Religion of Popular Cultlure

Remove the first word of the following title, references in the article to President Obama, and it remains one of the most thought-provoking articles about today’s worship of celebrity-hood around the world: “Obama and the Religion of Popular Culture”

When the author states: “With the decline of institutionalized religion, popular culture has taken its place as a bearer of human mythologies and values that explains the meaning of life and the nature of proper behavior to the masses. Most traditional forms of religion understand this and view themselves as openly or covertly at war for the hearts and minds of their followers with popular culture.”

I tend to agree. I believe it is open warfare.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12 KJV)

"The nature of fame is not truly rooted in any value other than charisma and photogenics. ... The subtext of fame is that it is all an illusion. The actors are reading lines from cue cards. The singers are lip syncing. The politician is reading from a teleprompter. ... People with real accomplishments are less likely to be as enduringly famous, because there is less illusion and artifice to the entire process. … The key to understanding the theology of the Religion of Popular Culture is that it offers ‘ordinary people’ a chance to become extraordinary by becoming famous, not through real accomplishment, but through fame itself."

We’ve seen so much of this in the last few years in what is laughingly referred to as Reality TV. Instead of being confined to a TV show where we control the switch, we’re confronted with these wannabes on magazine covers, in newspapers and radio/tv news reports. Balloons and party crashers, each has an angle.

Years ago it was considered ‘fame’ if one was in the news for fifteen minutes. Today’s ‘fame’ can be drawn out for months or years before someone new and different takes their place.

Yet, this is not new: And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) (Deuteronomy 29:17 KJV)

There have always been idols in an attempt to replace God in our lives. We are told it will remain thus: And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: (Revelation 9:20 KJV)

We’ve also been told of other events as the day of Christ is at hand:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 KJV)

Be concerned for the souls of those you love and those you meet, work toward their understanding of His salvation. All the while fully understanding that God’s plan is unfolding as promised. And, for this we pray:

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5 KJV)