Celebrity downside

Wisdom from Breakpoint:

 

What Jesus said about the dangers of wealth is just as true about celebrity in our postmodern age, and for most of the same reasons: It distorts our sense of self, both in relationship to others and to God.

And that’s before we take into account the hyper-sexualized nature of most of pop culture.

So the best advice I can give Christian parents is, to paraphrase Willie Nelson, “mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be pop stars.”

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t encourage their interest in creative endeavours such as music, theatre, and the visual arts. Quite the contrary. As Eric Metaxas and I have said many times on BreakPoint, we need more Christians in all these fields, pointing people to Truth and beauty through their work. But there’s a world of difference between being a celebrity and being an artist. The celebrity draws attention to himself, the artist to his work.

The celebrity thinks success is being famous. The artist knows success is being faithful. The celebrity chooses style over substance. The artist knows looking good is never as important as being good.

While artists can glorify God, celebrities, almost by definition, probably won’t. Because more often than not, there’s only room for one star in their firmament.