So Jennifer Hudson lip-synched her gut-wrenching, blistering rendition of the national anthem during the Super Bowl?  Ricky Minor, the producer, was quoted as saying,“That’s the right way to do it.  There … [are] too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance.”  
But was it really a performance?  This comes just after the news that made all the headlines during Obama’s inaugration.  Aside from Chief Justice John Robert’s slip up, the media was in an uproar when it discovered that the musical piece performed by Yo Yo Ma and Isaak Perlman was actually a track.  The people who made the decision justified it by saying that the event was too big for there to be a “mistake”.   Have we all succumbed to the idea of perceived perfection over and above  frail authenticity?   In one breath, the media outlets were skewering John Roberts for flubbing up his one liner while getting worked up about the back track at the inauguration.  So which one is it? Do we really desire authenticity at the risk of imperfection? Or would we rather live in the mythical unattainable realm of perfection at the cost of honesty and sincerity?  I see the same dilemma being played out in the church every week.  We want authenticity and genuineness.  But we revile imperfection and signs of weakness. Which one should we choose?  I honestly don’t know.