Christianity as Mediated by America's Entertainment Culture and Justin Bieber - Essay Example

?Christianity as Mediated by America’s Entertainment Culture & Justin Bieber Introduction Religion is everywhere. It is not only constituted of worshipping rather someone divine, but also when placing very high regard to a certain entity. Over the past decades, it has been a never failing trend that celebrities are being portrayed as religious icons. What with a very large mass following and significant influence and drag on society, the actions and projections of celebrities have effects on the behaviour and development of many aspects in society. Popular culture, in the advent of consumerism and the power of media, forces people to subscribe to whatever gossips and vanities celebrities indulge into. Consequently, it is why celebrities are marketed and angled to entice a larger devotion, exploring more possible target consumers. A prime example of this scenario is Justin Bieber and how he projects his image as a devote Christian. He even inked a portrait of Jesus on his calf. In an article entitled “Are young, religious stars like Justin Bieber and Tim Tebow making Christianity cool?” (Foxnews.com, January 10, 2012), Jo Pizza also mentioned other stars such as Demi Lovatto and NFL player Tim Tebow credit and praise their religion for their success in . Whether it is a packaging and publicity stunt to showcase Bieber as a devoted Christian in order to further his career, it is important to scrutinize the effects that in entails to society, to popular culture and its followings, and also the impact towards the Christian religion or simply just to religion. It is also critical to note that while Bieber’s influence does not generally include the adult population, he rather has a strong hold of fan base on the youth who calls themselves as “Beliebers”, wherein the influence and impression is more potent and lasting to society, notwithstanding the support that it garners from the religious sector. Thus, there is also a need to explore the link between how pop culture transcends from an idolizing and cult-like following into a significant religious influence. To understand better the American society and how religion is practiced, the media and its proponents must also be discussed. It is also important to delve and examine how religion evolved in the United States and outline how the secular theory has adopted through time through the aid of mass media and technology. Understanding how religion is now availed by the community through means of cable televisions and especially the internet will give better grasps as to how pop culture has found a way and rooted itself through the religious diversities of America. Celebrities are Salesmen and Religion is a Product When someone is propelled into the spotlight, directly or indirectly, they sell something. Whether it is in the form of movies, appearances, albums, advertisements, and the like, celebrities are vessels to sell something. In fact, in today’s culture, the celebrities are even the product themselves.1 Compared to the previous decades, the consumers demand to know everything about their lives. Noteworthy is the emerging unprecedented growth of paparazzi and gossip chasers who literally stalk celebrities in chase of the latest piece of conversation or controversy that can be made. In this age of technology and media, the interesting is defined by what is visible. Following on that premise; the invisible is uninteresting, thus unpopular, and ultimately unsellable. Therefore, celebrities must constantly reinvent and find ways to be more and more noticeable to the public eye in order to be successful salesmen of their products. Religion is no different than any commodity. It is also a product that is like any other where it needs to be marketed and sold to the consumer.2 After all, one needs to be convinced of a product before one purchases it or (in this case) adheres to it. It is worth highlighting that in this modern age, forms of religion are being marketed and advertised through the media. Evidence of these are the television channels broadcasting faith and preaching gospels, movies (like The Passion of the Christ, with A-list movie stars and where top notch marketing controversy are very evident to give the movie much buzz), books of religious and spiritual wisdom, among many other forms of media. The concept of marketing religion is not entirely new as it had been practiced even way back as early as the invention of the printing press, where the goal was to sell bibles. By analysing religion as a commodity rather than as a directive of society, one can more easily grasp why religion still holds sway in America. In an article by Piet Levy about Religion News Service (Usatoday.com, February 10, 2011), Bieber is promoted as a Christian icon. The article goes on by emphasizing Bieber’s projects which are geared towards putting him in such light. While the move can be argued as a mere marketing tool to advance the image of Bieber and captivate more support and allure for market prospects, it cannot be dismissed that it is an effective tool of winning the nods of approval of the society compared to other stars and celebrities who besmirch their persona by going for more provocative and less conservative approaches to stardom. While getting a tattoo is not exactly conventional and accepted by the more traditional practices of Christianity, because of the religious diversity of America (which will be tackled further along this paper), it can be concluded that it still is in the positive panorama of worshiping Christ. “Consumers know that the accomplishments of many of the people they follow are insubstantial and that their effects on society are inconsequential. They know that so-and-so