America's most popular reality show, "American Idol,” begins Season 9 this week.  One more season of judge in-fighting, audition train wrecks, pop divas, contestant theatrics, and some authentically talented vocalists.  And I couldn't care less.

Before you start writing your rebuttal response, let me say:  I don’t really hate American Idol.  It’s just that AI exposes some things about our society that run in both subtle and flagrant opposition to things I feel very strongly about—things like faith, art, personal expression, and even basic human principles like decency and the golden rule.  Besides, “hate” is a strong and vulgar word to me, one that I use sparingly.  So I guess when I say “hate” American Idol, I really mean to say something more akin to “cringe with embarrassment and aversion.

Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times has a brilliant article about tonite’s American Idol finale. She points out the cultural divide between Adam Lambert’s seemingly unambiguous homosexuality and Kris Allen’s worship leading ways. “Glambert” hails from San Diego, while Kris Allen’s trumpets his downhome Arkansas roots. Adam likes to rawk, while Kris turns rap songs into sensitive ballads. These Idol finalists should be engaged in a pitched battle, representing their divergent constituencies. But as roommates beyond the show, they seem to have a genuine appreciation of each others gifts and talents. Powers points out how a painted fingernail has become an unlikely sign of solidarity, a bridge between Christians and the gay community.

So that's about 30 million people wondering where Kris got that fancy wrist swag...
He wore our "Black is for SUNDAY" Bracelet while playing the piano last night.

THANKS Kris.

But I didn’t vote for Contestant 7!

I had hit the redial on my phone to add another vote last night to American Idol’s Contestant 2 (Go, Chris!), but the recorded voice on the other end thanked me for voting for Contestant 7.

Apparently, the American Idol voting system isn’t infallible.

I don’t even know who Contestant 7 was last night. I wasn’t about to give up Lost for the second hour of American Idol, so I only saw Contestants 1 – 5. I was throwing votes at Contestants 1 and 2 (well, I was trying to throw votes at Contestants 1 and 2)—sorry, Scott, Meghan, and Anoop. You just didn’t do it for me last night.

About halfway through Lost, though, I was wondering if I shouldn’t have just watched American Idol. Lost was an all-right episode—we were getting a lot of holes filled in in the storyline—but it certainly wasn’t one of the more jaw-dropping episodes.

So apparently there's been a lot of hype over this MTV American Idol & Christianity story...so much that MTV posted a follow up article. Here's a clip:

Over at MJsBigBlog.com, one of the leading "Idol" fan sites, the discussion about the story was fierce, with nearly 150 responses. Commenter Tess said she was "appalled and offended" by the article. Tess had particular scorn for a comment from writer CJ Casciotta, who was quoted in the story as saying he thought some Christian viewers might go with their faith if presented with a top two featuring a pair of equally talented singers in which one was Christian and the other was not.

"If I wasn't a sane, God-loving individual, I would not vote for any of the listed contestants (Danny, Michael, Kris, Scott, Matt and Lil) just out of pure spite," Jess wrote. "I knew the country was going to be divided on this issue, but for the Christian right to pronounce that they support an us-vs.-them philosophy is absolutely outrageous."

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A while back I wrote a blog called American Idol: Good for TV, Bad for Church which came to the attention of MTV Senior Writer, Gil Kauffman. Gil wanted to know why so many Christians were not only tuning into "Idol" this year, but also performing on the show. He took a couple of quotes from our conversation and put them into his story for MTV.com. Here's an excerpt:

Just as this season kicked off, freelance writer CJ Casciotta penned an essay for faith site ConversantLife.com titled "American Idol — Good for TV. Bad for Church," in which he questioned whether the show's shunning of the "awkward, the socially inept, the ugly, the difficult" during the often cruel early rounds shouldn't be a call to action for the rest of us to embrace those whose lives are a struggle.

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Hurrah!

Tonight the voting begins on American Idol! The people get to have a voice.

I'm very excited about that.

It surprised me last year how much I liked the voting part of the show. I became intimately acquainted with the speed-dial capabilities of my phone, and I got a thrill every time I actually got through and my vote counted.

Okay, perhaps I need to get out more often.

But I don't think I'm that odd in liking the idea that my opinion counts--and that it can count in regards to something millions of other people care about too. How often does that happen in my everyday life? (Well, it happened in November, now that I think about it--how cool was that?!)

So,  I'm ready to be an active participant in this year's AI.

Dear Simon, Paula, Randy, and New Chick,

Tatiana?

Really?

The only reason I'm not asking for an hour of my life back after last night's show is that Guy with Cool Glasses is still in the competition. Him I like.

I'm looking forward to the day when we get past all this drama and move on to the singing. Seems like you've got some talent in the group this year...and I imagine you're holding out a few surprises as well (that's the only reason I can figure you've held on to Nick/Norman/Whatever His Name Is this long).

One can only hope.

Grateful that the Final 36 (24? 48? 112?) Is Coming Soon,

Barb

So, on Tuesday night I watched American Idol for the first time this season.

It’s only my second season with the show, and I was hoping that because I had waited to tune in until Hollywood week, I could avoid the cringe-inducing moments that the open tryouts bring.

Well, I was wrong.

Between Bikini Girl and what seemed like an endless parade of crying guys, I was doing plenty of cringing.

When I wasn’t cringing, however, I did notice there are some very good singers this year. So far, my vote belongs to Guy with Cool Glasses—I really liked his voice. (I missed Wednesday’s installment, so I hope he’s still around!)

Just goes to show that even with something like American Idol, you have to take the bad with the good.

So, I'm not watching American Idol...yet.

Don't get me wrong. I'm excited about my second year with AI. I've been looking forward to it for months!

Will we have another David vs.David-like showdown this season?

Which fan favorite will drive Simon absolutely over the edge?

Will the music mentors be younger than my grandparents?

Oh, yes. I'm excited!

But I simply can't do the auditions. I just can't. I know for a lot of people, that's their favorite part of the competition--seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly of American pop star wannabes. And there is a part of me that would love to see the first auditions of those who are going to make it far on the show.

But nope. Not gonna do it. A couple of years ago, I happened upon one of those audition shows, and who did I see but Leopard Man singing his heart out.

I was scarred for life.

So, I'll wait for Hollywood, thank you very much. I'm not sure what that says about me and my inability to not feel completely embarrassed for people I don't even know, but I'm not going to read too much into it.

I'm just going to play my David Cook album for now and bide my time. Hollywood is coming.