The Spirit of Celebrity

Two nights ago The American Idol crowned its newest star,
Taylor Hicks, a pre-maturely gray crooner from Alabama. I was thinking about this…are we
Americans so starved for celebrity that we actually have to come up with
television programming that actually creates celebrities for us to follow?

I’ll have to admit being carried along by the American Idol wave
over the last several months. I didn’t watch every episode and I never actually
voted but I was interested and did have an opinion about who I thought should
stay and who should go. That being said, I’m amazed by this celebrity
phenomenon we have as humans—to take those certain ones among us and elevate
them to super human status.

Film, sports, music, politics, theater, television,
radio…they all have their stars. But it’s certainly not limited to just those
genres. Name a segment of our society and they will have their celebrities.

As Christians, we are certainly not immune. I was at a large
Christian convention a few weeks ago. Christians from all over the world came
in for the four-day conference. I got the distinct feeling that many of the
thousands were merely groupies hoping to get close to their star.

I happened to have the occasion to see one of the speakers
sitting in his expo booth after a session in which he taught. The small area in
front of his booth was jammed with people craning to get a glimpse of they guy.
Like the photog wolfpack that follows the president, people were just holding
their cameras in the air over the crowd just hoping to catch “The Man of God”
in a corner of a photo frame.  The guy signing
autographs for over 100 people standing in line. He wasn’t signing books…he was
signing autographs! He was soaking it up.

Of course there were those who wanted to elevate Jesus
himself to this celebrity status. They thought if they could create this
superstar persona for him that his message would resonate much more deeply and
real change would occur. The fact of the matter is that some change probably would
have taken place…but it would have just been for those few years that he was
around…then it would have faded away, his message would have died out, and
things would’ve returned to the way they always were. Like pulling your hand
out of a bucket of water.

Jesus knew all of this (no duh) and would have none of it.
He was continually humbling himself and resisting attempts to be thrust into
the limelight. He knew the seductive power of celebrity and wouldn’t allow
himself to be drawn in. He kept his eye on the long-term prize not the
short-lived gratification.

I wonder sometimes about many of our Christian “celebrities”
today. Will their message die away with them? Will people be reading their
books and listening to their words in 10 years or 50 years or 100 years. Will
my grandkids care one whit about what some guy said in 2006?

What about Taylor Hicks? What will his career turn out to be? How enduring will his talent be?
Only time will tell. But for me…I think I’d much rather stay focused on the
long-term than be sucked in by the flattery of celebrity.