Success & sleaze: Celebrities of today are not role models for our children

t is a pity that Paris Hilton is, apparently, a role model for our daughters. Ah, what a role model: A walking petri dish in designer fashions. It is sad to say that our childrens' true role models are vacuous, self-indulgent creatures like Paris Hilton and ritney !pears. "his fact was recently disclosed in a study, which also informed us that girls as young as first graders are carrying a#out purses with stuffed dogs in emulation of Paris. I am not perfect, and never claimed to #e. I am not always a good role model for my child. However, I am also #rutally honest with him a#out it, and do my #est to admit to my shortcomings. I hate the parents who pass on the message $%o as I say, not as I do,$ and yet I am occasionally guilty of it myself. !till, I try to live a life that is an e&ample. ut these Pop"arts do not care a#out you '( your children, and do not feel the need to #ehave themselves in order to #e a positive influence on the ne&t generation. "HI! is why we need to #e concerned a#out the Hollywood elitists. It is very easy to lean #ack and speak disdainfully of such showy airheads. $'h ritney and Paris) I won't give them the time of day,$ you might sneer. ut... your kids certainly %'. "he older ones snap up maga*ines with articles a#out them, and the younger ones roleplay. +hat can #e done a#out it, +ell, firstly it is o#vious that only a poor e&cuse for a parent would allow their first grader to prance a#out, sporting Paris-like gear. +hen a parent is this egregiously stupid, it's rather difficult to reason with them. ut a caring friend might point out to such a parent that surely "H-I( children cannot possi#ly hope to grow up to ac.uire Paris' wealth and money, or ritney's talented stageparents who rocketed her to fame. "his means that little /egan will develop her idol's lack of morals and laisse*-faire attitude without the funds or means to #ack up or e&cuse her woeful #ehavior. 0rom society's viewpoint, you can get away with much as long as you have #eauty and money. It is very unlikely that /egan will inherit #oth or perhaps either, and thus she will find herself in a losing situation. +hat /egan will inherit, instead, is a lack of morality that will contri#ute to her continued failure in life. !he will not #e a good team player, she will #e focused solely on herself. +hen her aging parents, friends or family mem#ers need help, /egan will #e too #usy pursuing her ne&t self-indulgent o#session. !ince /egan's e&amples choose themselves over others

"here is plenty of slea*e in the lifestyles of those who are far less successful in life than those who have attained cele#rity +hile children might idoli*e cele#rities for their talent and work ethic, they might also idoli*e their #ad ha#its.

Teen Suicide and Celebrity Culture

It is almost impossi#le to get away from the media's fascination with the self-destructive tendencies of modern cele#rities. +hether it is the ta#loid splashing a picture of ritney !pears in and out of reha#, or a video circulating across cy#erspace of Amy +inehouse using a crack pipe, the trend seems ever-with-us. And whether we reali*e it or not, teenagers are always the ones to #ear the #runt of such trends, especially cele#rity trends. In fact, it is marketed to them. "ake for instance the string of suicides in a small mining town in the !outh +elsh 1ommunity of riggend. At last count, 23 young people had committed suicide, most of them #y hanging. Investigators have not found a suicide pact, #ut they have found something that the teenagers shared in common. "hey each used the popular social-networking site called e#o, similar to /y!pace and popular among youth in that area. After the suicides of the first of these teens, memorial we#sites were created4sites where these teens who took their own lives en5oyed a kind of cele#rity status. /any of those who su#se.uently killed themselves were among those who left messages of grief and visited these sites4and then ended their lives in a copy-cat style. 1hild psychologist 6im#erley '' rien fears such sites could add to the appeal of suicide. !he warns, $"he we# pages are usually placed in really #eautiful positions, and it gives them some sort of notoriety.$ And 1athie !herwood, a social-networking commentator, warns, $"he fact that these people have achieved some kind of status through their deaths$ may lead teenagers to see suicide as a way to fame. +hat's wrong with this picture, It isn't the fact that imitating is a significant part of teen culture. +e know that: 0rom our earliest years we learn to imitate others, for good or ill. +hat is wrong is that teens more readily identify with cele#rities and people they meet over the Internet than they do with their own parents, community, and church mem#ers. +hat are these teens really looking for, I think it may #e something that 7od imprinted on every human's heart: and that's the desire for immortality. In their own way, whether it is the cele#rities or the teens who imitate their destructive patterns, they are crying out in one voice, $/ake me immortal.$ -ven in suicide, it is strange how often immortality is the real longing of the human heart. As 1hristians, we ought to know, however, that immortality does not mean that our glory lives on forever in the memories of others4or even on memorial we#sites. Immortality means sharing in 7od's glory4living in His presence4forever.

