added by Jonathan Simcoe · updated 2y ago
The Crisis of Christian Celebrity
It’s tempting to simply cite Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous maxim that the doctrine of original sin is “the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith,” note that every class of person is susceptible and vulnerable to sin, and move on. Celebrities are human, and we know that human beings are fallen, and thus there will always be spectac
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Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
The Christian leaders of integrity are also typically keenly aware of the unique dangers of spiritual connection and spiritual authority. Spiritual connection with a person can be especially intimate. Spiritual authority is particularly easy to abuse.
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
First, they don’t trust their virtue.
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
I also ponder the truth of C.S. Lewis’s definition of courage (you’ve heard me quote it before): “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.”
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
Make the easy choice so you don’t have to make the hard choice.
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
Christian celebrities will continue to fall. But they don’t have to fall so often. They don’t have to inflict so much pain. Change will only come when Christian leaders remember a few painful truths. Their hearts are deceitful. They do not deserve their fame. God does not need them. Instead, they need Him. And they need to remember those truths eve
... See morefrom The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
But they also don’t know who they truly are. They’re untested. They’re untried.
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago
Moreover, the celebrity’s apparent talent and relevant success teach him to do the things he must not do: to trust himself, to believe that he is a person of virtue, to believe that he is important. This is particularly dangerous when talent and success almost always create both opportunity and motive for serious sin.
from The Crisis of Christian Celebrity by frenchpress.thedispatch.com
Jonathan Simcoe added 8mo ago