Michael Craven Christian Blog and Commentary

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The Culture of Celebrity

This past week we were blessed (yes, I am speaking facetiously) by the 63rd Golden Globe Awards illustrating once again that we are a celebrity obsessed culture. It is ironic that the motion picture industry represents an insignificant $9 billion in annual revenue relative to our $10.5 trillion Gross National Product and yet it and its participants receive more attention than virtually any other industry or individuals on earth.

Television is filled with programs informing us of what this celebrity or that was seen wearing to the latest premier, their most recent public outburst or the fact that they were caught eating at a McDonald's. Countless magazines confront you as you buy your groceries with images and headlines about some celebrity's weight gain (or loss) and who they are alleged to be romantically involved with, secretly married to or just divorced from.

We seem obsessed with the lives of people whom we do not know and who often make no real or substantive contribution to society. They are simply celebrities, people famous during their lifetime, often for no other reason than they appeared in a movie! And yet, we not only seem to care what they are wearing; we sometimes actually solicit their input about more important things such as the war in Iraq or stem cell research as if celebrity suddenly imparts great wisdom or insight that the rest of us lack.

Elements of this same cultural fascination can even be seen within Christian circles where celebrity often carries more credibility and influence than doctrine and theology. The Church Report's recent listing of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America underscores this point precisely. The theological and doctrinal diversity among these ranged from historic orthodoxy to outright heresy all under the name, "Christian."

What accounts for this obsession with celebrities and the exaltation of people to the status of "cultural elite" on the basis of celebrity alone? I believe that this celebrity obsession is yet one more example of rampant consumerism that dominates so much of American life and thinking.

Consumerism is much more than mere materialism. Consumerism is a way of life that is represented by an idealized and airbrushed "lifestyle" presented to us in such a way that achieving this lifestyle becomes the object and aim of human life. This idealized lifestyle paints and presents for us a picture in which "happy" people posses the appropriate aesthetic, a certain style, and the finest material possessions. In addition, this lifestyle is promised to those who not only posses the appropriate accoutrements whether they be homes, cars, clothes or hairstyle but also the fully developed vocational, physical, and intellectual potential. The assumption being, that once these things are achieved, satisfaction, happiness, and contentment will be yours.

So, as you can see by this idealization, celebrities represent the absolute fulfillment of the consumerist life. They, by this definition "have it all" and thus they represent for us the possibility that we too can achieve satisfaction, happiness, and contentment if we just acquire the necessary "look" to our life and maximize our potential. Of course, this "potential" maximization means only that potential which conforms to this goal. This is why people will denigrate a degree in philosophy or English Literature [or any Liberal Arts degree] by asking, "What can you do with that?" How about think, for one, or know something that actually enriches your life?! Of course this kind of life enrichment has little place in a consumerist worldview unless it adds to an image of you that moves you closer to achieving the idealized lifestyle.

Celebrities are the epitome; often the very image of consumerism and the fact that they have come into existence gives hope to those driven by consumerism; hope that the promises offered by consumerism are real and can come to fruition. Celebrities are in essence the priesthood of consumerism and they beckon us to worship at their altar. Unfortunately, many Americans do.

The irony is that the lifestyle represented by so many celebrities is the result of a carefully crafted image on the part of Stylists, Publicists, and Agents. Rationally we understand this but irrationally we still believe that their lives must be genuinely perfect or at least better than our "mundane" existence. Of course consumerism functions to make us think that our lives are in fact mundane and therefore lacking. We privately lament, "If I could only look like so and so; if only I were famous; if my life just looked like that - then, I would be happy!"

Even many professing Christians find themselves caught up in this way of thinking. So, rather than look to God for satisfaction and contentment we remain in the grip of this world scratching out marginal lives in search of meaning and purpose through trivial and superficial things. We are, as C.S. Lewis remarked, "halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." We foolishly prefer to hold on to what we have or now seek after rather than throw ourselves unreservedly into the great adventure of life with Christ.

Please don't misunderstand me; I am not disdainful of the arts or specifically actors but I am concerned when we idolize such persons and I am simply trying to explain why I think we tend to do so. In fact, I think Christians should take much more seriously the cultivation of great artists including musicians, actors, directors, writers, etc. Perhaps then we might see artists who point to Christ as the source of their talent and gifts and, in so doing, repress this idolization of persons and mere celebrity as valid criteria for real accomplishment.

I would conclude by saying, a culture which exalts the trivial and superficial as valid standards for human achievement will not only lose its creative mission and productive leadership; it will also push from the realm of interest anything that challenges its assumptions of reality on a deeper level as the Gospel inevitably does. By participating in this culture of celebrity either directly or indirectly by our pursuit of the consumerist worldview we are contributing to a condition that hinders the Gospel.

Copyright 2006 S. Michael Craven, All rights reserved. For reprint permission contact Philip Barnett at philip@nationalcoalition.org.


S. Michael Craven is the vice president for religion & culture at the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families and leads the work and ministry of Cultural Apologetics. Through the Cultural Apologetics ministry Michael works to equip the Church to assert and defend biblical morality and ethics in a manner that is rational, relevant and persuasive in order to recapture the relevance of Christianity to all of life by demonstrating its complete correspondence to reality. For more information on Cultural Apologetics, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.CulturalApologetics.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

Send feedback to: mc@nationalcoalition.org