Am I goin to Hell for this one?

Maybe if it was up to you...but it's not.

WARNING!!! All you Jackson-ites who are still sensitive and touchy and shyt about MJ being dead, I'm gonna tell you like Scar told Simba in the Lion King. "Run. Run away and never return."

Over the past couple weeks, there have been what seems like a multitude of celebrity deaths. Some natural, some not. The biggest are Michael Jackson (clearly) and Steve McNair (due to the circumstances surrounding his death).

I spent a few days up in Maryland visiting my family. And while in the hotel room, I was heavily outvoted and forced to watch the Jackson Memorial. (I would've rather watched SportsCenter, but Grandma wanted to see the Memorial, so Grandma watched the memorial.) And it seemed like everybody was talkin about "Michael looking down" and he's "singing in the Heavenly choir" and all that jazz...

For all the love that people have for MJ and all the millions (if not billions) around the world who watched...none of us knew him. We knew him, but we didn't know him. (RIP Bernie Mac) And with all the tributes and songs and Ron Artest videos...I got to thinkin: Did Michael really go to Heaven? Like, how do we know he made it in? And that speaks to a larger issue: Why do we just assume our loved ones get into Heaven?

Before you get on your soap box and say I'm bashin on the man, I'm not judging anybody. It's not my place. I don't have a Heaven or Hell to send you to, so that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talkin about how we, as human beings, whenever someone dies, act like God gotta take 'em in. Why we keep puttin people off on God? What if He don't want 'em?

Steve McNair's case is clearer than Michael's. He was having an affair. Last I checked, that was against the rules. Again, not judging. But I didn't memorize the 10 Commandments as a child just to forget them because one of my favorite QBs got caught up in some mess. I didn't see any coverage of his memorial, but I'm pretty sure that there was mention of him being "welcomed into the arms of the Loving Creator". (I been to a lot of funerals in my life, so I just came up wit that one.) But if the man is committing adultery, is he really gonna meet his "Loving Creator"?

Michael's case is more complex. We don't have any hard evidence that MJ was doing anything wrong. We don't really know if he messed with those kids. Then again, that was a long time ago and (if he did) he could have repented for that. But we don't know Michael like that. Was Jesus really his homeboy? Or does Al Sharpton have more pull than I give him credit for.

There is the general, "social contract" rule about not speaking ill of the dead. Don't bash my deceased grandfather and I won't talk trash about your dearly departed mother. We're supposed to play up the person's good side when they kick the bucket. We ignore their faults, even if just for one day, and praise them for the good work they've done, tried to do, or that we worded in a way to make it not sound that bad. But that doesn't make a person's sins go away. At least not to Christians.

But I think we generally have a problem when it comes to the idea of Hell. We don't wanna go, we don't want our loved ones to go. Some people refuse to believe in God because "If He's so loving and powerful, how could He allow people to suffer and be tormented". It's the "Problem of Evil" as it is called in Philosophy. I think some people just think that they are too grown to answer to a "Higher Power", so they buck the system.

The bottom line is this, folks. The only people who know where Michael Jackson is right now are MJ himself and the One who put him there...God. Same thing goes for you and your loved ones. We'll find out when we get there if somebody else made it. So until then, keep remembering the good things about your loved ones. Cherish the memories, the good times and all that. I'm just sayin that God has a job to do, let Him do it.