On Jay Chou's Baptism

For those of you who are die hard Jay Chou / 周杰伦 fans, let me just make it easier for you: go to this website, and don't come back to read the rest of this blog.  For those of you who are very over-sensitive to criticisms of Christianity from a Christian, then go to this website, and - yes - don't come back to read the rest of this blog.  Thanks for reading, and bye.


For the rest of you, today's post is yet another installment of Christian celebrity-ism.  The top story at the Chinese Christian online newsletter, The Gospel Herald, has declared that Jay Chou has decided to be baptized.  Jay Chou, for those of you who do not know him, is a big pop star in the Far East, with followings among the Chinese/Chinese-American population worldwide.  Now, the problem here is not Jay Chou.  The problem here is not Jay Chou.  The problem is not his Christianity, which I ascertain is very much genuine.  No, the problem is that somehow, one man's baptism is heralded above others, and this was before it even happened!  


How many times have you seen that?


How many times has it been that your parents have put out the announcement, "Be glad, ye world!  My child is going to be baptized next month!"  How many times has your pastor put out the word that, "Let's all celebrate!  Someone I know is getting baptized two months from today!"  No. What usually happens is that we know there's a baptism service on some pre-arranged date.  We might get a bit excited, but we usually don't publicize it too much, if at all, outside the walls of the church.  Then on the day of the baptism we come to church, maybe get a bit more excited than usual, see the baptism, beam with happiness, give a gift, and then in a few weeks, the excitement wears down.  


But when the person getting baptized is Jay Chou, for some reason, the situation changes.  First, his pastor announces to the media that he is baptized, a few months before the baptism.  I have no issues with that if the pastor announces to the media that Jay will be baptized along with X, Y, Z, A, B, and C., and that this is a regular practice of his. But NO!  Only one person truly matters, and that is that Jay Chou, the darling of pop music in the Far East, is going to be baptized.  Never mind, X, Y, Z, A, B, and C.  And so you roll out the red carpet and publicize it to the whole world that Jay Chou is getting baptized!  I don't know what was going through that pastor's head, but one thing's for sure - if this counts as "pastoral ministry" in the church of the next generation, boy, good and right-thinking pastors are definitely becoming rarer and rarer by the minute!  That move is idiotic pastorally, and if I were a member of that church, I would've sent an angry letter rebuking him for his errors!  


First, I don't understand the point of publicizing just Jay Chou's baptism unless he has this strange operative notion that this constitutes "good Christian witness,"  Nobody's coming to Jesus just because Jay Chou came to Jesus - since when did Jesus need marketing to somehow prove the truth of the Gospel?  The message of Jesus does not need to be topped with the whipped cream of technological pizzaz and the cherry of celebrity endorsement!  That's for politics, for business, and for pornography.  The message of Jesus must be received raw and ungussied-up.  It will taste bitter yet sweet - sweet because it is good news, bitter because this good news will bring suffering - it will be freeing yet shackling - it frees us from the bonds of sin, but enslaves us to the yoke of Christ.  Indeed, in the eyes of the world, Christianity may even make no sense.  But that is precisely why the world needs the Gospel because the Gospel unsettles what is and rebuilds so that the world is more human and less inhumane. 


It is for that reason I find the pastor's announcement abhorrent.  This sort of behavior plays into neoliberal economic ways of thinking.  As I have noted in the past, while I am quite supportive of neoliberal economics (for those of you who don't realize, that's "free market" economics), I do not support at all its import into the church.  In fact, I resent it.  The church, while participating in the economic processes as people who live in the world, does not adopt its processes into its core being.  But the pastor's announcement does just that because neoliberal economic ways of thinking, far from being egalitarian, prize the successful.  It is almost Darwinian in that the winners are lifted high, the losers kicked aside.  That's why the news is filled with those who have succeeded, but are rarely filled with stories of failure.  Capitalism has no grace, no mercy, for failure.


