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The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 06:49 AM
The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, most of whom are
still living. Some include Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Tim LaHaye, Grant Jeffrey, John
Hagee, Rick Warren,
Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart,
and Hal Lindsey. Almost all of these Christian celebrities teach the
pre-tribulation
rapture theory, that God has two distinct peoples, the Jews and the Church, that
Christians cannot be Israel and that the Jews, saved or unsaved,
remain the chosen of God. Although
Rick Warren is or was a member of the Southern Baptist denomination, I am not
sure that he teaches the doctrines of dispensationalism. Robert
Schuller has taught other forms of false doctrines and might not be classified as a
dispensationalist.
So the Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for
the present day
widespread
popularity in the Churches of the doctrines of the pre-tribulation
rapture, the radical
separation of Church and Jews, and that the Jews remain God's chosen people.
And - there are a few well known Christian teachers
who do not fit in with the celebrities listed above. For example,
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and especially the Dutch missionary
Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) are famous but should not be classified as
celebrities
because they apparently did not try to cultivate their images. Both
wrote a great many Christian books. Schaeffer is
interesting
because he belonged to the Reformed pre-millenialist camp, but was not into
dispensationalism, though he did not systematically criticize it.
Corrie emphasized forgiveness,
which is not stressed in the contemporary Churches. Schaeffer's
smaller Calvinist group believed that following the tribulation,
Christ would appear the second time, and after that he would bring in
his thousand year reign on earth. They did not believe in the
pre-trib rapture or that God has two different peoples. The larger
number of Calvinists follow amillennialism, which makes the thousand
year reign into a big sweeping allegory of all Christians from all
ages, following Augustine and the Catholic Church. Corrie Ten Boom in
her later years opposed dispensationalism, and pointed out that the
doctrine of the pre-trib rapture left the Christian Church
ill-prepared in times of great persecution, such as in China under
Mao.
Celebrities are the most successful people in the image culture of
television, movies, radio, magazines and newspapers. Many people who
are not celebrities imitate celebrities in presenting surface
appearances
of attractiveness and success. Almost everyone takes part in the
celebrity system - including Church Christians - by allowing
celebrities on TV, in movies, on the radio and in other media to
influence
them in what they think and in the way they act. Celebrities not only
entertain Americans and those
in most other parts of the world, but they also tell us what to
believe and how to behave. National political celebrities are able
to lead people to the extent that the politicians can sell people on
the basis of their images. In our age of deception, it is the
celebrities of entertainment, politics and religion who do much of the
deceiving; and they are able to deceive people because the people are
impressed by their surface appearances. It is very important for
believers to understand the celebrity system - both secular and
Christian - because many Christian celebrities deceive Church
Christians into accepting false
theologies which they promote. Preachers also tend to follow
Christian celebrities and themselves often try to present good images
in order to better influence their congregations.
Before the secular celebrity system spread to politics, sports, the
arts, the military, education,
business and to Christianity, it was confined to Hollywood film stars.
Richard Schickel in his book, Intimate Strangers: The Culture of
Celebrity, 1985, says the celebrity system began in the period of
1895 to 1920 with early Hollywood movie stars. Some of these early
celebrities of film were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas
Fairbanks and William S. Hart.
Like Narcissus, the Hollywood celebrity fell in love with his or her
own image. In Greek, narke, or narcotic, means stupor, a state of not
being very sharp cognitively. In The Christian Celebrity System Part
One I briefly described how very frequent jump cutting and poor story
construction on network TV can cause not only a momentary type of
stupor or suspension of cognitive clarity, but may lead to long term
cognitive deficiencies. The presentation of a glamourous image by
Hollywood celebrities
produces narke, a magic spell, a bewitchment and enchantment. People
who are put into a state of some stupor by a celebrity - and this
includes Christian celebrities - are made more gullible to whatever
message the celebrity is teaching because their critical discernment
has been shut down to some degree.
In presenting their nonverbal appearances, celebrities have learned to
simplify their personality
presentation. In the image culture the perception of another's
personality is reduced down to
his or her surface appearance. Celebrities pick out one or two verbal
expressions to emphasize to others as "themselves." Farrah Fawcett's
wind-blown hair look, big smile, and in the late sixties and seventies
the bra-less image made up a large part of her appearance. Fidel
Castro, though not an entertainer celebrity, presented a simplified
image with is beard, carefully pressed military fatigues, and cigar.
Many people tend to be disturbed by other people who show too many different
appearances and a complex personality. Most people use only a very
few dimensions to picture in their minds the the personalities of
others. This may be why celebrities try to simplify their images.
People are not disturbed
when they are able to make sense out of the behavior of another by use
of a very small number of
dimensions. By dimensions I mean bi-polar opposites like
conventional-unconventional, successful-unsuccessful, strong-weak, or
good-bad.
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