The news media have been filled with stories recently about two of the top female religious leaders in the U.S. I’m speaking of course of Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.
GAGA
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, was last year’s Billboard magazine Artist of the Year, recognized not only for her singing and song writing but for her performance art and activism. Forbes has her listed as the most powerful celebrity in the world, by virtue of $90 million in earnings, 32 million Facebook fans, and 10.7 million followers on Twitter.
Her latest album, Born This Way, has been banned in Lebanon for being offensive to Christianity, according to the The Daily Star of Lebanon. The album contains the song Judas, in which she expresses her love for Judas, further identifying herself with social outcasts, which is a part of her persona. There’s a lot more to the persona than that though, as Daniel Norris has blogged.
OPRAH
As the most powerful celebrity, Gaga has deposed Oprah Winfrey, who is now in second place. Winfrey just last month signed off from her long running (25 years) television show with a final sermon, “praising God and her fans for her success,” according to the New York Times. Winfrey used her TV platform to simultaneously become a tycoon and a spiritual mentor for millions of viewers, and is now moving to her own cable TV channel.
Winfrey’s status as a spiritual leader was described by a variety of columnists collected by the Washington Post. The Post‘s Sally Quinn called her America’s high priestess.
Columnist Terry Mattingly, who was not included in the Washington Post collection but is syndicated in newspapers across the country, did the best job of summing up Winfrey’s influence. Mattingly reported that the religion of Winfrey is not mainstream Christianity but it is mainstream Americana, what some sociologists have described as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
Core beliefs include:
- A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over it.
- God wants people to be good, nice and fair to one another, as taught in most religions.
- The goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God gets involved when we have problems we need solved.
- Good people go to heaven.
Oprah and Gaga have figured out how to make millions while leading a personality cult. Their celebrity activities inject excitement into the lives of their adoring fans but their feel-good philosophies fall flat when it comes to addressing the day-to-day challenges in the real world where life often doesn’t work out like you’d expect.
TADA
The celebrity of Oprah and Gaga shines brightly yet pales in comparison to the faithful accomplishments of Joni Eareckson Tada. A feature profile of Tada produced last September recently won a Gracie Award for Kim Lawton and her crew at the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
Tada has lived as a quadriplegic for 40 years, one of the longest living quadriplegics on record. She is also a cancer survivor. She has served on the National Council on Disability and leads a ministry called Joni and Friends, which supports people with disabilities.
She has produced beautiful works of art, painted with a brush held in her mouth. She is a recording artist, having produced five records. She has a daily radio program and has also produced a TV series. She has written dozens of books and received honorary Doctor degrees from six different institutions. She has also established the Christian Institute on Disability to promote human dignity.
Tada told Kim Lawton that the only way she can get through each day is to rely heavily on God. She has a crew of friends who assist her with basic tasks but its really her faith, deeply rooted in Scripture, that accounts for her longevity and accomplishments.
Celebrity faith in America includes not only music moguls and TV stars but million-dollar athletes and even mega church pastors. The stars shine brightly while the dollars are there to support it. Joni Eareckson Tada transcends all of those fields and models what faith in the face of adversity (faith in the daily grind) looks like.