Most of us know someone who, at least on the surface, appears to have it all together—someone who is calm, cool, and collected, when the rest of us are stressing out … someone who knows what to do and how to handle any given situation … someone who exhibits all of the characteristics and abilities that we secretly wish we had.

We admire such people, to be sure. But let’s be honest, we also find it rather difficult to relate to them. Indeed, this may help to explain why we seem so hungry for gossip and sensational tabloid stories concerning those who have fallen from their lofty pedestals. Tiger Woods is just the latest example. But before him, there was Jon and Kate and their eight children, and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and Martha Stewart, and on and on it goes.

Mitchell Stephens, a journalism professor at New York University, recently observed that many of us seem to take a special delight in watching someone, who is powerful and successful, be torn down. “It allows us to sit back on our couches and say, ‘I’m glad that I’m me.’”

In the German language, there is actually a word for this phenomenon. It’s called Schadenfreude, and it means “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.” But what causes it? Is it envy? Is it spite? Is it the fact that when the high and mighty receive their comeuppance, we somehow feel justified?

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not condoning the actions of Tiger Woods or Mark Sanford. I just think it is curious that, as a society, we find their personal tragedies so entertaining.

We can rationalize all of this, of course, by saying that, “Such is the price of fame,” and “With being a public figure comes public scrutiny.” But there is a difference between exposing the hypocrisy of our celebrities and celebrating their downfall.

The Book of Proverbs states, “Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble …” (Prov. 24:17). The Apostle Paul writes, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26).

The fact that these larger-than-life figures experience many of the same frailties and failures that others do should allow us to sympathize with them, instead of scandalizing them.

I do not fault the media for covering the story; that’s their job. But I do question whether we should ever derive pleasure from the misfortunes of others. As Christians, it seems to me that we should be pointing people in the right direction, rather than celebrating how they took a wrong turn.