A Different Kind of Celebrity Worship

There's a book review of The God Factor in today's Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required). The book, written by Cathleen Falsani, is a series of interviews with 32 celebrities about their beliefs in God (or "god").

Only 10 of the 32 celebrities attend church regularly. That's less than the approximately 50% of the general population that attends. This isn't particularly alarming. Nevertheless, celebrity "spirituality" is so widely publicized now that it's not a stretch to believe that celebrities have a disproportionate influence on the beliefs of Americans.

The last few paragraphs and Ms. Falsani's response are excellent:

Former Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan likewise has problems with crucifixes. "I think there is a reason they're not obsessed with the cross that much on the Eastern side of the planet," he says, "because they have more of a group consciousness. And when you have a solo consciousness, like a lot of Westerners do, it is really about being on the cross. You're the one putting yourself up there."

It's an observation that closely -- and, one would guess, unwittingly -- recalls a line in G.K. Chesterton's Christian classic "Orthodoxy": "Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out." But Mr. Corgan elaborates with a thought that would have most likely made Chesterton choke on his cigar: "And I think the whole point is to try to figure out how to get off the [expletive] cross."

If that's Mr. Corgan's theology, it's not Christian in the sense of the Gospel according to Luke, where Jesus urged his followers to take up their cross daily, nor is it the Gospel according to Matthew: "He who endures to the end shall be saved." It is, however, the Gospel according to "Peanuts": "No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from."

Mr. Corgan clearly means well. Unlike many of the book's subjects, he readily admits that he is a seeker who has yet to find all the answers. But to a Christian (and I am one), downsizing the cross from the instrument of salvation to a symbol of aggravation reduces Jesus from the messiah who died for our sins to a nice guy who had a bad day. It was back in those days that the Roman celebrity Pontius Pilate famously asked, "What is truth?" To this day, many cultural icons don't have an answer -- and as "The God Factor" makes clear, few can even bring themselves to consider the question. 

I've long contended that today's problem is not that people don't know the answers; rather, it is that they so often fail to ask the questions -- or even know what questions ought to be asked. Thoughtful deliberation, prayer and debate lead to truth more often than ignorance does. Faith does not exist in a reasonless vacuum.