the cult of celebrity, and more

This week has brought two separate but related conversations about the state of our celebrity-soaked culture. The second one is more direct. On Monday night, our church hosted its bi-monthly cultural discussion, Theology at the Forge. The design here is basically to create a public forum where people are challenged (first as humans and citizens) to look at themselves and the world around them a bit more critically. The basic underlying questions for our meal discussion are ones such as: what's wrong with society? What can be done to make it right? What do trends in society teach us about human nature? About ourselves? What good can be found? How can we create more of this good? What underlying beliefs have led to the "texts and trends" we find in our culture? In short, culture is a product of worldviews. When people get together, they inevitably live out on a communal level what their desires and passions are. At Karis, we think discussing such things is worthwhile, and it's essential for shaping us into people who live more and more consistently with reality, rather than by false presuppositions.

But I have diverged from my point, I hope that brief description is enough! In this particular installment of TATF, we discussed "The Cult of Celebrity: Who's Your Role Model?" When we look at our culture today, we see that the influence of celebrity culture is undeniable. The magazines we read, the news we watch, the fashions to which we adhere, even the causes we back up...many of these are a result of our subconscious connection with what flows from Hollywood. The first discussion that I was involved in, on Sunday night, went even deeper into this. We looked at the checkout lane of a grocery store from a theological perspective. This stems from an article in Everyday Theology called "The Gospel According to Safeway." The authors basically argue that the checkout lane is preaching a certain vision of the good life, and it is one that we often passively accept. Better sex, easy weight loss, convenient solutions and quick sugar fixes are all at your fingertips as you impatiently wait for the obnoxious mom with 3 kids in front of you to finish checking out. In fact, the authors argued that celebrities are the de facto symbol of the good life. They have everything we want (or think we want): wealth, fame, money, sex, and so, hard as this may be to digest, we idolize them (aka. we worship them). And what we worship shapes who we are.

But of course, the answer here isn't that all mass media or all celebrities are bad. Nor is it to say that there is no place for thoroughly enjoying a musician's work or an actor's films. Rather, this raises many pertinent questions for anyone living in 21st-century western civilization. Here are some that came up Monday night:

1) The death of Heath Ledger is all over the media. We hear more about this than about the deaths overseas, or for that matter, in our own communities. What might this say about our culture? About human nature?

2) Why do you think we are obsessed with celebrity gossip? (People is the most-read magazine).

3) The January issue of Esquire is peppered with advice from celebrities on how to live life. Would you say our culture equates fame with wisdom? Do we place more trust in celebrities for advice than our own friends and neighbors who know us?

4) It seems like soft news (ie. the Daily Show or the Tonight Show) are taking over as our source of information. Is this a good or bad trend? What does it say about our culture as compared to past ones?

5) Does fame equate to moral or spiritual authority? (Oprah would be a good example here)

6) What about the way celebrity culture defines beauty for us? Is this healthy?

7) So what might be an alternative vision for the good life in these areas already mentioned? If the life promised by the magazines is unrealistic, then what is realistic? (We can't really answer a question like that if you don't figure out what is true and foundational to reality).

I hope these questions are helpful. I'm sure there are many more that could be asked. I obviously have opinions on them, but I'll leave it at that for now. Feel free to post a comment - this could be good conversation!