Welcome to Bright Point, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman presciently warned of a few consequences of an entertainment-driven age. Among them was the temptation of celebrityism. in which fame supplants expertise and style supplants substance.
What Postman did not predict, however, was how much worse it would all get in the age of influencers, or how the church would be especially vulnerable to the forces of entertainment culture, including what might be called Christian celebrityism.
Now, there are, of course, wonderful stories of high-profile conversions like Chuck Norris and Kirk Cameron. Chuck Coulson could be included in that list, though his very public conversion to Christ predated our current age of celebrity politicians. But then there's that longer list of celebrity converts who, after an enthusiastic beginning, went completely off the rails. The latest addition to that list is rapper Kanye West. Back in 2019, after announcing his conversion to Christianity, West launched a new album and a mini tour called Jesus is King.
His songs quoted from the Bible extensively and exhorted parents to raise children who put their trust in Jesus. West even praised Chick-fil-A for being closed on Sundays. Today, after a couple rounds of psychiatric treatments and a messy divorce, West is literally singing a different tune. In fact, his newly released single is called Hail Hitler. In it, he praises the German dictator who started the Second World War and murdered six million Jews.
And the song follows several years of anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi remarks from the artist, including denying the Holocaust. The new song was quickly taken down by most major social media and streaming platforms, but the music video, which featured a clip from one of Hitler's speeches, can still be found on X, formerly Twitter, where it's accumulated millions of views and shares. Not only is the song directly ideologically opposed to his previous musical production, but West added significant fuel to an ongoing fire of online anti-Semitism and historical revisionism about the Nazis.
Now, celebrity gossip is the stuff of tabloids. But how Christians handle celebrity conversions really matters. Like all image bearers, celebrities can and do come to faith in Christ. Like all new converts, celebrities are susceptible to temptations and sinful behaviors. Christians should welcome celebrity converts into the fold, but not because they're celebrities.
We welcome them because they're made in the image of God and they found their Creator and Savior. Though many Christian clichés are theologically misleading, this one's accurate. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. In other words, no one's more or less qualified or more or less deserving of God's free gift of salvation. We all stand condemned by God's justice.
We are all in need of his grace. Celebrities need rescue from their sins as much as any of us do. In the parable of the sower Jesus described the various kinds of soil of receptivity to the gospel. And what might happen if the seed falls into that soil. But there wasn't a celebrity soil.
There's not a celebrity category that plays by different rules. The human condition is universal. It transcends fame and fortune. Also, celebrity converts need to be discipled to follow Jesus as much as any of us do. Being talented or beautiful or charismatic on camera is no shortcut to what Dallas Willard called the renovation of the heart.
Kanye needs Christ, like we all do, as much after his conversion as before. You know, we should all remember just how good the Holy Spirit is at his job of conviction and renewal, and how effective the work of Christ is in a human heart. The disappointing trajectory that a celebrity convert might take should not make us cynical about the possibility that the Holy Spirit is still at work in their lives. And yet, we cannot place celebrity converts on a pedestal. To paraphrase what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we regard no one according to the norms and rules of celebrity culture.
Instead, we regard them according to Christ. By the way, you might remember that Paul himself went into solitude for three years after his own somewhat prominent conversion. Rather than hold up any new believers as examples or experts before they're even out of so-called spiritual diapers, let's be hopeful, but also give a little time. Thankfully, there are marks of true conversion that have been noted by evangelists for centuries. George Whitfield, one of the most effective preachers of the First Great Awakening, offered a list in his little book, Marks of a True Conversion.
A true convert, Whitfield wrote, would exhibit self-denial, the pangs of the new birth, in which the person battles and begins killing old sins. A true convert would practice the means of grace by praying, studying scripture, worshiping regularly with fellow believers. He or she would also begin to imitate Christ, taking up their cross daily, striving to live by the Lord's example. Whitfield argued that real converts would exhibit a deep spiritual transformation, becoming evidently and personally loyal to Christ in their hearts. Not just grasping doctrine intellectually, or in this context, really loudly.
The marks that Whitfield described are rooted in Scripture, and they're just as applicable to the famous as to the unknown. Because, as they say, The ground really is level at the foot of the cross. And what all this means about Kanye only God knows. Clearly, he needs prayer, probably an intervention. Still, we live in this cultural moment when many of the rich and famous are being increasingly attracted to Christianity.
We should welcome that and we should welcome them. With hope and with grace, but we should never welcome them by changing what Christianity really is. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Shane Morris. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, you can leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
And for a version of this commentary that you can print out or share with others, go to breakpoint.org. Hey, John Stone Street here from the Colson Center. Registration is now open for a free live stream event Thursday, July 24th, entitled Truth, Love, and Humor, Faith Without Fear. For this special conversation, I'll be joined by Seth Dillon, the CEO of the Christian satire publication The Babylon Bee, and Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family. In this wild cultural moment where speaking common sense truth can get you canceled, We need to have a conversation about what our responsibility is to speak the truth.
how we have to be faithful and leave the results up to God. Seth Dillon and Jim Daly will join me to talk about these things, as well as how speaking the truth is actually an act of love. The event is absolutely free. If you're in the Bay Harbor, Michigan area on July 24th, you can join us in person or you can join us online via live stream. Register today at colsoncenter.org/slash truth.
That's colsoncenter.org/slash truth.
