Christianity Needs Celebrities

by Ben Howard

A celebrity is not so much a person as it is the persona, the mediated representation and distillation of the person who inhabits the role. Rachel Held Evans did an excellent job highlighting this difference in her post, “You Don’t Hate Me. You Hate My Brand.” Evans argues that no matter how much she or any other public figure believes in the things they represent, these beliefs and ideologies are not the entirety of their humanity. No one is as simple as the things they represent.

Instead, it is this persona, this brand, which we associate with celebrity. Removed from the complexity, and subtlety, of an underlying humanity, a celebrity persona serves as a vehicle for a two-dimensional iconography. It’s from this humanity-adjacent position that we begin to talk about what Taylor Swift “means” or what aspects of culture Kanye West “represents.” In the context of Christian culture, this concept of celebrity allows us to invoke Mark Driscoll's name as a placeholder for "angry neo-calvinist," or Rob Bell's as "hipster preacher."

It’s also vital to point out that celebrity never exists or arises in a vacuum. I would argue that most celebrities, or at least those who are celebrities because of the ideologies they represent, are the products of a wider sub-culture. As a result, this celebrity becomes a representation and amalgamation of the sub-culture from which it springs. This is readily apparent in political races where a candidate comes to represent not only their own personal convictions, but also the embedded ideology of their particular party.

Thus far I’ve focused solely on what celebrity is, not what celebrity does, which begs the question of whether celebrity is merely the by-product of our culture or if celebrity actually offers some utility. Considering that the title of this essay is “Christianity Needs Celebrities,” I don’t think you’ll be surprised to find out that I do think it plays a useful role in society. Namely, celebrity provides a bridge between a sub-culture and the wider cultural zeitgeist.

As I mentioned earlier, celebrity is not merely a representation of a person, but a mediated and distilled representation of a person. As a result, celebrity iconography is by its very essence reductive and simplifying. While I’m sure this is a constant frustration to the deeply complex and nuanced person who happens to inhabit the role of “celebrity,” it provides an easy-to-process shorthand for the dissemination of their ideology into the culture-at-large.

For example, look at Pope Francis. If you read his interview with Antonio Spadoro from September, you will discover an incredibly complex person with a wide-range of influences and perspectives on how he carries out his life and his role as Pope. However, the popular depiction, the celebrity nature of Pope Francis is a short-hand summary of this complexity. In the popular landscape he is “The Social Justice Pope” or “The Marxist Pope” or “The Awesome Pope Who Kisses and Hugs and Loves People.” While none of these depictions encapsulate the man, the Jesuit community which formed him, or the Catholic church as a whole, they serve as a way for the wider culture to access the iconography and meaning of the Pope and what he represents. Without this reductive, yet resonant shorthand, the zeitgeist likely would have omitted the ideas of the Pope entirely. Complexity has an inverse relationship with popularity.

This is why Christianity needs celebrities. Christianity does not need celebrities because it needs leaders, or because Christians need someone to follow and fall in line behind. Christians need celebrities because they need someone to represent them to the broader culture, even if that representation is a simplified version.

This capacity to create celebrity, and not its conservative, “Bible-based” theology, is the true genius of evangelical Christianity. Whether it be Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell or Francis Chan, evangelical Christianity has always known how to find a suitable personification for its version of the gospel.

As a progressive, or at least a quasi-progressive, the easy response to this is to dismiss evangelicalism and its appetite for simplicity or to denounce it for catering to a culture of celebrity. Ironically, this seems to be the argument evangelicalism itself makes when discussing celebrity culture. Celebrity is viewed as vapid, and thus unworthy of Jesus and his followers.

But this overlooks a vital aspect of how celebrity functions within the ebb and flow of culture: the ideologies and movements which find their way into history are inevitably attached to a personification; a celebrity. The Civil Rights Movement had Martin Luther King Jr. The birth of the United States had George Washington. The very idea of democracy had John Locke. 

In fact, Christianity itself is inherently a celebrity driven religion. It is literally formed around a historical figure who built a cult of personality based on his iconography and teachings. The entire Bible is built upon the back of celebrity, through the narratives of Abraham and Moses and David and the teachings of Peter and Paul and John. And subsequent Christian theology is built around celebrity culture where various theologians and saints serve as representatives of complex ideologies and movements. Even our organization of churches, centered around priests and preachers, is a celebrity-oriented endeavor.

Christianity needs celebrities because it needs a bridge; an accessible version of its ideology that's available to the wider world. Celebrity is ingrained in culture and it is part of the roots of Christianity. The problem with Christianity is not celebrity culture it is who the celebrities are and what that celebrity represents. Christianity doesn’t need to abandon celebrity; it needs to create better ones.

Ben Howard is an accidental iconoclast and generally curious individual living in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also the editor-in-chief of On Pop Theology and an avid fan of waving at strangers for no reason. You can follow him on Twitter @BenHoward87.  

