Kalafi Moala
The two words – Celebrity and Christianity – seem a contradiction. At the core of Christianity is “an old rugged” Cross on which a gentle, suffering servant – savior was crucified. He suffered and died for others. On the other hand, the core of celebrity is a self-image of celebrated success, popularity, prosperity, and a struggle-free life.
My American friend, Danny Lehman, whom I worked with in Hawaii, wrote me recently: “I still find it hard to reconcile the suffering servant Jesus in the Bible with some of his followers (today) who seem to ride on their celebrity to wealth and fame.”
But that’s where the culture is at today. Unfortunately for the modern day Christian culture, it has been shaped more by the culture of the world, than by the character of heaven.
We live in a culture that worships itself and idolizes success and social rank. And when sanctioned by a sense of moral superiority, the culture itself becomes a god. Our culture has been infiltrated by a mentality of celebrity-ism where “what is popular is more important than what is right!”
If it is popular, then it must be right! If you like it, then do it! If it feels good, then go ahead! If you are comfortable with it, never mind whether its right or not. If you are OK with it, I am OK with it, then we are all OK with it.
Success and the trappings that come with it, have less to do with what’s honorable, but more with what’s acceptable. This is part of what Celebrity Christianity is all about.
Celebrity Christianity and Tongan culture
In a highly religious society like Tonga, Celebrity Christianity has become deeply injected into our culture; it is the normality of what we aspire for. We celebrate those we idolize, including ourselves. And we do it with a blind passion, elevating those we perceive to be achievers; yet mourn and look down upon those we regard as underachievers or failures.
Our pre-occupation is with ourselves, and how we are perceived by our peers and others. We have a social structure that assigns us “our place in society”. Our patterns of behavior and relationships are determined for us by the elite of that social structure. Authority is no longer a servant of morality, but a tool of aggrandizement.
A distorted form of Christianity empowered this cultural practice and produces a hierarchical structure based and sanctioned by a godless religious system.
In our society, we give special assignment of the highest honor to achievers who do good “in the name of the Lord!” Yet Jesus warned: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father.” (Matthew 7:21)
Jesus rebuked religious hypocrites with an uncomplimentary remark: “Everything they do is done for men to see.” (Matthew 23:5). Not just something, but everything! And this is the core definition of celebrity Christianity.
We do have a tendency to show-off, and this is often regarded as normal. This may not be too bad but for the heavy emotional toll that weighs down an individual to become pretentious or display falsehood in order to draw attention.
In our stratified social structure, it is so easy to adopt celebrity Christianity as a lifestyle. But it is here where the culture fails its members the most. Seeking the approval of people to establish one’s identity and security is not only shallow but deeply false and unsatisfying.
Doing things for people to see
Here is the main force that drives celebrity-ism: doing things for people to see. Life becomes a stage where performance is done for the sake of being seen, recognized, appreciated, rewarded, and indeed celebrated “by people”, often in competition with each other.
In the days of Jesus, celebrity leaders would dress a certain way, give themselves titles, fast, pray, and perform many other functions in the community just so they could be “seen by men!” This was the reason that drove them to do what they did, not so much to do what was right or to obey the commands of God but to be recognized and indeed praised – by others!
Nothing takes away more from our human desire to do good than the motivation to be “seen by men”.
We all have a tendency to gravitate toward celebrity Christianity, and more especially in these days where celebrity preachers and leaders preach the Bible out of context, and coach people to live their lives according to what is culturally convenient rather than what is just and right, and indeed Biblical.
An old friend Paul Rapoza wrote: “If you need a title in front of your name so people can know you are an Apostle, Prophet, Pastor, etc. you probably aren’t!” I would add to that, if you have to dress in a certain way to set yourself apart as a man or woman of God, then you are probably not!
Celebrity-ism is a lifestyle where the battle constantly rage between the god-of-self and the God of love. Life has shown us that charisma is not character; self-promotion is not self-control; popularity is not power; taking credit is not taking responsibility.
Jesus gave an admonition to celebrity Christians: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
Danny Lehmann commented appropriately on this issue as regards what happened to Christian leaders in the United States: “Something else added to my grief over the issue is the plethora of Christian celebrities that have crashed and burned even within the last year – think of Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz of Hillsong New York, Jerry Falwell Jr, Bill Hybels, Billy Graham’s grandson, etc – and I could go on. I am no expert but the untouchability that goes with celebrity must have contributed to their crash.” Add to that list Brian Houston, founder of Hillsong, whom we covered in Part 1.
The curse of celebrity leadership is the same curse that is on celebrity Christianity, a phenomenon that has become a significant part of our culture.
Kris Valloton wrote: “Pleasing people is so overrated! What endears us to one man causes another to reject us. But pleasing God is so much more predictable.”
Status, entitlements, and positions of power
The Apostle Paul had to contend with this in his day in one of the biggest churches. He wrote about divisions in the Corinthian church because of their perception of celebrity leadership. He wrote: “What I mean is this: one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another ‘I follow Christ.’”
These were the so-called “celebrity leaders” that believers chose to follow based on their perceived status rather than on their anointed ministry.
It is not culturally unnatural to aspire to a position of power, for in such positions, one can have status and entitlements. It often comes from the individual search for self-fulfillment.
Why we do what we do is as important as the goals we set up for our lives. The question of who am I is often determined by what we are becoming as a result of our choices in life.
In a Christian society where the Church is a significant institution, people tend to live lives not so much based on the realities of faith but on the delusional goals of their imaginations.
The greatest challenge of our lives may be to do that which may be unpopular and unacceptable by others, choosing what is right, what is good, and what is of God’s impeccable character.
END.
