Blogs and Stories
The Gospel According to Speidi
Montag’s mix of sex appeal and piousness recalls the recent Carrie Prejean kerfuffle. The evangelical Christian subculture recently got jazzed about the now-dethroned beauty queen when she lost the Miss USA title, presumably after a Perez Hilton-baiting answer in defense of traditional marriage. For a week or two, Prejean enjoyed a surge of interest in conservative religious circles. She signed with a big-time Christian publicist. She basked in a standing ovation at the Dove Awards, the Gospel Music Association’s big awards show. But once a topless-photography scandal overwhelmed her inarticulate cultural stance, the church quickly backed away.
Speidi, however, has the advantage of not being placed on the Christian pedestal. “It’s hard to take their faith seriously at all,” says Jared Wilson, pastor of Element Church in Nashville and the author of Your Jesus Is Too Safe. Wilson watched their encounter Monday with Al Roker on Today and observed, “They demonstrated zero humility, grace, or patience. Obviously, becoming a Christian doesn’t change your behavior overnight, but it does change you.” Of Pratt, Wilson offers this opinion: “It looks like he’s just trying on Christianity like he would an Armani coat.”
David Sessions, editor in chief of Patrol, an independent arts and culture magazine with a religious bent, goes a step further. “Carrie Prejean at least did something to be quasi-persecuted for. As far as I know, Heidi and Spencer haven’t done anything but yell about Jesus on TV, which makes them look like tacky opportunists and makes religious people in general appear ridiculous. Most Christians would look at their prissy, entitled, hateful behavior—it’s all right there on tape—and conclude that anyone who took their beliefs very seriously wouldn’t behave in such a fashion.”
But if they are serious, they should consider avoiding the spotlight for a while. The instant publicity that accompanies celebrity conversions—from Bob Dylan in the 1970s to Hollywood bad-boy Joe Ezsterhas more recently—concerns pastors like Wilson. “Christian culture is sick with celebrity worship just like the world,” he says, “so we need to stop pouncing on every Stephen Baldwin and Gary Busey who suddenly say they got saved.”
Wilson says it’s possible to follow Jesus under the paparazzi’s scrutiny, but it’s not necessarily wise. “Conversion begins with repentance, and repentance really does call for a new way of life,” he says. “These folks need helpful Christian mentors to come alongside them—with no vested interest in whether their protégé maintains celebrity status—and help them sort out what repentance looks like.”
So Speidi might be a pair of hypocrites. But aren’t we all? The couple’s savant-like combination of spirituality and vapidity rubs almost everyone the wrong way, but original sin being what it is, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised by this. “We don’t expect Christian used-car salesmen or the [Christian] mechanic to be perfect,” Criner asks, “so why should we expect [Montag and Pratt] to be perfect?”
That’s a Christ-like thought. But perhaps we should expect more from our proclaimed celebrity Christians. After all, isn’t the Speidi spectacle the natural upshot of our fame-driven, religion-drenched culture? In that context, Montag and Pratt could be just a small, terrifying glimpse into what we’ll be dealing with 15 years from now, when those precious Gosselin kids grow up, and become Speidi quadrupled.
Jason Boyett is the author of the upcoming books Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, Pocket Guide to the Bible, and Pocket Guide to Sainthood, releasing in August from Jossey-Bass. He blogs about religion and culture at jasonboyett.com.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Is Michael in Heaven?
Jason Boyett is the author of the upcoming books Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, Pocket Guide to the Bible, and Pocket Guide to Sainthood, releasing in August from Jossey-Bass. His writing has appeared in Salon, Paste, Relevant, and other publications. He blogs about religion and culture at jasonboyett.com.
Ah, the antics of Speidi! Buffet style Christians who used to be fun on The Hills. Likely because they were starting out and actually, they were quite likeable in a home girl finding her place and bad boy sort of way. Now they are looking sort of pathetic.
And, on another note regarding 'getting on' one's nerves and the 'Christian' issue: there are a lot of non-Christians who have much higher moral standards and don't go around pointing fingers and barking God's rules to everyone. The Christian hypocrisy in any of its forms is getting very tiresome. Live your life as a Christian, but do it quietly and don't judge everyone else. Or, you run the risk of being the biggest bunch of asswipe hypos!
