Famous Christians

I was reading October's Southern Cross and read this in a book review by Craig on "Bright Lights, Dark Nights", Simon Smart's book on 13 famous Australian Christians:

"As young believers my friends and I were often excited when rock stars and other celebrities said they were Christians. Why was this important to us?

I guess it came about from a cultural cringe, a feeling of embarrassment at owning the label 'Christian'. So if 'popular celebrity x' is a Christian, well, being a Christian must be legitimate and cool, right?"

I have to admit that this has been my experience with hearing about famous Christians up until recently. I remember a while back finding a website that was dedicated to the testimonies and stories of famous Christian athletes. It was an American site so most of the athletes were from American sports like Gridiron, Ice Hockey, etc. but I'm quite familiar with these sports so I recognised most of the names and I remember only getting a real "buzz" when one of the names was a player that had actually made a pretty reasonable career out of his specific sport. The rest were a bunch of moderately successful pro's and part-timers. On reflection though, that's a really poor attitude to have, because really I was judging them based on their sporting prowess rather than their faith in Christ. They're humans just like us, with the same struggles in their faith and in this sinful world and I think it's important to see them like that.

On the other hand, the question should be raised, are the testimonies of famous Christians useful? I think yes, but we need to think why? Craig said in his article in answer to the question "...is there any value in a book like Simon Smart's Bright Lights, Dark Nights..." "...that there is, but not because of the celebrity glamour. It's because underneath it all, we find a number of stories and stories that are worth hearing." Famous Christians provide great stories about their faith and living under the spotlight of the media, but I think we should find as much value in a testimony of a Christian office worker who shunned the "work hard, play hard" culture of our city. The same for the testimony of a Christian media worker who is confronted by a world that loves material possessions and multiple truths every day.

I love reading the testimonies of famous Christians, but I think I should love it because of the stories and the testimony, not becuase they are famous.