By Matthew Jackson, Opinion Editor
I have a confession. Something I am not proud to admit, but feel that I am not the sole person guilty of. During a low point of winter break, after I had finished all the House of Cards that Netflix had to offer, I chose to watch an episode of the “trendy” reality series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I admit I made this decision mostly out of curiosity, and shockingly once the episode had finished I did not feel as guilty as I had expected.
In an odd way, I felt as if I had been a part of viewing some sort of case study. The Kardashian family was as lavish, over the top and overall out of touch as I had expected. But I was shocked to see that as self-centered as they may be, at the heart of the dysfunctional dynamic was genuine care for one another. Surprising as it may be, the Kardashians do proclaim to be a Christian family.
With the Kardashians and other faith-claiming celebrities, there are many aspects of their very public lives, such as inappropriate social media posts and life decisions, we may not be able to relate to and do not seem to resemble a family of strong Biblical principles. However, I must propose that simply criticizing the obvious flaws may not be the best course of action.
On the other side of the spectrum, many Christians have recently begun to rally in support of Justin Bieber, as he has become more involved with the Australian-based mega-church, Hillsong. And while I do sincerely hope that Bieber commits his life to serving Christ, I feel that glorifying the flaws of the Kardashians while ignoring those of Justin Bieber may not be the best way to examine celebrity Christian culture. What I believe is that we should not ignore some sins while being more accepting of others.
Matthew 7:5 states: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Sharing an article that praises Justin Bieber’s faith isn’t necessarily hypocrisy, but I also do not believe that Christ would want us to share one about how ridiculous the Kardashians are. We should hope and pray salvation upon all people, not the ones we find to be trendy at the moment.
Disagreeing with the lifestyle of an individual, or an entire family, does not make it okay to mock them; nor does a simple act of faith qualify our exalting our favorite singer to a pedestal. I instead challenge the Christian community to unite in prayer for all of those who proclaim to be of faith in the public eye, that they may be strengthened as examples of what it is to be radically transformed by Christ.