Folk Theology, Seduction, and the Cult of Personality
For the longest time, I have argued that I can find more theology within a song written by the American rock group, The Eagles, than I can in almost any song written within the contemporary worship movement. One of my favorite songs of all time is “Desperado”, the title track to the Eagles’ 1973 album. I remember running down the road trying to loosen my load one day and “Desperado” started playing. I had heard the song hundreds of times and I liked it, but I wasn’t in love with it. But for whatever reason, this time was different. As the soft, opening chords of the piano melody played and Don Henley’s voice began to sing, a thought occurred to me: This song is the Gospel.
A switch flipped and I began to view the song as a love ballad of Jesus calling out to the exhausted sinner who keeps searching for meaning and love. The last verse of the song hammered this thought in:
“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late.”[1]
While this wasn’t a conversion moment for me in the sense of “I’m devoting my life to Christ,” it completely changed the way that I listened to the Eagles and other music as well. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was building a folk theology around the Eagles, always asking myself, “What would St. Henley or the Apostle Joe say about this?”
There’s a trend within Christianity that we latch our theology onto goods or ideas and slowly “Christianize” them. One of the clearest examples of this is the American ideal of hard work. I remember overhearing a conversation in my home church many years ago between my parents and one of their friends. They were talking about a family member who was struggling (all of their own accord of course) and were debating on whether or not they should keep bailing them out of their problems. That’s when I heard it: “I know God tells us to love our neighbors, but the Bible also says, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’” I cocked my head to the side and looked at them quizzically. “I’m pretty sure the Bible doesn’t say that,” I thought. A quick Google search confirmed my suspicions.
Vincent Miller writes, “The fundamental problem with the commodification of culture is that it trains believers to abstract religious doctrines, symbols, and practices from the traditional and communal contexts that give them meaning and connect them to a form of life.”[2] In the above example, we see this strange conglomeration of God’s care (most likely justified from Matthew 6:25-34) mixed with the American ideal of “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” What’s troubling about this action is that people actually believe it’s truth that comes from Scripture; there is little critical engagement with it.
The invasion of commodification doesn’t stop there. At my tiny Christian university in southern Indiana, it was commonplace to see folk theology printed on t-shirts.[3] One of my friends in particular was known for wearing these t-shirts daily (and I’ll admit, I had my own “Our Apostle” t-shirt and we all wanted the coveted “<insert theologian> is my Homeboy” shirt) as a means of evangelism on campus. While some of them were clever, looking back on them I can’t help but laugh and cringe.
However, the reason these products are able to sell is because there’s actually a market for them. Millers writes in particular of the power that seduction has when it comes to religious ideals. He writes, “Seduction is not about having the perfect outfit, piece of jewelry, or CD. It is about seeking the perfect one, about ensuring that one has access to just the right one for just the right time.”[4] In a very real way, consumerism slips into the church and acts as a means of seduction. Do our churches play into this? Do we try to seduce people into our pews?
People church shop because they are seeking something. If we take a little bit or worship from the Anglican church, mix it with the local celebrity pastor’s preaching style from the megachurch down the road, but have the community of the Baptist church (plus they have potlucks), what do we get? The perfect mixture of pickings and choosing into our shopping basket. Our churches rely on programs to bring people into the door and this is troublesome. Do we lose the heart of what it means to be a community? Do we lose the heart of the Gospel when we rely on programs or celebrities?
One final musing is that of the church celebrity, the preaching aficionado, the charismatic leader who can get people to follow them. Within Christianity, there are many people who would be considered celebrities due to their accessibility or their charisma. While I was in university, John Piper was the big name that everyone would ask, “Oh, have you read this book?” Within the drama ministry I was part of, Paul Washer became a celebrity from his “Shocking Youth Message” that challenged youth and young adults on their salvation. Here in Hong Kong, I have heard many people say they attend certain churches because of who the pastor is; they are local celebrities that amassed a following.
My question is whether or not these pastors have inadvertently created cults of personality. By this, I simply ask whether their fame brought people together in a way that exalts them rather than Christ. We all have our role models or spiritual heroes (which is a good thing), but when these heroes become our primary focus they move into spiritual idols.
These are all big questions and ideas and would take a lot to unpack. To summarize, here are my main questions:
- Why/How do we create folk theologies? What folk theologies have you inadvertently made?
- Do we seduce people into the church? How does this interact with Jesus’s simple statement of, “Come and see?”
- Why do we celebritize people within the church?
[1] Eagles, “Desperado,” track 5 on Desperado, Asylum, 1973, YouTube.
[2] Vincent Miller, Consuming Religion, New York: Bloomsbury (2003), 195.
[3] For an entertaining gander at these t-shirts, check out https://www.cafepress.com/+apostle+t-shirts?page=1 . There are some truly funny ones.
[4] Miller, Consuming Religion, 127.
About the Author
Dylan Branson
Small town Kentuckian living and learning in the big city of Hong Kong.8 responses to “Folk Theology, Seduction, and the Cult of Personality”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dylan,
During my dark night of the soul, I found great Gospel comfort in the songs by Mumford & Sons. I still do. Their latest Delta album is just holy good. Can folk theologies be a way of removing the sacred/secular divide we construct in our dualistic thinking? And do they allow for more integrated ways of living our faith? What are the positives and negatives associated with the removal of such divides?
