The Problem with Celebrity Christians (and Christian Celebrities)

Jesuitical

America Media

News, News Commentary, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Britney Spears and Shia LaBeouf have in common (besides being famous)? All four of these celebrities made waves by announcing they had become Christian in recent years. Rightly or wrongly, we ordinary Christians often celebrate when a high-profile figure joins our “team.” But what should we think when our church leaders become celebrities? It’s a question Katelyn Beaty explores in her new book Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church. Katelyn looks at the phenomenon of “celebrity Christians” in the evangelical church, but the trend of priests and pastors gaining massive followings—online and IRL—exists across many denominations and in the Catholic Church. (After all, who’s a bigger celebrity than the pope?) We ask her the dangers of having a faith that is centered on charismatic individuals, how social media is changing the ways we relate to church leaders and how people in the pews can build real community in our celebrity-obsessed era. In Signs of the Times, Zac and Ashley break down some of the top Catholic news stories you might have missed while on summer vacation. Links from the show: Support Jesuitical by subscribing to AmericaMagazine.org! Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church Pope Francis releases new letter on liturgy: Catholics need a better understanding of Vatican II’s reforms Full text: Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous Peoples in Canada Pope Francis names 21 new cardinals, including Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego Lessons for evangelization from Britney Spears’ journey with the Catholic Church The missing piece of Shia LaBeouf’s conversation with Bishop Barron: the stories of abuse victims What’s on tap? Dirty gin martinis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Ashley here and as you probably know our trip to Italy is coming up and we're
0:04.9	learning so much with the help of Wondrium.
0:07.9	Wondrium is the educational platform with thousands of hours of trustworthy content
0:12.0	on courses covering just about every topic and of Sign up now at Wundrium.com to Jesuitical, a podcast by the Young Hip and Lay editors of
0:39.6	American Media. That lay part means we aren't Jesuits, but we work with them.
0:43.7	Join us each week for a smart Catholic take on faith, culture, in the news, often over drinks.
0:48.4	I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Zach Davis.
0:51.6	And welcome to our sixth and final season of Jesuits.
0:55.0	Oh, this is news to me.
0:56.0	I hope the writers wrap up a lot of the existing plot lines.
0:59.8	They've got a lot to uncover.
1:01.4	Just kidding, we are not as far as we know getting
1:04.0	canceled after this, but we are back for a sixth season I think. Yes and very
1:07.4	excited to be back after you know a much needed and lovely summer break but you know I miss being behind the mic talking to you and
1:15.2	talking to interesting people.
1:16.8	I really, really love the summer break every time it comes.
1:19.7	It seems like I took a break from the news a little bit. It seems like a lot of people are taking a break from the news a little bit it seems like a lot of people are taking a
1:24.3	break from the news but look we passed Labor Day kids are back at school it's time to
1:29.6	get back to it yeah I don't know about you but I was a nerd in elementary school and love this time of year it was like Christmas for me so I'm coming into this episode with like first day of third grade energy.
1:40.0	You could have just said that I you still a nerd. You were not a nerd and stopped to be one. You are still one. I don't have a new pencil box or a new folder or anything, but I do have a new drink to start the season.
1:53.6	Yes, we are having a dirty gin martini at the request of our guest who will get into
1:59.3	later, but yeah, nice refreshing end of summer cocktail.
	...

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