21st Century Idols....

I must confess that I’m still in Grumpy Old Man mode.  After railing against the unnecessarily obtuse vocabulary used by academic writers yesterday I have now turned my ire towards one of the most puzzling aspects of 21^st century culture; the celebrity none entity!

I can understand why some people are celebrities, why they are well known and popular with the general public.  The great actors and iconic actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier or Sean Connery, great musicians and singers like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Madonna and Cher and authors like Jeffrey Deaver and, dare I say it, JK Rowling.  They are all people who have achieved something in their chosen field of endeavour and deserve the recognition they have received.

But some celebrities?  Why on earth are they celebrities?  I hate to speak ill of the dead, but what did Jade Goody ever achieve to deserve praise and adulation?  What has Katie Price ever achieved, other than being a topless model?  I just don’t get the whole concept of people who are celebrities because they are celebrities and for no other readily apparent reason.

Maybe it all comes down to the inbuilt human need to look up to somebody, to offer somebody our praise and adoration, to worship somebody.  We were created to worship God, but many of us seem to divert that worship to other human beings who are no different or better than anybody else.  People in Ancient times did the same thing: instead of worshipping the living God they worshipped idols made of wood and stone.  It was known as idolatry and that is exactly what celebrities have become in the 21^st century, the new idols.

There is nothing wrong with being a fan of somebody.  I am a huge fan of Elvis Presley and I love his music; but I don’t worship him and I don’t try to model myself on him and be like him.  The only person I model myself on is Jesus Christ; he is the only person I want to be like.

We must put celebrities in their proper place: they are perfectly ordinary people who are no different to you or I.  Worship, praise and adoration belong to one and one only; the Living God who created and sustains our world, the God who died on the cross and gave his life that we might live; the God who lives in our lives each and every moment: to him be all praise, worship and adoration forever!