The church, therefore, must fight against this.  It must, in a way, be "anti-capitalist" in that the grace and mercy is extended to all, but particularly towards those who have failed, who have been chewed up and pooped out by the capitalist machine and will be flushed down the toilet of uselessness.  We need to lift up the failures and the broken.  We need to love each other regardless of our successes, our failures, etc.  That's how the world knows we are Christians - that we love each other!  That's why Paul, in 1 Corinthians, took social stratifications in the church very seriously - especially during the Lord's Supper.  How could people call themselves "brothers and sisters in Christ" if they treat some like second-class citizens and others like first?  By publicizing one celebrity's baptism without mentioning others', is not the pastor doing precisely what Paul condemned in very strong terms?


I would've taken my hat off to the pastor made use of Jay Chou's baptism to highlight church programs towards the disenfranchised, or even to publicize the baptisms of other members of the church.  That he particularly highlighted Jay Chou's baptism is theologically and pastorally irresponsible at best.  By doing so, he asserts that in his church (New Life Church) the successful are indeed treated differently.  I even am starting to wonder if he had read his New Testament, and I'm wondering which divinity school he graduated from.  Once again, just to be sure there are no confusions, the problem here is not that I'm pissed that Jay Chou is baptized - praise the Lord! But all praises, too, to the other brothers and sisters, whose names were though shouldn't be withheld, who will be baptized with him.  To do the opposite not only runs counter to Paul's interpretation of Christian unity in 1 Corinthians 12, but it also reinforces a church of capitalism, not a church of God. 


Secondly, there is one sentence in the news that made me queasy: 

Today, the pastor of the church where Chou worships has confirmed his baptism plan for later this year. This would increase the number of Christian celebrities within the Chinese churches, which no doubt has sparked a joyful frenzy among his Christian fans.

Since when did "number of Christian celebrities" matter?  When?  Who's counting?  Maybe I'm a little bit "behind on the times" but are there, like, hundreds of millions of militant atheists worldwide who are counting down and once the number of Christian celebrities hit a magic number - BOOM! The whole world is converted!   But no, I'm quite sure that's not the case.  In fact, I don't know why that's even in an article in a Christian magazine.  Evangelism is not about scoring points, with celebrity conversions getting more points than conversions from others.  No, no, no!  Evangelism is not a video game, my friends!  It is conversion, yes, but others convert by their own volition because they see how the Church lives out its identity as followers of Christ.  There is no point having Christian celebrities within our ranks if we love them more than we love our Christian non-celebrities.  


We Christians need to get it out of our heads somehow that Christian celebrities are per se good.  No, I do not think we need any more Christian celebrities.  Is it fine that celebrities are or become Christian?  Of course.  But the moment they enter the doors of the church, the fact they are celebrities matter zilch.  Zero.  Nada.  When we start treating celebrities differently than other brothers and sisters, we should rethink our actions and repent of our sin. 


Once again, I cannot see how such ideas infiltrate the church unless the church has incorporated too much of the free market into its sinews.  Because only when we start thinking like businesspeople in the church do we start tallying up "quality points".  We become like airlines, giving people who sit First or Business class bonus mileage points, and those who sit in economy... eh, 70% of their miles.  And then we roll the red carpet out for the First/Business class people, invite them to Red Carpet Clubs, go head over heels for them in order to reinforce their loyalty to the brand name.  No, my friends, a united church is not United Airlines.  A united church is like any family.  Shouldn't we know?  Aren't we the types promoting a pro-family agenda?  So shouldn't we put our words into actions and live as if the church is one big family?  And if the church indeed lives like one big family, shouldn't we treat celebrities and non-celebrities alike? Shouldn't we treat young and old with the same respect and love?  


Shouldn't we treat married and single people the same? (wink, wink)


So, in conclusion, please Christian, please, please, please, please, please: Stop this nonsense.  Please start being a church that loves God, not celebrities.  Start being a church that reaches out to all people, not just a certain group.  For the love of God, start being CHRISTIAN!


One last thing: according to the article, Jay Chou has expressed that, "Jesus fashion is the most popular faith, most fashionable worship, and let us be crazy over Jesus." I have absolutely no idea what that was all about, but because it's translated, and I can't even decipher what that's supposed to mean, I'm just going to give him the benefit of the doubt.  If it indeed does say what I think it says, oooh... don't get me started again...