Kony 2012 part 1

Is this the very definition of "viral meltdown?"
Within the month of March, the following happened:

1. The Kony 2012 film by Jason Russell of Invisible Children launched March 5.
2. 120 million people watched the film. (This is not terribly unusual for Justin Bieber, say, or JLo, but they have their half billion hits after a year for a four minute music video; Kony, at almost 30 minutes, got 40 million hits after three days without gyrating pop stars).
3. Enthusiasm for exposing the misdeeds of the world's Public Enemy Number One and his capture became important to millions of people who couldn't find Africa on a globe, let alone Uganda on a map. His five year old child, Gavin Danger Russell, was trending large on tumblr.
4. The inevitable naysayers hit back hard: Invisible Children sends only a third of its donations to its area; the film is a propaganda piece that oversimplifies the importance of Kony and is inaccurate in many of its fundamental details; its maker, Jason Russell, exploited his child Gavin in order to further his own career as a filmmaker; and, naturally, that since he is a well-groomed, attractive Christian man, he is obviously a closeted homosexual.
5. Jason Russell had a nervous breakdown. He was filmed in a clothes-less rant in San Diego, and was taken to a place where he can heal. His wife said he was upset by the negative reactions his film caught, and that it will take some time for him to heal.

And we still have four more days in March.

In days past, someone would have to spend a life-time getting famous, based on a body of artistic or political or scholarly work. Their downfall could come quickly, but often it would take a court case lasting months, or be tried in the public square over weeks.

Russell's rise to fame and meltdown happened in about 15 days.

What is a Christian response to all of this?

First, and foremost, we need to pray for Mr. Russell and his family, that he recover his mental and physical health so that he is able to be a good father and husband again.

Second, our prayer is that the message - catch and capture a bad guy - is not lost in the maelstrom.

In the following days, I'll look at the actual film, and what Christians can learn from this phenomenon - and what pitfalls we may avoid.