To Jodie Foster: "I'm Sorry"

On Sunday, January 13th, I switched over to NBC after watching an episode of the highfalutin BBC/PBS soap opera, "Downton Abbey," to catch some of The Golden Globe Awards. I caught it just in time to see the presentation of their version of the "lifetime achievement award," The Cecil B. DeMille Award. The 2013 recipient was 50-year old actress, Jodie Foster. Ms. Foster is an accomplished actress, having been in the business since the age of three, and has received four Academy Award nominations, winning two. On top of all of that, she is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University. Regardless of my disagreement with her personal spiritual beliefs, atheist, and personal lifestyle choice, lesbian, Jodie Foster is a brilliant and accomplished actress. So, when I saw that she was this year's recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Awards, I anticipated a polished and eloquent acceptance speech. However, it was not what I expected. Quite frankly, I did not understand it, feeling on the outside of an inside joke. So, I did what most American, armchair prognosticators do - make a sarcastic comment on Facebook.

Most of my Facebook friends paid little attention to my snarky status update, "Jodie Foster: great actress, bad speechmaker." However, over the past week, I have been bothered about what I wrote. Here's why:

Last week, I posted a blog titled, "Do Manners Matter?" This article was motivated by some of the rudeness and lack of civility I witness by Christians on Facebook almost daily.
Case in point: yesterday, January 21st, as the inaugural ceremony for the second-term of President Barack Obama commenced, a well-known Seattle pastor, Mark Driscoll, "tweeted" this from his Twitter account: "Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know." I do not follow Mark Driscoll on Twitter, but saw someone else "retweet" his status. Immediately, I was bothered by the statement and tweeted a response that I'm sure put Pastor Mark in his place. Anyway, back to Jodie Foster...

After thinking about the rudeness of Mark Driscoll's presumptious post, I woke up this morning and thought about my little jibe concerning Ms. Foster's speech and my blog on manners. I became convicted about my sarcastic comments about a woman I do not know, and publicly displaying poor manners by being overly critical of her five-minute acceptance speech on an evening honoring her excellent career. As a public speaker, I don't particularly like it when people make critical and sarcastic comments about my speaking abilities, and I should have remembered that when posting my thoughts to my 614 Facebook friends. What I said was rude and hypocritical concerning what I would write about manners just two days later. 

So, Jodie Foster, I'm sorry for my negative comments about your speech last week. While you have no idea who I am, and will likely never read one of my Facebook statuses, Twitter posts, or listen to my sermons online, www.communitycarlisle.org, I hope you will forgive me. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I did not live up to the teachings of what Scripture teaches: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (Colossians 4:6)." I hope to be more encouraging and positive in my comments whether spoken or written in the future.  

Also, Ms. Foster, while I really did not understand most of what your speech was about, what you said about your mother was beautiful. Congratulations on your Cecil B. DeMille Award! I thought you were great in Maverick.