{"id":1345,"date":"2007-10-02T12:45:40","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T12:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html"},"modified":"2007-10-02T12:45:40","modified_gmt":"2007-10-02T12:45:40","slug":"leave-spears-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html","title":{"rendered":"Leave Britney Alone!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg\"When I heard the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children<\/a>, my heart fell. This reaction may seem strange to some, but watching her rise and decline in stardom for the last few years, I felt compelled to go against the grain of the media that consistently beats her down.
\nYes, she has made some mistakes pre and post-motherhood, but let us all be clear that she was never stable enough to handle the responsibility of having children in the first place. Couple this with the fact that she has not been able to live a normal life away from the lens of the paparazzi or the pen of malicious writers and I think one can understand why she has fallen so far from grace.<\/p>\n


\nWe know that she is troubled, that she has an issue with substance abuse and alcohol and that at this moment she doesn’t even have a mother to run to. So what do you expect her to do? But let’s move on from all of this.
\nI do believe that there was a time when Spears meant well for her children–even in the moments when she was driving with a child in her lap–and I actually believe that she still does care for them immensely. I remember a statement that she made in June 2006 when she said that Sean Preston–her first child–is her religion. And this is where I believe she will find the peace and the resolution to all of her problems, religion.
\nThere was a time when Spears used to seek refuge in the Lord<\/a>, and I believe she must go back to those days in order to experience true restoration. Every trial and tribulation she has been through to date is because she insisted on running in the other direction instead of toward the hills from which cometh her help. But this is no different from many of our spiritual lives.
\nBritney Spears, like the rest of us, is only human. Matter of fact, I believe that she had a song that expressed the same sentiment–which was clearly a cry for help. She was never free from falling because we exalted her to superstar status. But maybe if she goes back to her first love, she can find the unconditional love, grace and mercy that not a single one of us–myself included–is able to give to her. And until then, my prayer will be that everyone just leaves her alone. Remember, “Judge not, so that you will not be judged.” It could be you.
\nRead another opinion about the Britney Spears custody case, “No Boo-Hoo for ‘Toxic’ Britney,” here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I heard the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children, my heart fell. This reaction may seem strange to some, but watching her rise and decline in stardom for the last few years, I felt compelled to go against the grain of the media that consistently beats her down. Yes, she has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities"],"yoast_head":"\nLeave Britney Alone!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leave Britney Alone!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I heard the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children, my heart fell. This reaction may seem strange to some, but watching her rise and decline in stardom for the last few years, I felt compelled to go against the grain of the media that consistently beats her down. Yes, she has…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-02T12:45:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leave Britney Alone!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leave Britney Alone!","og_description":"When I heard the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children, my heart fell. This reaction may seem strange to some, but watching her rise and decline in stardom for the last few years, I felt compelled to go against the grain of the media that consistently beats her down. Yes, she has…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2007-10-02T12:45:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg"}],"author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html","name":"Leave Britney Alone!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg","datePublished":"2007-10-02T12:45:40+00:00","dateModified":"2007-10-02T12:45:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/britney%20vma%20%28WinCE%29.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/10\/leave-spears-alone.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leave Britney Alone!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}