became famous because she slept (and told) with someone who was vaguely a “somebody.” And that a former reality show’s contestant earns several million a year in spite of a self-acknowledged absence of intellect, taste, knowledge, skill or anything worthy of merit. We know these things: we just choose not to dwell on them for long or see them as reasons to stop following them. It’s more enjoyable to participate in the joys of celebrity culture.”3 It should also be put into consideration that “women are the primary target for the majority of consumer products, and they are more emotional than men. Therefore women are “inherently” predisposed to emotional appeals”.4 Therefore, Bieber is well segmented in a very viable market because he appeals to women and is therefore very marketbale in whatever idea or product he might be selling or endorsing. It is also worth noting (which will be also discussed further on) that women are the ones who have the most tendencies to immerse into popular celebrity worship. American Religion (Practical and Popular) The United States more widely practices religion than any industrialized country in the world.5 It is interesting to note that a study found out that 95% of Americans believe in the concept of having some sort of a higher being, but only 40% are active practitioners of the religion.6 Thus it is important to highlight that the religious culture has shifted from the traditional sense of worship (in churches, temples, and the like) into popular religion, wherein common individuals interpret and value religion as to how they see fit to live it in their own lives.7 But before delving further into the new and modern definition of religion, we must first examine the old paradigm. The secularization theory states that as societies become more industrialized they will become less religious. But this has rather not been the case in the American society. Instead of just vanishing, it adopted and coped with the needs and demands of its society of a simpler and more syncretised form. This became a hybrid wherein the secular became sacred, and the sacred became secular. 8 A good depiction of this in relation to Bieber is how he made a song that can be played in church and how he also plays religious music in his concerts. Even before his stardom he can be seen in YouTube playing and singing Christian songs. He also stars in his movie wherein it is also religious in nature that aims to captivate the use about the relevance of religion to their own lives and how it can shape the growth and upbringing of an individual. Clearly, popular religion is different from theological religion. Popular religion is reasoned as to being practical, wherein something that gives people at ease and meaning with their lives are the ones that they revere. Modernization has been the main motive of secularization in modern societies.9 Because of modernization, people attach and reach out for something that can make sense out of their lives.10 The change is also attributed in the events of the 1960s, where the society experienced drastic losses and pivotal changes. This was largely due to “a sense of loss—a loss configured by the wounds of war (the World Wars, the Vietnam War), the impact of technology and global capitalism, domestic racial strife, and growing disillusionment with traditional forms of religious faith and worship. Out of this context emerged the archetype of the American religious subject as a ‘spiritual seeker’ who journeys in search of new religious ground for reconciliation and healing” (Iwamura, 2000). Through social change and liberation of thought, especially in a country like the United States of America, the people tend to do away with “dazzling array of belief systems that all claim to endow human experience with meaning, so they simply choose and pick from among them from a viable, but intensely personal-if not idiosyncratic-meaning system that works for them”.11 This ability to choose ones religion has created an open market for it. With the diversity of religion, demand of its products simply also increased and the monopoly of religion was ceased. The level of media saturation has also enabled the practicality of religion wherein one does not need to go to church to avail mass. Instead, one can opt to go to the local mall to attend Sunday church or even in the confines of their own living room where masses are aired in so many channels.12 This goes back to the point that as media advances, so does the marketing and the advertising cope up with it. On a survey, it was found out that 8% of the adults and 12% of teenagers use the internet for religious purposes. With the trend that Christian internet users are spending more time surfing the net than with communicating God through prayer, it was also predicted that the American church will even more drastically change through the next decade.13 For practicality’s sake, it is better to have a medium wherein people can experience grace in humanity’s journey towards a greater spiritual evolution than to have no medium at all.14 In an article about Justin Bieber’s increasingly being bold about his Christianity faith (Vancouver Sun, January 11, 2012), even Bieber admits that though he has a close relationship with Jesus he doesn’t go to church much and considers his relationship with the higher being as more of spiritual rather than religious. This is clearly depicts what is the popular trend of religion in America. For a celebrity such as his status, with a very hectic schedule, it is highly plausible that he might not have the luxury to go to church as often as a devotee would. This clearly highlights the trend of practicality of the religion that Bieber chooses to practice and how he interprets it as his own and showcases his beliefs as “more of spiritual”. The