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The Gospel According to Speidi
Tyler Golden, NBCU Photo Bank / AP Photo
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are embarrassing true believers with their awkward Jesus-driven media blitz. But will young fans follow them to church?
Statistically speaking, Christians can be annoying. That’s according to a poll cited in the new book Lost and Found, in which religion researchers Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley, and Jason Hayes reveal that 46 percent of non-church-attending young adults agree with the statement, “Christians get on my nerves.”
It’s not surprising that pushy evangelists and holier-than-thou Jesus freaks are an irritant to many. What’s surprising is the stat: Only 46 percent? The researchers could have recorded a far higher rate of annoyance had they identified specific Christians: Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt get on my nerves. Agree or disagree?
That’s the only conclusion one could draw following an active fortnight of on-air proselytizing from Montag and Pratt, the married stars—collectively known as “Speidi”—of the MTV reality series The Hills. This two-headed publicity monster has dominated the celebrity news cycle with Gosselin-like ubiquity this week, dishing out Christian drama and name-dropping Jesus Christ like old-time celebvangelists.
“If Heidi were my daughter, and professed to follow Jesus, I’d tell her that we live in the era of fig leaves and she needs to put some clothes on,” says one pastor.
In case you’ve only been paying attention to Iranian elections and other events that don’t merit coverage in Us Weekly, here’s a recap: Last week, the couple appeared as contestants on the first two episodes of NBC’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, during which Montag prayed with Patti Blogojevich (wife of the disgraced Illinois governor), Pratt got baptized by fellow contestant and born-again Christian Stephen Baldwin, and the two of them generally annoyed the other D-list contestants. Then they quit the show. Then they unquit, and then quit again. At some point, Montag was rushed to the hospital with a gastric ulcer, and Pratt alleged that they were tortured. Then he took it back, presumably for contractual reasons.
Montag recovered, thankfully, in time for the publicity tour, during which we learned that the couple is still very committed to Jesus, and that Montag posed for the September issue of Playboy. “God made humans naked,” she told Ryan Seacrest on Monday. “We weren’t even born with clothes!”
But the couple’s awkward public embrace of religion has left some true believers flummoxed. The pro-Christian message that Speidi is espousing becomes garbled when blended with TV’s need for sensation and sleaze. Then again, in an era where the church could use a PR boost, Montag and Pratt are providing Christianity the type of pop-culture credibility that could wrangle new followers. Whether this tradeoff is worth it depends on who you ask.
Michael Criner, pastor of a college ministry near Baylor University in Waco, Texas, thinks Playboy was probably not the best decision, and that the God-made-us-naked analogy only goes so far. “If Heidi were my daughter, and professed to follow Jesus,” he says, “I’d tell her that we live in the era of fig leaves and she needs to put some clothes on.” Despite her possession of a beautiful God-given (surgeon-assisted) body, Criner believes parading it around as an object of sexual desire is not a Christ-affirming choice.
Other Christian leaders worry less about potential lust and more about Montag’s self-image. Mike Foster is a Los Angeles-based author and speaker, and the co-founder of XXXChurch, which ministers to people in the pornography industry. “Without question, she’s following a path many young and attractive celebrities have had success with,” he says. “I see someone like Heidi believing that her worth and value are found in her body—not in who she is as a person.” Sexy photos don’t necessarily say much to prove or disprove her faith, he says, but reveal more about how she sees herself and hopes to attain happiness.
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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.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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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.
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