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Why I Pay Attention to The People From Twilight

by Ben Howard

In the past few weeks I've clicked on at least three stories about how Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson. Well, it might be more like 5...or 10. I can't really explain why I'm interested in the personal life of this celebrity couple. I'm not even a fan. Combined, they've made one movie that I actually liked (the first half of Water for Elephants and the second half of Snow White and the Huntsman).

So why do I care? Why does their personal life intrigue me? Why do I find it “humanizing” when Stewart offers what seems to be a heartfelt apology (in public) or when Pattinson goes on The Daily Show and shares some melted Ben and Jerry's with Jon Stewart? These aren't rhetorical questions. Seriously, why do I care?

The concept of celebrity and society's response is entirely fascinating to me. One of my favorite authors, Chuck Klosterman, had an interesting series of thoughts on this topic in his book of essays, Eating the Dinosaur. He argues that we turn celebrities into icons of meaning, essentially living metaphors, and then use these metaphors as cultural currency.

Everyone understands the cultural weight and value of a Kristen Stewart, or a Britney Spears, or a Lebron James. We use them to communicate. Klosterman actually argues that this is why celebrities deserve the money they make, not because they entertain us, but because we purchase the metaphorical meaning of their lives. If Britney Spears doesn't make millions and millions of dollars, we might feel bad when we use her to represent whatever negative stereotype we feel like discussing.

The same thing happens in politics. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are no longer human beings who want to be president, they exist as a constellation of ideas and positions; ideological proxies with far less control over their own meaning than they're probably comfortable with.

So what exactly is a Christian response to this kind of celebrity culture? A culture that twists people into characters and turns reality into a warped version of a stage? The easy answer is that Christians should avoid this kind of culture, but that seems naïve. It smacks of the fearful, simplistic response of those who argue that being “in” the world and not “of” the world means little more than running away in terror when the ugly parts of reality rear their heads.

In fact, the more I consider the issue, the more I'm convinced that Christianity and its subcultures are deeply enmeshed in this culture of celebrity. Doesn't the Christian culture create it's own celebrities and line up behind them for our ideological grudge matches? How many people respond to Rob Bell as an embodiment of theology instead of as a person? Or John Piper? Luther? Augustine? Paul? Peter? Jesus?

In Orthodox theology, the incarnation of Jesus is essential. God became human. Yes, he was a great teacher. Yes, he died and was resurrected, but first and foremost, God became human...like us. St. Athanasius says that, “God became man so that man might become God.” The idea of Jesus is beautiful, but we need the human Jesus even more than the idea. In Jesus we have the intimate connection between humanity and divinity.

That's what we strip away when we turn people into celebrities and movements and ideologies and iconography. We dissolve humanity into meaning as if humanity has no meaning in and of itself; no value apart from what it portrays or represents. It does. Our humanity is what connects us with the divine.

Remember that next time you watch a movie or sports or TV. These are people, much like you, some talented and some less so. And remember it when you read a book or go to church. Whether the author or preacher is wise or simple, brilliant or stupid, they are human and humanity is made in the image of God. Jesus was human. Just like the actors in Twilight.

Peace,
Ben

When he isn't deconstructing the entire premise of his blog about the meaning of pop culture and those involved in it, Ben is trying to think of philosophical work-arounds so he can write something about the “essence” of Taylor Swift. You can follow his mental gymnastics @BenHoward87.

Forever Waiting on Greg Oden

by Ben Howard

As an Ohio State basketball fan, Greg Oden probably first entered my consciousness sometime in 2006.  Oden, universally regarded as the best high school basketball player in the country and one of the best of the decade, was the crown jewel of the “Thad Five” recruiting class under first year coach Thad Matta.  Oden was tasked with establishing Ohio State, historically a football school with a mediocre basketball team, as one of the NCAA’s elite programs. 

However, the summer before he enrolled, Oden broke his wrist and was forced to sit out the first half of the season.  At the time, it was reported as an injury that occurred late in his final high school season, but the truth was more ominous and foreshadowing.  Greg had actually suffered the injury defending himself in a fight with his brother, Anthony, who had become angry at the idea of his brother’s success and future.  This would not be the only time where Greg would be hurt, physically or emotionally, by those close to him.

Once Oden got back onto the court, the Buckeyes became a powerhouse.  They would eventually play in the National Championship game where they lost to a juggernaut Florida team by 9.  The loss was in no way a deterrent to Oden’s career though, and he declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft where he was drafted with the first overall pick by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Expectations were once again high in Portland.  With Oden, along with young players Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland was set to establish a dynasty in the NBA.  However, at this point Greg’s career began to go off the rails.  The summer before his first NBA season, Greg began experiencing some pain in his knee and was forced to visit a specialist.  The resultant microfracture surgery meant that Oden would miss the entirety of his first season, and possibly the beginning of his second.  Oden would later reveal that the disillusionment of the surgery, along with the tragic loss of a close friend in a car accident led him to begin drinking heavily in addition to “doing things I shouldn’t have been doing.”

