Earlier this year, a series of real-life soap operas were playing out on the pop culture stage in ways you couldn’t escape or ignore. Two of the biggest stories featured plotlines that included lying, cheating, deception and a complete lack of integrity…along with a couple of the biggest names in sports: Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o. While the behavior of these main characters and their surrounding cast were troubling enough, I believe it was our collective response (or lack thereof!) to these stories that should cause us the most concern. Sure, there was some outrage expressed, but that outrage was far less pronounced than it would have been if we were living in a culture that placed the highest value on integrity and truth. Perhaps that says more about us—the audience and our own issues—than it does about people such as Armstrong and Te’o.
What should we do with stories such as these? Do we watch, listen, lament and silently move past the drama; or is something more required of us? As followers of Jesus and youth workers, it’s our responsibility to do more than follow these and other stories. We need to process these stories through the framework of a Christian worldview and then work to respond in ways that are redemptive, offering ourselves and the students under our care deep insights into where this kind of stuff comes from and where—if we allow it—to take us. We need to be critically engaged spectators of not only the stories themselves but of the stories’ audiences and how those audiences choose to respond. In other words, we always want to stay a discerning step ahead.
As I’ve continued to process the ongoing Armstrong and Te’o sagas, I’ve had some thoughts about what these stories say about me (and my culture) and what I need to do to address what I see about myself (and my culture) in these stories.
First, we are a celebrity-obsessed culture…to a fault. Sure, we’ve always loved our stars. That’s why we seek autographs, collect memorabilia and excitedly tell others when we spot or meet someone famous in real life. However, celebrity-obsession is amped up in our culture to never-before-seen levels. Why do you think celebrity weekly magazines—People, Us, etc.—are the best-selling genre of magazine among our teens? Why does TMZ have such a huge online and on-air following? This does influence our kids. How? By teaching them that the greatest status one can achieve is to have an audience of followers, regardless of one’s character.
Second, we’ve become so value neutral that anything is permissible. When you add the loss of our collective moral compass to our celebrity obsession, we lose our ability to discern between right and wrong in the lives of the rich and famous. We become nothing but spectators. Have you ever had a conversation with your kids about the behavior of the celebrity du juor? You’ll quickly learn that what we once recognized and critiqued as celebrity vice now has become the celebrity’s personal choice and maybe a virtue. At the very least, behaviors are seen as neutral. In the case of Armstrong and Te’o, the backlash was less about morals and more about the weirdness of it all. In both cases, the collective outrage should have been less patient and more severe. Of course, we should show a healthy dose of grace to the wounded and fallen; but grace has been cheapened and is dispensed freely at the expense of the kind of response that not only should lead to heart-felt contrition on the part of the offender, but as a healthy deterrent to those of us (and our kids!) who watch these stories unfold. How does this influence young people? Culture is teaching them they can do whatever is right in their own eyes and everything all works out in the end.
Third, we’re learning identity formation is more about outward image-management than the development of inward character. In the days leading up to Lance Armstrong’s highly touted interview with our culture’s high-priestess of celebrity confession—Oprah Winfrey—the media spent more time on how Armstrong and his public relations army would be able to rebuild Armstrong’s best-selling brand than it did on what Armstrong might do personally to deal with the deep-seated character flaws that led to his self-inflicted demise. In other words, the media was telling us it was more important to correct any bad perceptions people had about Armstrong than it was for Armstrong to deal with any flaw within himself. How does this influence our kids? By teaching them they should be Pharisees, tending only to the exterior—now and for the rest of their lives—rather than working on matters of the heart.
Finally, we are a people obsessed with fabricating, curating and refabricating ourselves. We’ve become marketers of self, tweaking our brand to satisfy the audience and build our army of followers. Like it or not, we live in a world uniquely suited to make deception possible. Managing our brand on Facebook and other social media platforms makes it possible to hide our real selves while creating multiple made-up selves that are uniquely suited to the audience we want to impress. We highlight our successes (real and imaginary) while downplaying our deficiencies and failures. In his book Habits of the High-Tech Heart, media critic Quentin Schultze says, “the digital world suffocates virtue by allowing us unbridled freedom to be all things to all people…to give ourselves over to the highest bidder or to the most persuasive master.” The digital online world rewards the most clever and aggressive marketers rather than those who are people of integrity, truthfulness, character and virtue. This is why it takes only a few months for the dust to settle around Armstrong and Te’o for us to forget their flaws thanks to masterful campaigns engineered to cover up those flaws and make us forget as opposed to forgiving in the midst of genuine expressions of repentance. How does this influence our kids? It teaches them to see themselves as a revolving exhibition in the museum of life. Curate your image to let people see what you want them to see and nothing else. What you want them to see? Well, whatever yields the most likes and the biggest audience in the moment whether what that audience sees is the real you.
As you can see, the implications for youth ministry are great. What are some steps youth workers can take to leverage these stories and the inevitable others who will come out in the days and months ahead?
First, follow these stories with your kids. These are real-life stories that cannot and should not be ignored. They provide loads of teachable moments about our culture and our own broken humanity. Processing these stories with your youth group allows you to bring the truths of God’s Word to bear on real life. These are the kinds of things that provide many talking points and teachable moments.
Second, take a long hard look at yourself. I’ve found that I constantly need to self-evaluate to see where my life reflects cultural norms and priorities rather than godliness. It’s a difficult process for sure, but it’s essential. Engaging in the process of self-evaluation and then making the necessary adjustments offers a powerful example to kids who need to grow up to do the same.
Third, play down celebrity-obsession. We sometimes think we’ve done our joba when we steer our kids away from secular celebrities and expose them to Christian celebrities. Celebrity-worship of any kind is dangerous and wrong.
Fourth, stress the development of inward character. When Samuel was choosing a king, God told him the inward character of a person is most important. God says, “The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (
Finally, create a culture of online accountability. Encourage your students to monitor you, each other and themselves online. Call each other out in love and grace when the online self crosses the line into an obvious effort to manage one’s image through fabrication.
It’s easy to forget just how powerful culture is in its ability to shape our values, attitudes, behaviors and lives. As did Dietrich Bonhoeffer—the wise and discerning Christian who lost his life for recognizing and standing against Hitler’s tyranny—we need to stand back and take a long, hard look at what’s unfolding in the culture around us. We need to develop discerning minds that are so biblically informed that we can’t help but see culture’s misdirected flaws. We need to stay a mindful step ahead rather than mindlessly following along behind. It’s then—and only then—when we can begin to nurture ourselves and our kids in the right direction.
