The Deification of Celebrity
July 8, 2009
The more shallow a culture, the more trivial are its objects of worship. Ours is a culture that worships celebrity. The onslaught of reality TV has awakended the possibility that I too can be famous. As Nicole Kidman's character in To Die For said, "Being on TV makes you a better person." The Paris Hiltons of the world have given us the category of "famous for being famous."
Calvin wrote that the heart of man is a veritable factory of idols. As God continues to be eclipsed in the Western world it does not follow that worship will decrease. Indeed we will all go on worshipping for that is who we are.
An article by John Kass in The Chicago Tribune.com speaks to the "creepy deification" of Michael Jackson. In the article Kass includes quotes from Cornel West and Eric Dyson.
Creepy indeed.
Read the entire article HERE.
Update:
Check out Pastor Eric Redmond's post HERE.
Calvin wrote that the heart of man is a veritable factory of idols. As God continues to be eclipsed in the Western world it does not follow that worship will decrease. Indeed we will all go on worshipping for that is who we are.
An article by John Kass in The Chicago Tribune.com speaks to the "creepy deification" of Michael Jackson. In the article Kass includes quotes from Cornel West and Eric Dyson.
"It's almost like a crucifixion, in terms of the cross you have to bear," said professor Cornel West. "We reap the fruits of the resurrection, in terms of the power that emanates from [Jackson's] sacrifice. He sacrificed his childhood because he loved us so. He didn't just entertain us, he sustained us."...
"There's no question that the transcendent art that he created was a means, an instrument, a vehicle, for others to experience what he did not. His own father told him, teased him that he was ugly, Michael reconstructed his face, deconstructed the African features into a spooky European geography of fleshly possibilities, and yet, what we couldn't deny, was that even as his face got whiter and whiter, his music got blacker and blacker, his soul got more deeply rooted in the existential agony and the profound social grief that black people are heir to. And what he did was he allowed us through his voice and his instrument to see a glimpse of the heaven that he himself was denied." (Dyson)
Creepy indeed.
Read the entire article HERE.
Update:
Check out Pastor Eric Redmond's post HERE.
