patrick jane forums

   
Mon, Dec 27, 2010:  The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
Bernard Pyron

There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, many  of whom are still living, such as  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.

So the Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for
the present day widespread teaching of doctrines which disagree with parts  of the New Testament.

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.  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.

Celebrities sometimes pay a price for their over-simplification of
their images to fit this tendency of people to become confused or
disturbed by complexity of personality presentation. Richard Schickel
says that "Forced to live within some early role, stars become restive,
even self-destructive, as a result of living up to the lie off
screen." But if a celebrities were to project complex personality
images to their audiences, most in the audiences would not be able to
form an impression of them, and would not like them. Social psychology
says that when a person is complex, others have difficulty in forming
accurate impressions of him or her; some may assume the other is like
themselves, while other perceivers may think the other is the opposite
of themselves. I published a report on an experiment dealing with these topics
in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1965, called "Accuracy of
Interpersonal Perception As A Function of Consistency of Information."

Church Christians tend to be influenced by the teachings of Christian
celebrities and may even copy the verbal expressions of the celebrities. George Comstock, a TV effects researcher, says that "It is pretty well established that film models can be as effective as live behavior models...One impressive
study is that of Bandura and Ritter in which film models were
successful in the desensitization of phobias over snakes." Christian celebrities acting as role models for other Christians may not often appear in Hollywood movies, but they do appear on television, on the radio, in books and now on the Internet.

A celebrity role model can teach Church Christians sound doctrine
from Scripture, and such a celebrity role model can teach man made
theologies which do not agree with Scripture.

In the image culture, it is the image of the writer, or broadcaster in
audio or on TV, which determines, to a great extent, whether his
audience will think he has spoken the truth or not.
When a person using one of the media says something which is
unfamiliar to the audience, they rarely investigate to see if that
statement is true. Rather, they more often look to the person's image
- his or her image of attractiveness and success. If he or she has a
good image and is considered a celebrity, his or her statement is more
likely to be accepted as the truth than such an unfamiliar statement
coming from someone not considered to have a good image.

Daniel J. Boorstein in The Image: Guide to Pseudo-Events in America,
1965, says we now live in a world "...where the image has more dignity
than its original...We have become eager accessories to the great hoaxes of the age." In the image culture of movies, TV, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, the image is more real that what it is supposed to represent. The mass media, and its  celebrities, create our illusions that we live by. Boorstein writes about the "thicket of unreality" in the American image culture.

Isaiah 28: 15 predicts "...when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves." .

When I was interested in Christian book publishing about twenty years ago,
Christian book editors appeared to follow certain
formulas which they thought would lead to the books they accepted
becoming best sellers and making a lot of money. One of the formulas
for success was prosperity doctrines. And at about this time a new
formula was introduced into Christian book publishing, the promotion
of the self psychology of Carl Rogers and A.H. Maslow. These ideas on
self-esteem, self love and self-actualization undermined the Biblical
doctrines saying we should not have pride and that we should dislike
our sin and repent from it. In 1970 Zondervan published what was
perhaps the first in a long series of Christianized self psychology
books, Love Is Now, by Peter E. Gillquist. A number of other
Christian book houses put out books on Christian self psychology,
including Harvest House, Eerdmans, InterVarsity, and by 1982 Word,
Inc of Waco, Texas got into the Christian self love act by publishing
Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, by Robert Schuller, certainly a
Christian celebrity.

Bringing in self love, self-esteem and self-actualization into
Christianity amounted to introducing a new more blatant form of pride
and worship of the flesh. But the Christian buyers of books had
itching ears and wanted to read this kind of stuff.

It was very hard to get the Christian editors to publish on new topics
then, and this rigidity is probably just as bad today.

I wrote a manuscript on the counterculture at that time, and in a few
letters I exchanged then with Francis Schaeffer, we discussed this
manuscript. Schaeffer write me that he knew what  I "was wrestling with" at that time. I sent a version of the
manuscript to one of the Christian book houses that tended to publish
more conservative books. The editor did write a response back to me.
saying the Church was not concerned with the counterculture. At that
time the counterculture was not a topic included in the formula for
success in Christian book publishing. But even then the counterculture
was spreading into the broader American middle class culture with its
Hippie and drug movement anti-Christian messages, which soon led to
some drop in church membership among college educated young people and
perhaps to further departure from the Gospel of Christ by the
Churches.

Authorial image is what sells books, Christian book editors believe.
And so they will accept very few books by writers who do not - for the
editors - have good images of success and attractiveness. And the
editors also followed their lists of formula topics for success in
publishing.

Over the years the Christian book publishers have helped to teach
Church Christians that image is all important in Christian leaders.
This is a development which helps prevent them from discerning truth from
false doctrines. Being led by Christian celebrities who cultivate
their images does not teach Church Christians to love the truth, as II
Thessalonians 2: 10-11 says, "And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:"

The Christian book houses have helped to teach Church Christians that
good image - image of success and attractiveness of one's person - is
somehow truth, and that what a Christian celebrity says on TV, on the
radio or in writing can never be false doctrine coming from man's own
version of the Gospel of Christ. This is the central danger of the
Christian Celebrity system.

The false prophets that Christ warned would appear in the end times
are found in the ranks of the Christian Celebrities, because they can
get their messages out in the secular and Christian media. The image
culture makes it possible for them to deceive Church Christians into
believing their messages. "And many false prophets shall rise, and
shall deceive many." (Matthew 24: 11). False prophets can more easily
deceive Christians in an age of deception.

"That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will
not hear the law of the LORD:
10. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy
deceits:" Isaiah 30: 9-10

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears" II Timothy 4: 3

In II Peter 2: 14 the false prophets or false prophet Christian
celebrities belonging to the Second Beast of Revelation 13:11-18 are
described as "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin." Many of the false prophet celebrities are carnal, and love
money and sex.

Paul writes "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of
these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of
disobedience." Ephesians 5:6. "Vain words" are empty words, words
that sound good and are well delivered by attractive men - and
sometimes by attractive women preachers - but which are futile
because the words are not true to Scripture.

Titus 1: 10 says "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:" Unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers is from anupotaktoi mataiologoi
kai phrenapatai, or lawless and empty mind deceivers. The deceiving
false prophet Christian celebrities use impressive sounding words, but
which are really empty of spiritual meaning. And they promote a
mingling of the Gospel of Christ with man's religion, a false copy of
the true Gospel.