GOD: THE INTERVIEW

[rone]

It struck me last night as i was drifting off to sleep that people's relationship with God is not unlike the one people have with celebrities. People are aware of the celebrity's life to varying degrees; some read People and watch The Style Channel assiduously, while others just see them in movies, or TV, or just hear about them. These would be your median worshippers, from the devout to the nearly-lapsed. Some people stalk celebrities, and these are your religious nuts. Some bump into celebrities in normal places, and they're like people who have witnessed miracles. Some people go to places where celebrities are often seen, and scream and shout and even pass out when they see their favorite celebrity. These would be like Pentecostals, or maybe also whirling dervishes. Then you have people who hate celebrities because they're rich, beautiful, and/or famous, and mock those who are part of the cult of personality; yes, atheists.

As an agnostic, i'm not interested in celebrity; i'm interested in people. And i think (if i may be so presumptuous) that believers should stop treating their god like a celebrity, stop treating their holy text like it's a weekly glossy magazine, and should start cultivating a real relationship with their god, because of the simple fact that he's there for them. All the answers you want are very likely inside of you, as well as all around you; all you have to do is look. Asking people in the "entertainment business", that is, your priests, might not necessarily be the best option, because they might be blinded by the glare of celebrity. Ask your friends; ask people who follow other "celebrities"; heck, ask an atheist. But don't settle for the Joan Rivers Fashion Special.

Comments

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Great minds, etc.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, though I don't think I can articulate it as well as you have here. Celebrities are what they are because they give the appearance of embodying certain attributes...as a pagan, I'm used to thinking of particular deities in terms of how they embody certain attributes. One-to-one correspondence. And sometimes I think that the way gods were thought of in some ancient civilizations, particularly those where a human being was elevated to the status of the divine, really isn't too different from how celebrities are placed on pedastals today.

Maybe it's a basic human drive, to set something up that gives the appearance of being bigger than us, but that we can still see and touch. From this perspective, the idea of a god who has no appearance, no physical manifestation whatsoever, is nothing short of revolutionary.

Then that makes me think of how a god might perceive its worshippers. My religion specifically teaches that one does not depend upon the divine for anything; at most, it might offer guidance, or point the way. How might a god deal with so many prayers and supplications? Are we even capable of conceiving of such a mind, or can it be even described as a mind?

Questions, questions. The short story I'm currently in the planning stages of is about this, in a way, though I don't think it's going to answer any of my questions.

All the answers you want are very likely inside of you, as well as all around you; all you have to do is look.

The closest thing Wiccans have to scripture is probably the Charge of the Goddess (sounds like a battle maneuver, doesn't it?), which includes this phrase: "If that which you seek, you do not find within yourself, you will never find it without."

Etc.

ummmm.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, you sound an awful lot like Philip Yancey, former editor of Christianity Today, and author of a number of very readable and reasonably-well-thought-out books.

His discussion of "God the Celebrity" is on page 127 of his book Reaching for the Invisible God, Zondervan, 2000. He talks about how difficult it is, and how many intermediaries there are, between ordinary people and celebrities. His (brief) discussion of Pentecostals opens a later chapter.

I can't tell you how weird it is to read what you've written above, because so much of it is so familiar.

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Weird... I've been thinking along similar lines myself, seeing as celebrity as a very old phenomenon. In the past it was tales of mighty heroes and old gods. Today, it's Brad Pitt and J. Lo. People/beings(whether real or imagined) who live lives perceived by many to be greater than our own.

-- Schwa ---

And so it is our duty to gossip about them or write epic poems in their honor.

Bam

[sneaux.livejournal.com]

On a side note, someone pointed out to me once how the televangelists of the 1980's have been replaced by the Emerils of today. They're both positioned as mediums to something greater. They both have similar relationship with their audiences, both in-person and via television. They're both exalted and fawned over and have become unlikely celebrities in their own right. They both sell books. The main difference being that *consumption* has displaced spirituality (however questionable that spirituality might be). And I guess The Naked Chef isn't asking us to send him money, although his advertisers certainly are.