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TIPS & TRICKS

How Should Christian Leaders Respond to High-Profile Conversions?

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First, the good news.

Shia LaBouef, formerly the bad boy of Hollywood, whose antics had gotten so outrageous that insurance companies refused to cover films he was acting in (according to industry insiders familiar to the author), has finished RCIA and is now officially a member of the Catholic Church and dedicated to following Christ, even going so far as to publicly confess some of his more unfortunate indiscretions of the past.

Kat Von D., of the reality TV show LA Ink fame, and once a high-profile occult-enthusiast, has converted to Christianity and now attends a Baptist church in Indiana. Kat has purposely stayed away from doing a lot of media publicizing her conversion in 2019, but she did post a video of her baptism recently and posted a picture that showed her getting rid of occult books. In a rare interview, she told Christian commentator Allie Beth Stuckey that she is “on fire for Christ.”

On the one hand, this news is exciting, should be celebrated, and it is, frankly, kind of a relief after the slew of high-profile de-conversions we saw during the pandemic years. Whenever a sinner repents, there is rejoicing in heaven, and we can rejoice along too. But Christian leaders always need to be aware of temptation in these cultural moments, where co-opting the fame of a celebrity convert can end up distorting the gospel and even undermine the work.

Look at it this way – in your own organization, as a leader, it can be tempting to hold up the loudest, most charismatic salesperson as the ideal, because he most readily comes to mind. But what really matters is what he produces – and sometimes, the best seller is just a no-nonsense, unassuming guy with a low profile.

Fame is a blind spot for us in more than one way. Man looks at the outer appearance, but God looks at the heart. As Christian leaders, we ought to try to imitate God’s way and resist the inclination to commercialize and overhype high-profile conversions.
Besides, putting new baby Christians on blast, just because they are famous, can be a PR nightmare.

Remember Kanye West? His conversion to Christianity was written about constantly, he was held up as a warrior fighting for Christ in the culture, the standard for Christian music, etc., immediately after news of his conversion hit.

Then, not too long after, he’s gone through a messy, public divorce, threatened to murder a comedian, started going out in public wearing a black facemask that covers his entire head, and, he has not been shy about his opinion on the Jews…

I’m not saying that Kanye is or is not saved. That is for God to judge, and the truth is, we just don’t know. The path of faith can be a rocky one, and people don’t get sanctified all at once. Thank God there is room for a lot of grace. But is Kanye the best spokesperson for the faith?

Definitely not.

Is it fair for us to pressure him with the narrative that he has to be our warrior defeating the powers of darkness in the culture, near-singlehandedly?
Also no.

Celebrities have their own particular set of challenges, as does the church, in our fame-obsessed culture. I’ve heard it said that when Bob Dylan became a Christian in the 1970s, people were so constantly coming up to him at church, trying to slip him demos, get him to collaborate on nonsense musical projects, and front their Christian-labeled media, that he eventually stopped attending services. I don’t know for certain if that’s true or not, but whether as a real-life cautionary tale or a spiritual parable, there is a sobering point to the story.

Oftentimes, a true conversion might look something more like a Chris Tucker, who just sort of quietly stepped out of the limelight after getting saved, turning down roles that he felt did not honor Christ. He wasn’t loud and flashy about it, and we didn’t have to put him on blast. Our trust is in Christ, not in the comedians, athletes, singers, and actors who happen to convert.
No, we aren’t using their status “for the kingdom” by leveraging their fame. That’s between them and God. For our part, we just need to rejoice, pray for them, and remember that God judges the great and the small, and ultimately we are all in the same boat.

For kingdom leaders, people of influence, and whoever claims to be speaking in God’s name, we just need to keep doing the work day in and day out. Big, public wins are exciting, but they can’t distract us from our responsibilities and first principles. Awful, blowout losses are devastating, but they can’t make us lose hope. In work, life, business, and all of our concerns, Christian leaders do well to remember that we only have one celebrity, and that’s Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh to teach us, suffer alongside us, and sacrifice to save the world.

Pray for Kat and Shia, that they would be faithful, endure, and bless the world as God sees fit to direct them. Maybe that means they are very vocal, standing at the podium, and speaking to millions. But maybe it means they decrease, that He might increase.

Quick Hits

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• China is now the #1 exporter of cars worldwide.
• Samsung expects to post a 35% drop in profits for Q4, falling short of expectations.
• Religion News Service cites data to say Americans are becoming less spiritual and less religious.
• Christian colleges around the country experiment with various “free-tuition” models.