We have a love-hate relationship with celebrity culture. We who consider ourselves part of this New Calvinism hate the idea of celebrity, but have no clear idea how to avoid the reality.
We say we hate a celebrity culture, yet stories about our celebrities
dominate blogs and periodicals; a sure way to draw in massive amounts of
traffic is to write about each new scandal connected to each of our
celebrities. We see the dangers posed by a culture of celebrity, but
also see that to some degree it is unavoidable. After all, there are men
and women we honour and respect and look up to, who are worthy of our
regard and worthy of the leadership we give them.
We expend all kinds of effort in celebrating these people we love,
and commending them to others, and spreading their fame. We serve as
evangelists for their books and their churches and their conferences. We
build them up in our own minds and in the wider church culture. We do
this naturally and almost without thinking about it. “You’ve just got to
read Don’t Waste Your Life!” “Have you seen Paul Washer’s Shocking Youth Sermon?” “Don’t you read that blog? Don’t you follow that Twitter account?” Continue at Tim Challies