I think we “celebritize people within the church” because in some small way we hope we can be people of importance, too, that God might work though us to speak to others in a similar way. The more we boost another higher on the platform, the more we image ourself in a similar role (though maybe not in that exact capacity). I think it has more to do with projection of our own insecurities than it does with the gospel truly being preached. Oh, and if they wear fancy kicks, then we have full permission to do the same. Just my 2 cents… What are your thoughts??
I think that finding use of connect points in pop culture and faith is important as it can make sense of difficult concepts. The beauty of music is that it often takes complex ideas or positions and boil them down into a way that’s accessible for people who may not be as familiar with them. So, using Desperado for example, I could imagine using that with someone as a bridge to build a relationship on and use it to talk about a deeper meaning or interpretation of it. That’s why I also think fantasy has such a huge potential that isn’t recognized enough within Christianity. All stories in some way are derivative from the Great Story; it’s just a matter of finding the connections.
In regards to celebrities within the church, I think in a lot of ways we look for someone to make us “relevant” to the rest of the world. When a big celebrity makes a commitment to Jesus, you see a huge uproar within the Christian community in one extreme or another. It’s either a “Praise the Lord” or a “They’re not really a Christian; they’re just a poser” (take the example of Kanye West’s conversion and the antagonism that came from that). But I do agree that we look to these influencers to justify our own lifestyles at times as well. “If _______ can do it, I can, right?”
“Bricolage” was a new word for me this week. I was thinking in terms of piecing together religious experiences within orthodoxy, but you’re right, it’s a little Oprah here, a little Eagles there, and a folk theology is born. My mind goes to Sola Scriptura and the locus of power brought to the individual for interpreting Scripture. Can you imagine a way where Sola Scriptura still holds but doesn’t result in a myriad of denominations as wells as folk theologies?
At Asbury, one of the issues my church history professor brought up about Sola Scriptura was the question, “Well, whose interpretation of Sola Scriptura is the correct one?” He was raised Roman Catholic and became a Methodist in college, so I found his perspective unique in that. He told us once that it’s a question Protestants in particular have to wrestle with because there’s no “central figure” we can turn to for it. I think this is where I would appeal to the greater story of Christian history.
I read this article by Roger Olson a while back and think he has some good points in it about denominationalism and why it isn’t as bad as we may think (it’s also an older article, so he may have changed on some of his points at this stage haha). But if you have a moment, can check it out and let me know what you think sometime:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/10/why-i-like-denominations/
I’m fairly sure you already have some really solid answers to the questions you laid out at the end! At the end of the day, if the Church exists to help people make meaning of this life and this world, then there’s always an aspect of the world that must be included in the conversation- even if just to lift up as the strawman. But more often than not, I think we’re all just finding it easier to try to look like the rest of the world so that people don’t view the church as distant or irrelevant and form conclusions before ever walking through the door. It’s a balancing act, no doubt about it. And I for one often look to the culture (sports, entertainment, issues, etc.) for ways to connect and engage with people. I see examples in this in Jesus as well, though he certainly never sold out to culture as many of our churches and pastor have seemed to. I know I ask this of you a lot, but what difference do you see in the church from your perspective in Hong Kong?
Right, I think it’s actually a good thing to use sports, music, movies, etc. to connect with people. It starts the bond of building a relationship with others and helps you earn that “right to speak” to them about faith as you develop that relationship. When it comes to folk theologies, it can be easy to make that your primary means of viewing God.
But this is also the way that I build relationships with my students. I stay up to date on the games, movies, tv shows, anime, etc. that they like so that we have that mutual understanding and relationship. Eventually when they’re comfortable, we begin to move into deeper conversations (as much as language will allow at least).
Regarding the differences I see from my experience in Hong Kong, at an international church level it’s very similar to what I see in the States. What’s interesting though is that even though many are non-denominational, you see that they still appeal to their history (however short it may be in relation to established denominations). So on one hand, I see that there’s a reverence for where we come from; on the other, there’s also a push from younger believers or younger generations to break with tradition as the culture shifts here.
Though I would actually say one of the biggest church culture shocks I had was when discussing the salaries of pastors at the international churches here. My friend who used to be on staff said that at several of the bigger churches, their MONTHLY salary was a YEAR’S salary for a lot of pastors in my denomination. But then the rest of the staff were paid next to nothing – really barely enough to live off of. That blew my mind.
You wrote, “the commodification of culture is that it trains believers to abstract religious doctrines, symbols, and practices from the traditional and communal contexts that give them meaning and connect them to a form of life.”
To address the idea of abstract conciousness is probably most of what we believe. Even when we talk about salvation, I would venture most to say that it remains an impassioned idea. But, if we were to ask, “saved from what,” it is then that we move from abstract to fact
Definitely. I remember CS Lewis wrote that the biggest barrier we have to face today is that in ancient times, people knew there was something to be saved from. They were LOOKING for salvation. However, today the concept of sin is all but irrelevant to most. So before we can fully appreciate what a gift salvation is, we have to have an appreciation from what we are to be saved FROM.