In celebrity we trust? BBC's Beyond Belief dissects a new kind of faith

Ernie Rea of BBC’s Beyond Belief led the discussion with Rabbi Miriam Berger, Vicki Mackenzie and Dr Kristin Aune on the continually charged obsession with fame and instant stardom and how it appears to be taking over religious fervor.

Probing to find any saving qualities in celebrity culture, the broadcaster asked the senior lecturer Aune if she found any value in it at all?

Aune said she believed celebrity culture could provide a new source of morality in a society that has become more secular; show that ordinary people can achieve success and not just the moneyed elite; and bring to light the hypocrisy and faults of the powerful and privileged, showing that not everyone is perfect.

Journalist and Buddhist Mackenzie presented the dangers in seeking short-term pleasure or the instant short-term hit as a celebrity.

“The Buddhists are interested in lasting contentment and fulfilment,” she said.

Rabbi Berger also expressed reservations, stating, “The role models we’re given through our Jewish tradition are very real people … What we’re taught as Jews is to choose the qualities within people to emulate and not think that we could take a person and emulate them in their entirety.

“Perhaps that’s something we should be looking at in celebrity culture – that we have to respect people for a talent or a part of their life rather than thinking that their whole being is something we need to emulate,” Berger maintained.

Rea noted that, on the contrary, Christians hold up Jesus as an entirely perfect being. If he didn’t have his fame, he would not have been able to spread his message.

Aune responded, “Holy people are generally admired for their devotion to God or for their spirituality, rather than their individual talents.”

Discussing the matter further, Rea deduced that while all religious traditions focus on the spiritual and put others first, celebrity culture remained materialistic and egocentric.

Fighting against the aggrandizement of the ego, which just increases one’s suffering, Mackenzie noted that in the Buddhist tradition, followers seeks to give praise and recognition to others rather than the self.

Aune, speaking in view of Christianity, also found it difficult to reconcile celebrity with virtue. “So many of the Christian virtues [deal] with putting others first while putting yourself last – having no idols before God, loving others.” People, she added, are in “awe of God’s fame, God’s celebrity” and not their own.

Bringing on Beverley Trotman, a contestant on Britain’s X-Factor, the broadcaster hoped to shed some personal light on the desire for celebrity status.

“I think people think that there’s going to be a lot of money at the end of the road, there’s going to be big houses, everyone’s going to love you and be screaming your name … and all your woes and all these terrible things will be gone from your life,” said the schoolteacher turned singer, speaking about the appeal of celebrity.

Aune observed, “There’s something in you which is good, which is unique, which wants to be recognised.”

Agreeing, the rabbi added, “I think a lot of people feel they get that through their religious faith.”

“They actually feel that they matter because they’re part of a religious faith. Either they feel that coming from their spiritual belief [in] God or from the community that they’re a part of,” Berger concluded.

“I feel that in essence, it’s part of this piece of what’s missing in people’s lives that makes them crave celebrity-hood.”

All people strive for some sort of meaning and affirmation, which cannot be provided by today’s society, Rea said. That is the reason why people seek after fame.

Berger poignantly highlighted that “in today’s society, celebrity is just a quick fix solution to issues that are wrong in someone’s life … There’s something about striving for the whole package, the whole structure to life – needing their entire life to be enveloped by a framework that gives it meaning.”

Within a spiritual context, nothing is done without a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and total commitment, observed Mackenzie. It’s not possible to get things that quickly.

To which Berger remarked, “What they’re looking for is that miraculous element of religion. They’re looking for the loaves and fishes moment, or the parting of the sea moment. They’re looking for this direct quick fix for me at the time.”

Aune, meanwhile, reasoned that people could feel that they gained some kind of immortality through fame.

"Today in secularised society, people are not looking for necessarily a religious afterlife, but they feel some kind of immortality will follow them if they experience fame.

“Perhaps what we can learn from celebrity culture today is that all people, young people included, are looking for a sense of transcendence and they shouldn’t assume that religions don’t give it."

She concluded, “Perhaps religions need to somehow communicate better with young people so they can show them there is an answer to their yearnings of spirituality and love within religion, rather than … outside of it.”