Other Gods

You shall have no other gods before me.

Deuteronomy 5:7 (ESV)

This past week there was a national scandal in higher education related to admissions at several elite, private schools. The short version is that wealthy parents used an intermediary to bribe someone so that their child could get into the college or university. There are several layers and different scams, but ultimately it is all the same. Bribery.

One of those parents is Lori Loughlin. When I read the “breaking news” (that came as an email into my in-box at work) I thought: this can’t be! Lori Loughlin? How is this possible?

Many know Ms. Loughlin for her role as Aunt Becky in Full House. Some know her from Hallmark Channel’s Garage Sale Mystery. I know her best as Abigail Stanton on Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart. What shocked me most was that the roles she plays are always so wholesome. Additionally, I have seen her on interviews in which she comes across as someone with good ethics and moral standards. I first heard of When Calls the Heart in an interview when she talked about her relationship with Hallmark and how fortunate she was that they let her set a family-friendly schedule of filming so that she could be home more with her children.

I am not devastated. That is too harsh. However, I was disappointed. How could this honest, trustworthy actress who plays these upstanding characters that seek justice and uphold noble standards possibly have done this? Yes, we are all sinful and have fallen short. I am sure she has personal flaws. We all do. But something this big, and this bad, was completely out of character.

You see, I had come to equate her television characters with who she is as a person. She could not possibly be any different from the roles she plays. And while I don’t think James Spader actually is a con man who manipulates people and industry to get what he wants, somehow Lori Loughlin was Abigail Stanton.

However, my heartache is not because Lori Loughlin is human. It is because I created an idol.

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