From the overflowing "Dear Christians, This Is a Bad Idea" files, let me pontificate upon two new celebrities in the world of Christian culture:
1. Tyler Frost, the boy who wanted to go to prom. Poor Tyler just wanted to go to his girlfriend's prom. Only Tyler is one of 84 students at the Heritage Christian School in Findlay, Ohio. It's a fundamentalist Baptist school, so therefore it prohibits dancing, rock & roll devil music, and inappropriate contact between boys and girls. (Hand-holding? True love waits, Tyler.)
So when 17 year-old Tyler announced he would be attending his girlfriend's prom last weekend at Findlay High School -- apparently, a hothouse of evil -- the officials at Heritage showed him the love of Jesus by announcing that he would be suspended. And given an "incomplete" on all remaining assignments. And forced to finish his exams separately in order to get his diploma. And prohibited from attending his graduation.
Now he's become a secular media sensation, appearing on CBS' The Early Show, ABC's Primetime, and elsewhere. He'll probably have his own dance-based reality show by next fall.
When I hear or read stories like this, my immediate thought is: How does this make Christians look to non-Christians? How does it appear from the outside? What is the mainstream takeaway?
• Mainstream takeaway from this story:
a. Christians are so weird about this stuff.
b. Everyone loves an underdog. Root for the nice Christian boy rebelling against overly strict, controlling, no-fun authorities!
c. It's like Footloose but for real!
d. What does this have to do with Jesus?
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2. Carrie Prejean, the beauty queen martyr. Otherwise known as Miss California, Carrie Prejean lost out on the Miss USA title because she spoke out (and not very well) against gay marriage. This annoyed pageant judge Perez Hilton enough that she lost his vote. She was quick to claim that her answer cost her the pageant win. So, as might be expected, within days Christians fell in love with Prejean because she had openly declared her faith (kind of) and was being persecuted for it (if losing a beauty crown can be described that way). Martyr!
Within days Prejean was appearing at the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards, signing with A. Larry Ross Communications (a big-time Christian publicity firm), and no doubt starting work editing a devotional Bible for beauty queens. Why? Not because she said anything much about her faith, but because she opposed gay marriage and lost because of it.
But now? The conservative Christians and Republicans are starting to feel some buyer's remorse, as topless modeling photos of Prejean are beginning to show up, along with revelations that California state pageant officials paid for her to receive breast implants (read all about it here). It's gettin' dirty real quick, but that hasn't stopped her from appearing this week on Dr. James Dobson's radio show.
• Mainstream takeaway from this story:
a. So a beauty pageant runner-up becomes a conservative evangelical poster girl not for proclaiming her faith, but for opposing gay marriage? That is so weird.
b. It is hilarious that the conservative evangelicals got so excited about the gay marriage and persecution thing that they ended up with someone forced to defend her breast implants and tawdry photos. So awesome.
c. Again, what does this have to do with Jesus?
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Final thought: As a Christian, I think I'd rather have Tyler Frost as a Christian celebrity than Carrie Prejean. But, honestly, why do we need celebrities at all?
Let's all steer clear of dancing, hand-holding, pageant pronouncements, and racy photos today. Better yet, let's just stay out of the news altogether.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tyler Frost, Carrie Prejean, and Newsy Believers
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13 comments:
another killer post, Jason! so funny and so true, keep it up!
Aaron
http://dropone.blogspot.com/
frustrating and embarrassing. thank you for continuing to ask the question that nobody else seems to care about: what does this have to do with Jesus?
nice "Meet Christian Singles" banner... that girl is hooch!
what happened to the Catholic kid on The Real World? Where's his dance show???
On the Heritage School website, the principal wants everyone to know that this story has given a lot of people "great opportunities to give the gospel." http://www.heritagefindlay.org/
Great post! You're right on in pointing-out how both of these situations are an embarrassment.
THANK YOU! Just...I can't even describe how much that whole Miss California thing has bothered me. Someone I know even called her a "modern-day Esther". You have totally put into words my frustration with the whole thing. Thanks.
I only half paid attention to the Miss California "martyr" buzz around church, and now I know why it creeped me out.
Great post!
Look for the "emergents" to try and separate themselves from all the bs as much as possible. Although I don't understand why you lump Tyler in with Carrie. Good for Tyler for standing up against authority and sticking it to the Christian man. His story doesn't have anything to do with Jesus, and that's okay, it's about the nonsense and tyranny of the Baptist church. If there's all this nonsense in the church, why not expose it in hopes of creating a better church in America. Nobody whined about how Rosa parks made white people look (actually people did, and that's exactly my point). Granted, prom is pretty lame, but Tyler is just a kid who's school tried to force him into submission and he was able to slap them right back in the face, Gandhi style.
Chris:
Thanks for commenting. Not sure what you mean with the "emergents" shot, but note that I ended the post by saying I'd rather have Tyler as a celebrity than Carrie.
I probably didn't make it clear enough, but what strikes me as funny about this whole thing is that the mainstream media obviously loves the goofy rebellious kid who's sticking it to the legalistic man (and who's right, btw).
The Christian media loves the pretty pageant winner because she takes the orthodox political stance and maybe (?) suffered for it. Even though there's a lot of awful baggage that comes with her.
We're really hurting for celebrities, it seems. Neither Christian "celeb" has anything to do with Jesus, but it's worth noting that the Christians made a far worse choice of media darlings.
(Unless that Ohio kid has done some naughty modeling.)
Ugh! Embarrassing and sad, for sure. fortunately for us, the battles are lost, but we know who wins the war!
Thanks for a great post!!!
Since the Christian media seems to want celebutants how 'bout we have Tyler and Carrie become a celebrity Christin couple with one of those combo names - Carler Frostjean or something more creative. Then we could make them do Christian community service projects and send them to protest things like the Westboro Baptist Church...
Or we could all take Paul's advice and "preach Christ crucified...", and let the issues worry about themselves.
Jason another point you could easily put at the story of Tyler is how this points towards our country's history and how we escape fake religious doctrine to form a free country. Besides I hope Tyler read his bible and realized that he probably would be a better witness going to the dance than being stupid like most dead churches and hiding behind their precious four walls!
WV-hosoozie
I'm linking to my blog where I ponder a related topic- Can a Christian girl kick a field goal and still go to heaven?
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