Some Americans find heroism in the strangest places. These folks are famous because of a reality tv show about what exactly? You folks never seize to amaze me with the choices that are placed on pedestals of celebrity. Sex before marriage, teenage sex, court appointed military service, these are the things promoted by the Moral Majority.
No wonder "W" robbed us blind.
I must admit that I don't know "Speidi", but they do sound interesting. Personally, I find it amazing that MTV is displaying these young Christians. I wouldn't be suprised if they filmed them day and night waiting for them to have a blowup, then broadcast that. They would nail two birds. Ratings and mocking those that keep the values that they market.
Watch your step "Speidi". The camera is not your friend.
Wow, you really don't know Speidi! These are not good, honest, Christians. These are two attention-seeking scumbags who have figured out that claiming to be Christian is the newest way to get media attention. Spencer admitted to another contested on 'Get Me Out Of Here' that he was letting Stephen Baldwin baptize him because it would be good television. Don't worry about them: The camera is not only their friend, it is the only thing they live for.
The new show sounds lame and if they are really preachy now, they certainly weren't that way before.
It is all very well calculated - or at least it was on the old show: The Hills. You can watch them grow and come into their own on that show. Oh, my heavens no!! They set the standard for party, cheaty, traitorish behaviour and obnoxiousness! They also brought a lot of fun to the show, soap opera style!
Speidi demonstrate the depth of America as a 'Christian Nation.' Poll after poll purports to show how very religious we are as a country. Get up early on a Sunday morning in any Midwestern neighborhood and count the number of cars that don't move out of the driveway. Church attendance has not risen in this economic crisis as in past hard times.
What we have is a loose self identification, and a self serving one at that.
In the 'Christian' world, the one that sane and reasonable people don't live in, yes there is celebrity worship. But in the 'Christian' world, there is even more of a personality driven, celebrity worshiping culture that thrives on the next 'Ted Haggard,' Gary Busey and Stephen Baldwin.
It has been some time since I professed to be one of those people that shares the values of American Christianity, and in the ensuing years have seen more and more of the worship of 'man' than of G-d, who I believe is getting nowhere with the human race as a whole. People, we are coming to a crossroads in our lives, and we need not another celebrity to worship but a true and lasting relationship with ourselves and G-d within us. Not the hypocritical, self-centered type of Christianity that is being purported to be true today, but one which shares the values of giving and being alive to the moment as true Christianity once was.
Wow, this is truly an excellent and balanced article. I wish The Daily Beast would find more writers like Jason as opposed to some of the pundit, TMZish, Enquirer-like crap that often gets published here because the Beast thinks that is the new successful paradigmn.
To annoint Heidi and Spencer the new standard bearers for Christianity is the equivalent of making Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the poster-boy for fair and open elections. The authenticity of a Christ follower's faith is observed in how he or she lives their life. A few rants on a vapid reality show do not a conversion make. What one does, speaks louder than what one says. Galations 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."Anyone see these traits in the lives of Spencer and Heidi? Just askin'.
Technically, we should expect more of ALL Christians. More charity (after a lot of lip-service about the poor), more wisdom (including tolerance of others without religious judgements), and more humility (to the effect of limiting Christian-based laws that attempt to get enacted anywhere in the country).
This is a great article. Thanks.
I'm tired of the "annoying" Christian right with the thinking capacity as deep as a puddle. Thank god (pun intended) there are people who are better than that.
Dedicated 'religious' persons of any stripe are usually far more annoying than people who live in faith.
Has something to do with the difference between hype and reality.
Think "Speidi" knows the difference?
I only saw a 2 minute clip of Speidi in the jungle and it seemed like they were playing a game where every 5th word would be Jesus and every 12th word would be Satan. They made no sense!!!
The sheer fact that these two empty-headed publicity whores are on this site, speaks not to their level of "celebrity" but rather the bush-league, gossip rag aspirations of the Daily Beast, and that saddens me.
OH BOY!
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.