Was Michael Jackson a Missed Spiritual Opportunity?

Written by Rev. Elijah L. Hill, Arlington, Texas, The President of the National Presidential Ministerial Alliance and President of The National African American Museum of Religions

Does the Religious community focus too much on prosperity that they have moved away from spirituality? The purpose of people of religious backgrounds is to under grid the underline theme of sharing of God's Holy Word to make the world a better place exists.

When it comes to the stars, entertainers, actors, and successful and wealthy business people do we look up to their material wealth so much that we have moved away from fulfilling our true purpose which is to penetrate the human spirit of the human being to bring about a greater enlightenment to the human consciousness.

Have we sold out our spiritual birth right for a mire bowl of soup in exchange for attention from successful secular individuals, for instance in the case of the recent death of Michael Jackson was he a missed opportunity for those who could get close to him within the religious community to have shared spirituality with him to have fortified his heart or emotional emptiness. I have been a minister for over thirty-four years, and I strongly support the image of the religious community, but could it have been that we dropped the ball with the likes of a Michael Jackson?

This doesn't not take away the irresponsibility of Michael to take responsibility for his own actions by dealing with his challenges by trying to change his color or trying to survive a normal existence through prescription drug use, but as the religious community those of us who had opportunity at those moments should focus on the task as stated in the Old Testament stated well, "He hath anointed me to preach good tidings, and to bind up the broken-hearted."

Can you imagine growing up as a child star from five years old revered by billions of fans with all the money in the world with everything you want, but feeling like nobody really loves me for me.

Michael paid a great price for his riches and fame yet throughout his life feeling the pressure on his heart of being a childhood celebrity, and yet dying feeling grievously sad with a brokenhearted.

I believe in the age we are living in, the church world is becoming more like the world and the world more like the church. In some cases the world is doing a better job sometimes with displaying spirituality in music, television shows and movies sometimes it's just wrapped up in hidden subliminal messages.

Michael Jackson died of a cardiac arrest physically, but spiritually he died of broken heartedness. When something is broken-Forcibly fractured into two or more pieces, the Hebrew word Sha-bar used in Isaiah 61:1 utilizes this word, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...."

What were these dangerous blows or pressures of life over time that can cause a final cardiac arrest or the human heart to be so broken it stops working? A few of the dangerous crushing blows and pressures of Michael's life were:

1. Child neglect emotionally robbed of his childhood because selfish and greedy adults wanted to get rich off his talent at the expense of sacrificing his boyhood. A child needs to be a child; recognize their needs even though their kids. You see, you can overlook the essential needs of a human being if you tamper with God's creation and it becomes a broken, grieved and lonely spirit.

Many times Michael was told you can't go out and play you need to stay in the studio and fulfill society's needs and wants with your musical talent and abilities. The end result for Michael Jackson is being a child in a man's body never growing up healthy emotionally, but with an extremely highly developed and creative musical talent.

2. He Lived around many who show no genuine and sincere love, this excludes those that were the few that Michael Jackson felt their pure and unselfish love. The essential element is love not having genuine love will break or place pressure on the human heart. Constantly giving yourself to others through your talent, music, self-expression, energy, creativity, but because most people that surround you looked at your, fame and accumulation of wealth and material things always being around you for the wrong motives.

Never loving you for you saying in your heart why you can't love me for me not for what I possess. Therefore seeking for friendship and love with the purest thing on earth establishing the majority of friendships with children instead of adults. Needing a child to give and emit the essence of pure love to you what some adults couldn't because of being desirous of your riches and personal wealth.

Society created Michael to be a grown man needing to spend more time with children because adults were too impure to understand the essentials that he needed to be loved as Michael not Michael Jackson.

3. Living without a private life as most mega stars, actors, entertains have to constantly fighting to keep a private part of yourself because you're constantly in the public-eye under the fire of constant gossip and criticisms.

In America and the world we feed off of the lives of those who have achieved super stardom and monetary success. The need for us to want to know about their lives in detail creates tremendous pressures at times for these individuals to deal with when they need privacy to balance their personal success.

There is no rest for the weary soul of the extremely successful like Michael Jackson living under a microscope all your life from 5-50 it takes its toll the added pressure of everyone trying to find out something about you to make money off of your normal life circumstances.

Have you ever been pressured by something in life, and you just wanted to come out from under that pressure for one moment to take a break. Michael Jackson couldn't take a break, these blows broke him, left him lonely, sad, and heartbroken even though he had access to everything a human being could imagine.

Michael Jackson had a responsibility for his own actions as every man or woman, but we as the religious and spiritual community has a responsibility towards successful individuals like him to not allow missed opportunities spiritually to speak into a person's life because we are so busy relating to their material wealth.