Secret conversions and the celebrity double-standard

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 8:00 pm by Fred Clark

Secret conversions and the celebrity double-standard 2016-06-30T20:00:08-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The whole Dobson-says-Trump-is-secretly-born-again thing seems to have come and gone without Donald Trump himself ever commenting on it directly (or perhaps even noticing).

I doubt Trump wanted to respond to that claim, because it would have meant denying his earlier insistence that he was already a Christian — or, at least, some kind of Presbyterian. You know, with, like, the little cracker and the Sunday school and the Christmas and Easter and all that.

Trump’s nominal, vestigial Presbyterianism was also what made the secret conversion story necessary for people like James Dobson. For white evangelicals like Dobson, all mainline Protestants are like that — nominal, vestigial Christmas-and-Easter types whose rote church membership is meaningless. They’re not really Christians — not real, true Christians — not even the ones who attend every Sunday. They don’t have a real, personal relationship with Jesus the way we evangelicals do. They may be Presbyterians or Episcopalians or United Methodists or whatever, but they still need to get saved. (After all, just look at how they vote.)

This is a key part of the narrative that evangelicals tell themselves about who they are. That narrative wouldn’t allow white evangelicals like Dobson to accept Trump’s mainline Protestant associations to count for anything. What’s the point of being real, true Christians if we can’t tell ourselves we’re the only real, true Christians? So the only way to make Donald Trump one of us was to invent a story in which he secretly abandoned his former mainline apostasy and joined the RTC tribe.

Any hint that a celebrity might be One Of Us is met by white evangelicals with arms wide open.

Any hint that a celebrity might be One Of Us is greeted with arms wide open.

But part of what’s going on with this secret-conversion story is also, I think, the usual double-standard white evangelicals employ when seeking vicarious legitimacy through celebrity. The slightest vague reference to God from any popular white* celebrity is fiercely embraced as affirmation that our sub-culture is Right About Everything and that others should be jealous of how cool we are by comparison to them. It doesn’t matter how flimsy the pretext might be. Thus when Matthew McConaughey mumbled something about God while accepting the Academy Award (for his work in Dallas Buyers Club — a movie those same white evangelicals didn’t watch and wouldn’t have liked), evangelicals squee’ed with delight that this highly regarded, very famous, handsome man was thereby confirmed as One Of Us!

The joy of such vicarious affirmation is too great to allow for any further inspection, so McConaughey’s remarks — and the rest of his public utterances or the rest of his life — are never subjected to the level of theological scrutiny that every public figure within the evangelical subculture must endure. That’s why after U2 released the song “Forty,”** Bono became the object of white evangelical adulation — even while, at the same time, Christian-label recording artists were having their every lyric and off-hand comment scrutinized according to an 87-point theological catechism, and folks like Amy Grant and Sandy Patti (!) were being condemned and ostracized for their personal lives failing to meet the highest of high standards.

(To be fair, I don’t think white evangelicals are the only insular subculture that does this. We can see the same sort of double-standard at work in lots of fandoms. If some celebrity makes a passing reference to their world, that person is celebrated and embraced as One Of Us. Meanwhile, within the subculture, claims of membership are rigorously and routinely scrutinized to weed out posers and bandwagon fans.)

This double-standard plays out in weird ways. Celebrities celebrated for vague God-talk tend to retain evangelical admiration even after it becomes very clear that they don’t share anything like our evangelical understanding of God. But if they fully embrace that evangelical understanding, fully establishing themselves as, truly, One Of Us, then that admiration becomes conditional and they become subject to all the same litmus tests and catechisms that every other member of the tribe must endure — with the same consequences for any failure to maintain purity. Former members of the subculture, meanwhile, get no credit at all for any kind of God-talk, even explicit evangelicalese (e.g., Katy Perry).

If you want to be beloved by white evangelicals, then, your best bet is to never become one of them. Stay an outsider, but occasionally say things about God that they can celebrate and feel affirmed by. Smile in their direction, but from a distance. (See, for example: Reagan, Ronald.) If you never join, they can never kick you out. But if you fully turn into one of them, they will eventually turn on you.

– – – – – – – – – – – –

* This is pretty much true only for white celebrities. A scripture reference penciled in on Tim Tebow’s eyeblack counts. A scripture verse tattooed permanently onto a (more successful) black quarterback doesn’t. One can think of black celebrities who are exceptions to this, but they are exactly that — exceptional — top-tier superstars and not mere all-stars.

** Two years after October came out, but white evangelicals weren’t yet paying attention. It took an actual Psalm for us to notice the religious themes in the band’s music.

Previous Post

June 29, 2016

NRA: How not to evangelize, Step 1

Next Post

July 1, 2016 Left Behind Classic Fridays, No. 88: 'Sunday afternoons'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many chapters does Genesis have?

Select your answer to see how you score.

50 27 55 66