CELEBRITY AUDACITY

Why does our society continue to celebrate celebrities who indulge in bold, audacious behaviour? Gossip columns in magazines and online are filled with stories and pictures about shocking things said and done by famous people. It might be a near-naked selfie, a cheeky outfit, a nasty tweet about another celebrity or an overly extravagant purchase. Things hardly worth viewing or reading about but millions of people will.

These things are audacious in the sense that they are brash and daring. They push the limits of decency. Music videos, by artists who want to be noticed, commonly feature scandalous and outrageous behaviour. It’s not new. Think Madonna, the Rolling Stones, or even Elvis in years gone by. But I think it’s definitely getting worse.

So what’s the problem here? And how can the Christian Church compete?

The following quote from my book “Our Culture in Christ”, p80, seems relevant.

“When it comes to appealing to the flesh, the world will always do a much better job than the church. If we’re trying to grab the attention of the world through worldly methods, we will run up against a major problem. The world entertains by sexual titillation, innuendo, violence, crudity and profanity, all things that do not belong in Christian witness… Christian [TV] programmers may be creative geniuses but there is a line that they cannot cross because… well… they are Christian… The problem is not that the Christian program is boring. The problem is that so many of the people we are hoping to reach are steeped in sin.

“Non-Christian songwriters and performers are not limited in their lyrics, their stage effects or their off-stage antics. They will always be more interesting to unsaved people. They routinely do and say things that would cause Christian artists to lose their ministries.”

So the problem is that Western society glorifies sin rather than honouring integrity and righteousness. The audacious behaviour of celebrities will not stop as long as there is a market for their shock tactics. We can’t change that but we can certainly pray!

ps: Apologies that this blog didn’t come out last week. I had a week’s holiday in beautiful Tasmania.