about what Jesus could do to a little golden statue.
But they aren’t stopping there. They are now asking Christians to sign a protest petition. The petition is called “A Million Voices For Christ” and is supposedly in reaction to the positive response Miracle Theater received for the USA Today ad.
Sigh. So now, as I have to do far too often as a Christian covering pop culture, I have to swing back the other way and defend Griffin just a little and chastise some of fellow believers for their overzealous behavior.
I still don’t like what Griffin said. I’m not a big believer in having a lot of “sacred cows” that cannot be discussed or made light of, but I still believe what she said was unnecessary and came from motives I don’t respect–even as I realize that Griffin, of course, has every right to say it.
But the lesson more conservative Christian watchdogs never seem to learn, however, is that all they are doing with a petition and an advertisement is wasting money, giving Griffin even more publicity (just watch the Larry King interview where she chortled with glee over the ad), and worst of all, acting like a victim whose voice can’t be heard any other way than through a publicity stunt.
Maybe they just need to find a blog to vent their frustrations in. It works for me.