Youth, Popular Culture and Religion It is easy to define what is popular. It is what everybody wants or has heard about. Fundamentally, it is defined by the people and its unanimity in experience on what is widely accepted or frequently encountered.15 As established in the previous sections, the term “religion” itself is deviated from what it means decades back. In these days, how the society worships and idolizes celebrities is likened as to worshipping a religious figure. Fans pilgrimage to see their beloved celebrities, in like manner as to how devotees do for their saints and gods.16 These secular practices are never far from different with each other. Also, in the article of Todd Douglas entitled For the love of God: Christian tattoos and body piercing (Vancouver Sun, January 11, 2012), he presents a clash among the old-fashioned believers of Christianity and the “try-anything:” youngsters. He also furthers that the issue dates back to history wherein the Catholic history banned and condemned tattooing and considered it a defilement of the body created in God’s image. This can be attributed due to the fact that tattoos and body piercings are mostly associated in bad favour because of gang members, sailors, and street punks. But an emerging new religious outlook, one that is more open and accepting, has accepted tattoos and even piercings as means of expressing one’s self and getting more spiritually in touch. Douglas further states that “it’s a sign of a seismic shift in evangelical Christianity, which has been associated for most of this century with harsh rules about controlling one’s body: no dancing, no long hair on men, no pants on women, no drinking, no dancing, no jewelry and certainly no tattooing”. The impact of a celebrity such as Justin Bieber can also be explained with the concept of branding. “Branding is about making meaning—taking the individual aspects of a product and turning them into more than the sum of their parts. It is about giving consumers something to think and feel about a product or service beyond its physical attributes. It’s about fulfilling a need; providing what marketers call the benefit.”17 Since Justin Bieber is well known and supported by a strong fanbase of youth because of his charm and his singing prowess, whatever next thing he sells or promotes, his followings will also deem it good and worth idolizing too because it carries his name. so when Bieber endorses that he is a Christian and he boldly professes his faith to Jesus and attributes and offers his success to Him, in turn his followers also will share his belief and philosophy. Einstein further explains and expounds on branding saying that it “exists to create profits. It does this by creating loyalty among its customers. Loyalty reduces producers’ marketing costs, because consumers (brand loyalists) become repeat purchasers of the product. Marketers simply have to remind consumers to keep buying the brand over the long term. The ultimate achievement is for the brand to become part of the popular culture. When this occurs, the value of the product increases exponentially.”18 So in turn, with Bieber marketed as a religious icon, whatever gathering he might have amassed from targeting a new market (such as those of the religious sector) will also follow in turn when he markets a different product, say a new movie or a new album. This then proves to be a very successful and efficient matter for his promoters since they are saving valuable marketing costs because of a good effort to angle Bieber into a more positive light and brand him as more acceptable to society as compared to other celebrities who, although may be equally or more famous because of whatever publicity (be it negative or positive), are frowned upon and might not have such a religious following as to what Bieber has. From Celebrities into gods (Depicting Celebrities as Religious Icons) It should be highlighted that celebrity iconography plays an essential role in celebrity worship in that they are the centre of these religious practices. The celebrities themselves are icons because they arouse religious passion in their followers who find personal fulfillment and spiritual meaning in their presence.19 Laderman (2009) argues that celebrities are fulfilling models because they give life purpose (something to strive for) and embody new social ideals. Regrettably this argument seems a bit unforgiving as he is essentially saying that our society’s new ideals are solely the pursuit of beauty, attainment of fame and wealth, and our desire to be loved and adored by fans. Psychologists have begun studying celebrity worshippers in an attempt to understand their purpose. Obsession over the details of the lives of celebrities have been the main cause as to why they maintain such avid following even going as far into worshipping them in Godlike manner. This is a very clear violation of one of the ten commandments of the bible stating that “You shall have no other Gods before me”. This is the point where celebrity worship borders to be dangerous as the obsession can turn into pathological tendencies such as stalking. “Although a close relationship between attitudes toward famous persons and attitudes toward religion may not be obvious, there are theoretical arguments proposing possible relationships between these variables. First, within the Christian religion, the Ten Commandments forbid the worship of anyone other than God, and this suggests that there should be a negative relationship between celebrity worship and religiosity. The findings are consistent with previous findings in that they show a negative relationship between celebrity worship and religiosity, but the negative relationship between attitude toward celebrity worship and religious Puritanism was more