Greg came back in in his second year and played in 61 games, but the drinking had become even worse.  Looking for guidance during his recovery, Oden invited his cousin, a veteran from the Air Force, to live with him.  However, the cousin took Oden even deeper into alcohol.  In Oden’s own words:

My cousin got wrapped up in the NBA lifestyle and threw parties at my house all the time. So I got wrapped up in it too. When I played well, I'd drink to celebrate. And when I played poorly, I'd drink to forget. That second year in Portland I pretty much became an alcoholic.

The offseason gave Greg the incentive to get a handle on his problems.  He stopped drinking, hired a personal chef and got into great shape.  He began the next season on fire, and was beginning to fulfill his much-longed for potential.  Then, in the first quarter of a game on December 5, 2009, Greg landed awkwardly fracturing his left patella.  Oden has not played in an NBA game since.

In the myopic world of sports fandom, Greg became a joke.  Even though he wasn’t responsible for the injuries he had suffered (it isn’t like hurting your knees is tied intimately to some deep character flaw), Greg was mocked and ridiculed by the fans of Portland.  He had come to symbolize both their hope and anticipation, and their bitterness when that hope vanished due to bad luck.  During this rather difficult time, yet another humiliating event occurred in Oden’s life.  At the risk of being indelicate, Oden was a wealthy young bachelor and therefore had his fair share of female admirers.  One of these admirers leaked nude pictures of Greg onto the internet.  Oden was humiliated by the event and refused to leave his house for three days.  Not only was he the symbol for failure and unmet potential, now he was a fool and a target of wrath and mocking for the sports community.

Over the next two years, Oden continued to meet frustrations and setbacks with his recovery.  Every time he seemed on the verge of making a comeback, yet another obstacle emerged and prevented it.  It also eroded his confidence in his employer, who he believed had tried to rush his return thus extended his recovery time with ill-advised treatment.  Oden was eventually released by the Blazers in early 2012.  He has returned to his childhood home of Indianapolis, Indiana where he intends to rest and rehabilitate during the 2012-2013 season before attempting a comeback.  If/when he comes back, Greg will only be 25 years old and will still possess the potential for a long and happy career.

I’ve always felt bad for Greg Oden, and I think that’s because I’ve always felt a little bit like him.  Now, I’m not trying to say I have world-class talent or something like that, I may be arrogant at times and a bit grandiose, but I’m not that arrogant. However, I do understand the struggle to hold up under the weight of expectations that you have neither courted nor control.  We live in a culture that is enamored with the idea of expectation and potential.  Our schools have programs for the “talented” and “advanced” kids, politicians drone on and on about how children are our “future”, movies and TV shows succeed or fail often based primarily on their trailers and the buzz surrounding them, and ESPN broadcasts the drafts of every major sports league.  At the same time, potential is exactly what it says it is: the potential to become something, achieve something, be something.  It is not the thing in itself.

I think our cultural obsession with potential, the next thing, the new “Best Ever”, has the shadow effect of demoralizing those who don’t, or can’t, achieve to the level that they’ve been predicted.  We’ve subtly undercut the belief that you can be happy and content without being an overachiever who does amazing, storied feats.  Personally, I feel this crunch quite acutely.  I am 25 with a college degree, a good entry level job, nearly finished with a Master’s degree, surrounded by friends and family who love me, and a majority of the time I feel like a chronic disappointment.  I see 20 year old savants with doctorates and people my age with book deals, people who have “achieved” something, and somewhere in my warped perspective of the world, I feel like this is the norm, when it is more than exceptional.

The story of Greg Oden isn’t the story of failure.  Instead, I think it’s the story of an idea, the concept of GREG ODEN towering over and enveloping the man.  The problem is that Greg Oden has never been and can never be in charge of GREG ODEN, he can only be in control of himself.  Perhaps, in my case, or yours, the expectations we feel are illusory and the crush is self-imposed, but it is a perception birthed from a culture that idealizes its young and its future at the expense of its contentment and its present.

At its core, this obsession with expectation and potential is deeply unchristian and deeply destructive of the image of God embedded within us.  We follow in the paths of people plucked from what we would perceive as mediocrity and placed in positions of power and leadership.  We come from a line that believes and trusts that we do not achieve under the work of our own talent and potential, but through the work of God’s spirit through us.  Our achievements are not our own, but they are the gracious out-workings of God in us and through us.  We do not aspire to become the best version of ourselves, but instead we struggle and strive to incarnate the very image of God embedded within us at our creation.  We are full of expectation, we are full of potential, but it is not the potential of the I or the Us, it is the potential of our creator and our redeemer.

Peace,

Ben

Much thanks to Mark Titus for his incredibly useful interview with friend and former teammate Greg Oden.  Read his interview here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7908766/a-rare-interview-former-no-1-overall-pick-greg-oden-injury-plagued-career