Beyoncé’s half-time show in the 2017 Super Bowl was rebellious, racist, and raunchy. In song and dance she made a social and political statement about her view of life in America. It was so over the top that it drew attention away from the similar social and political statement by Cold Play. I have to admit I turned the channel just as Beyoncé started so only read about it later. What I saw of Cold Play was a tribute to San Francisco’s hippy dippy Haight Ashbury days, but hidden in the stands was a rainbow flag of placards supporting gay marriage with the words “believe in love”.

None of this was surprising because American culture is corrupt from top to bottom and coast to coast. The NFL is a giant money making corporation sucking the lives out of young men, black and white. It pretends concern over the long term impact on their health just enough to protect its money making franchise. And we love to watch it. Beyoncé and Cold Play are money making entertainers filling minds with filth and we buy their music. Peyton Manning, the poster boy for white, middle class America, made sure to mention a beer company in his post-game interview. And we drink it. Yes, it’s all about the money, and rotten to the core.

Culture rot isn’t new. Nor is it limited to any color or class of people. Which is why comments about culture rot are as old as mankind. 2700 years ago, in the days of King Jeroboam II in Israel, the economy was roaring, at least for the powerful elites in Washington, err, I mean in Samaria. But in the fourth vision given to Amos, God described them as a basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1-3). What God meant by the vision was Israel was like the very last of the harvest. All the good fruit had been picked and preserved, but there’s still a little bit left over. However, by then the pickers were worn out and had had their fill. The people were done picking, and this bit was over-ripe and tended to rot fast anyway, so they usually ended up throwing it out.

In a Hebrew word play God said the end fruit signified the end of Israel.

“The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day…Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence.” Amos 8:2-3

He had had enough and was going to throw them out.

Did the 2017 Super Bowl half-time show expose America as a basket of rotten fruit? Yes it did. However, it has been rotten for a long time. We’ve just been good at ignoring the stench and bad taste. Has His church, the people of God, learned to live with the stench and bad taste? If so, when will God reach His limit and throw us out?