pronounced in the present study, suggesting a larger variance shared between the two variables (23%). The findings suggest that religious individuals who show an adherence to divine law and church authority tend to ignore celebrity worship in preference for religious worship” (Maltby, 2004). But psychologies also claim that while that such iconization of an individual may suggest self-esteem issues and anti-social tendencies, being a celebrity worshipper does not render you or is inconclusive to brand you as dysfunctional. Conclusion There is no denying of the impact and role the celebrities play in influencing the behaviour of the society and popular religion. It is the masses that empowers them and grants them such “Godlike” images and persona. Along with the media as its aid and very powerful tool in helping spread the influence throughout the masses, it amplifies the iconization of such celebrities. Celebrities thrive on gossip and name recall and visibility in order to maintain a “healthy” career. They are also risking their personal privacy and space in exchange for fame and fortune. One could say that that is a bargain, but it can also be difficult lifestyle what with every move that a celebrity makes is being scrutinized by everyone in the public. The religious landscape of America has well coped up with the changing times in adopting and evolving its sense of religion in order to not lose its audience. It has repackaged itself as a practical means for individuals to connect more to spirituality and accept less hassle dogmas that suit their lives. Although it this sprouts much heated controversy regarding the view of the old and traditional church, it can be said that it is still better that religion adopted in America rather than it be phased out entirely. Some might even perceive it as laziness of the society to commit to such old religious practices that is why they are resorting and labelling their way as the more “practical”. But since America is the leading industrialized country in terms of religiousness of its people, it can safely be concluded that it was a successful move. It is never a bad move to manage still to keep moral virtues that can only be found on religious ideologies on a very liberal and free nation. The secularization theory was also proven to be false by the American society. by virtue of its adaptation after the 1960s, religion has rather not diminished through the advancements of technology and it never neared the boundary of obsoleteness in America. In fact it has even grown, what with the changes of openness in accepting new media in expressing and connecting spiritually. As for the popular culture influencing religion, it can be said that celebrities such as Justin Bieber only personify what is really going on with the popular religion in the United States, the practicality and the popularity. And it should be deemed in a good light that as a teenager, whose target market are also teenagers, having an icon to idolize with a religious and clean reputation would serve well for the youth. Although simple issues such as labelling it as a marketing stunt, and others viewing it as a turn-off to following Bieber, the significant majority of the population has well embraced the idea of him and his religious beliefs. In a way, the celebrities and popular culture are just reflections of the entire society, and consequently so is its religion. But it can be observed that the society is also a reflection of the celebrities that it cultivates. It is a symbiotic relationship wherein one cannot do away without the other. But it should also be worth noting that celebrity worshipping also poses dangerous repercussions to the worshipping individual and is not a healthy practice to indulge into. Perhaps the American society could still use a fine tuning as to their religious practices and how they elevate their stars into such Godlike depictions and worships. Bibliography Alabanese, Catherine. Religion and American Popular Culture: An Introductory Essay. Journal of the American Academt of Religion. 1996 Cashmore, Ellis. Celebrity Culture. London: Routledge, 2006. Cobb, Jenifer. Cybergrace: The Search for God in the Digital World. New York Crown Publishers. 1998 Einstein, Mara. Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age. Madison Ave, New York: Routledge. 2008. Every-Wortman, Lauren. Visual Studies Senior Thesis Project: Celebrity Iconography and a New Universal Language. University of Pennsylvania. 2010. Hadden, J.K. Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects and Promises. Amsterdam, London and New York: JAI Pres. 2000. Iwamura, Jane Naomi. Religion and Popular Culture in America. Regents of the University of California. 2000 Laderman, Gary. Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States. New York: New, 2009. Lippy, Charles H. Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religiosity in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Maltby, John. Celebrity and religious worship: a refinement. The Journal of Psychology. 2004. Markus, R. A. Christianity and the Secular. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2006. Marti, Gerardo. Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2008. Metzger, Paul Louis. The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: Sacred and Secular through the Theology of Karl Barth. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2003. Moncrieff, Scott. Screen Deep: A Christian Perspective on Pop Culture. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Pub. Association, 2007. Strinati, Domini. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, Second Edition. . Madison Ave, New York: Routledge. 2003. Ward, Pete. Gods Behaving Badly: Media, Religion, and Celebrity Culture. Waco, TX: Baylor UP, 2011. Read More