And that is the danger of the cele#rity culture for our teens: It presents a horrendously false view of what truly matters4not 5ust now, #ut eternally. In light of such serious trends, it is o#vious that young adults need to know how their deepest desires can #e fulfilled. And for that, they need not only loving role models, #ut also solid grounding in the countercultural truth of the 7ospel of 8esus 1hrist. Hurray for Hollywood) "insel town draws millions of visitors and nearly as many wanna #es each year. It's seen as a land of riches, of fame and of fortune and magic, stars, red carpets and #ad dresses. ut for all this does Hollywood have negative effects on the world aside from the #ad dresses and "om 1ruises' latest movies, Hollywood does not produce any negative effects on the world. "here are those who will suggest that they were influenced #y a certain movie to do something. "he fact is that these people would have done what they did even if they lived in a world with no movies. "hen again, movies and Hollywood are a great scapegoat for all kinds of people having done all kinds of things. "here is no accounta#ility for some people. It doesn't matter if life imitates art, although that's a good catch phrase. It seems that many people need a simple catch phrase to relate to the world, $If it doesn't fit you must ac.uit$ is a great e&ample. "his is a great e&ample of how some folks need to find someone else to take the #lame for things. Hollywood is not in the #usiness of purposely annoying people they are in the #usiness to make money. "he more money the #etter. "hey make escapist fare and while only sometimes they do it well more often than not its gar#age. Hollywood might try pushing the envelope once in a while #ut all #usinesses push the limits whenever possi#le. "hat's not necessarily a negative thing and it's certainly not a corrupting influence if the age limits are adhered to. "he se& and violence that permeates Hollywood films are not the #ane of the world. 'r the root of all evil. "hey are merely a progression on what has come #efore. "he young stars and starlets who find themselves sans undies or with a %9I charge hanging over their heads are 5ust a waste of space. :ou often hear idea that these people are role models for young kids. If those are your children's role models you should really spend some time talking with your children a#out what is important in life. 'thers will 5ust want to a#dicate their parental responsi#ilities and while a#out how Hollywood is corrupting their kids. It's not Hollywood that's corrupting kids it's you that are corrupting your children. Hollywood is not the evil, the evil is #ad parenting

a#used children are more psychologically vulnera#le to corrosive celebrity influences

We intend to highlight the issues of our culture which might give people insight into the issues around cultism. We are asked why do people join cults? What are the factors? Well they are legion, but we want to provide a space for books which will help illuminate this issue. We welcome books from every perspective and reviews by those who have found them helpful. Also there is a space for comments below. A book which came out in early 200 called !apsed Agnostic by "ohn Waters is a very penetrating journey into #rish culture by a writer who inspires hate, ridicule, anger and because he is re$ e%aming the &od 'uestion a great deal of denial. (owever, the book came out a year too early, but now is a primer for the imploding of the )eltic *iger Age. +erhaps it was prescient in looking into the abyss and saying there is a way to go forward. #t involves going beyond

reaction. ,*he assassination of &od has had some weird and une%pected conse'uences, one of which is the effect of -man made -gods. on the consciousness of the individual/ *he altered nature of public culture, arising from television, movies and celebrity maga0ines causes young people to grow up in a conte%t of -competition. with all kinds of high$profile celebrities and others, whose public profiles stem from e%cellence or achievement in some field or other. Without proper skills of evaluation and comparison, and without a broad sense of what life is about, young people are driven in this celebrity culture to building fantasies which, by virtue of being in most cases unattainable, render that person at some future point susceptible to considerable life disappointment which may be ameliorated through drugs, or alcohol.1 2We add cults.3
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