Another Celebrity Conversion

First Kanye and now it’s Justin Bieber who claims to be a Christian.

In a popular youtube video, Bieber describes hitting bottom and how he turned to follow Christ. It is an interesting story, laced with a few expletives. He sounds a little confused, but not much different from some new believers I have had the chance to disciple over the years.

Why would Christians, even fundamentalist Christians get more excited over the public profession of faith of Justin Bieber than they do for that 8-year-old little girl in Junior Church on Sunday? It is not because any single soul is more valuable than others. I admit a Bieber profession of faith is more interesting because it is unusual, but it is more than that.

Some argue that it is about influence.

After all Justin and Kanye have millions of fans. Maybe some of them will be more inclined to consider Christianity if their idol does. The message of the gospel might reach more people because of the testimony of a famous person, but if those people pursue religion to be like the person they admire then they are headed down the wrong path. Celebrity Christians can attract the attention of the lost, but they tend to attract that attention to themselves (even when they do not want to) instead of Christ.

The more troubling problem with celebrity conversions is how believers respond.

We have a profound desire to be liked—to be affirmed. Now more than ever average Christians are immersed in the sea of popular culture. We easily fall in love with the world and we want that love to be reciprocated. We deeply hope that the culture will begin to respect and admire Christianity (and Christians) if a few cultural icons follow Christ and lend some street cred.

It never works that way. Celebrity conversions initially gain some attention, but the path ahead tends to go one of two ways. If the celebrity is truly converted and his or her life truly changes, the culture responds by mocking this new Christian lifestyle or even more often, ignoring it altogether. If the celebrity is falsely converted, then the culture responds by mocking the celebrity as hypocritical, the conversion as silly, and Christianity as fake.

We need to stop wanting the world to love us.

That is the path to compromise and corruption. The New Evangelicals of the mid-20^th century desired to be respected by the academic world. They hated being called ignorant when they knew they were not. 21^st Century evangelicalism (and fundamentalism if we are not careful) wants to be liked by the sinful culture. We hate being called “haters” when we know that we are not.  But the acceptance never seems to come. We must find our affirmation in Christ and not from the world around us. Why would this sinful world that rejected Christ treat us any differently than it treated Him (John 15:18-19)?

So, how should we respond to celebrity conversions? Thank God for the salvation of any eternal soul—famous or not. Every soul is priceless. Pray for new believers—especially prominent ones. Satan is coming. Difficult times are ahead for the truly converted soul. There will be temptations, opposition, and mocking along this path that leads to Christian maturity.

Treat them like brothers and sisters in Christ, not like stars. James condemned “star treatment” in the local body (James 2:1-9).  The local church is no place for Christian royalty. The Church is where famous people ought to be able to go and feel like a regular person, like one of the family.

There are celebrities who become Christians, but there should be no celebrity Christians.