:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Due to an internet outage yesterday in our neck of the woods, I’m a day late in posting this…

We live in a celebrity culture. Celebrities provide foils and allow us to feel better about ourselves. We may bask in the glow of their achievements or console ourselves thinking that our flaws are less severe than what we learn about celebrities online or on the television.

The recent Jennifer Knapp flap illustrates our celebrity culture’s impact even in the Christian sphere. When a popular and beloved musician turned out to be something other than what we thought, many said they were disappointed in her. Some have felt let down by her. Knapp has dominated many conversations this week as we try to sort out what her homosexuality means for us.

And that is where things become tricky.

In all honesty, her homosexuality means nothing to you or me personally. Her Christian faith and personal choices, whatever we think of them, have no direct bearing on how we love God and love others. One musician’s choices and songs don’t change anything about God, and she only impacts us to the degree that we reflect upon her art and allow it to speak to us.

So what’s the big deal?

As I stated earlier in the week, Knapp provides a teachable moment for us to consider how we interact with homosexuals and to remember that homosexuals may be in our midst without our knowing. Should we choose to listen to her music, then we may have something else to chat about. However, discussing Knapp herself is really only a foil, a diversion from the conversations we need to have about ourselves and about God.

There isn’t too much redemption or edification going on when we argue about a celebrity that we’ll most likely never meet. It will be far more profitable to learn a little from Knapp and then move on to our own issues and the struggles of those around us.

The conversation about Knapp is mostly a diversion. What are the odds that those who criticize Knapp’s sexual choices are struggling with lust right now? What are the odds that bloggers such as myself have turned their critical words, originally directed at celebrities, onto their own friends and blog readers?

Celebrities give us cover from our real sin issues. Perhaps they’ll provide us a point of entry into the conversations that we need to have (as in the case of Knapp to a certain degree), but more likely than not, we need to quickly return to a discussion of our own desires, inconsistencies, and attempts to faithfully follow Jesus.

For a bit more on this, Lisa Delay did a great job the other day with her post.