235: The Dangers of "Celebrity Pastors" | Katelyn Beaty
Preacher Boys Podcast
Eric Skwarczynski
4.6 • 701 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Purchase a copy of Celebrities for Jesus here: https://amzn.to/3S0DWng
Many Christian leaders use their fame and influence to great effect. Whether that popularity resides at the local church level or represents national or international influence, many leaders have effectively said to their followers, "Follow me as I follow Christ." But fame that is cultivated for its own sake, without attendant spiritual maturity and accountability, has a shadow side that runs counter to the heart of the gospel. Celebrity--defined as social power without proximity--has led to abuses of power, the cultivation of persona, and a fixation on profits.
In light of the fall of famous Christian leaders in recent years, the time has come for the church to reexamine its relationship to celebrity. Award-winning journalist Katelyn Beaty explores the ways fame has reshaped the American church, explains how and why celebrity is woven into the fabric of the evangelical movement, and identifies many ways fame has gone awry in recent years. She shows us how evangelical culture is uniquely attracted to celebrity gurus over and against institutions, and she offers a renewed vision of ordinary faithfulness, helping us all keep fame in its proper place.
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KATELYN BEATY is a journalist, editor, and keen observer of trends in the American church. She has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Religion News Service, Religion & Politics, and The Atlantic and has commented on faith and culture for CNN, ABC, NPR, the Associated Press, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She is cohost of the Saved by the City podcast (Religion News Service) and previously served as print managing editor at Christianity Today. She’s the author of Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church (Brazos Press, 2022) and A Woman's Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World (Simon & Schuster, 2016).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A sign of power stewarded rightly is that other people are empowered themselves. |
| 0:07.0 | If you don't feel empowered, I would say that's probably a red flag. |
| 0:11.0 | You know, if you don't feel like you can speak the truth, if you don't feel like you belong |
| 0:15.0 | because you don't fit a certain kind of ministry model, you haven't been selected to be at the top of the pyramid. If you feel like |
| 0:21.7 | you're actually expending a lot on behalf of the church, but there's no sense of gratitude or |
| 0:29.3 | I feel diminished in my personhood because of how much I'm giving to the church, I would think |
| 0:35.0 | all of those would be red flags. |
| 0:43.5 | Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations. |
| 0:50.3 | Listener discretion is advised. You are listening to the Preacher Boys podcast, a podcast shedding light on decades of mental, physical, and sexual abuse within the independent |
| 0:55.1 | fundamental Baptist movement. The testimony shared on this podcast are told from the personal |
| 1:00.7 | experience and perspective of the survivors. Not all legal outcomes are known or final. Any suspect |
| 1:07.6 | is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. |
| 1:11.5 | Now, here is your host, Eric Squarsinski. |
| 1:15.6 | Welcome back to the Prejoice podcast. |
| 1:17.5 | Today's episode is with the author of Celebrities for Jesus, |
| 1:21.0 | How Personas, Platforms, and Prophets are hurting the church. |
| 1:24.3 | Her name is Caitlin Beatty. |
| 1:25.5 | She's an award-winning journalist, |
| 1:27.1 | and she really identifies |
| 1:28.5 | some of the biggest issues within American church culture. We talk a lot about the difference |
| 1:34.0 | between fame and celebrity, big red flags that have been missed in some of the biggest |
| 1:38.4 | scandals that have taken place and rocked evangelicalism. And we talk about what she thinks is going to |
... |
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