The Idolisation of Celebrities : Religious or Rational?

How has our obsession with popular culture fallen into the realm of idolatry and worship?

To Worship ~ שְׁחָה (Shachah)

A Daily Mail Online article graced my screen this morning as I was having my daily doomscroll that dated back from December of last year titled ‘Emotional Taylor Swift fans film themselves sobbing on TikTok and say they’re ’not ok’ after final Eras Tour Show’. This sparked a little bit of a funny feeling in me as I skimmed through, leaving me questioning why exactly Taylor (and don’t get me wrong I don’t mind a bit of Swift every now and again) has such an emotional effect on this many people.

This isn’t only the case with Swifties though, many celebrities get this similar treatment with their fans calling them ‘saviour’, ‘god’ or even suggesting that they would ‘die for them’.

This idolisation of celebrities is somewhat alarming; is is really just a bit of a fascination with pop culture and stardom or has it turned into a new form of spiritual devotion? I’m going to aim to look at how this line has very much become blurred, especially in the 21st century, and how we can still have healthy relationships with those singers and actors we choose to look up to.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of worship is the ‘offering of devotion, praise, and adoration to that which is deemed worthy of such offering, usually God’; this exactly what can be seen scattered around social media whether we scroll through TikTok, X or Instagram.

From a religious perspective, idolatry in the Bible is seen as ‘worshipping anything other than the one true God’ and is regarded as a great sin. Similarly, the Quran strongly condemns idolatry, also known as shirk, which is the sin of associating partners with God.

So, how exactly are we worshipping celebrities in our modern-day culture? Among researchers, “celebrity worship” is an academic term that refers to the unhealthy personal responses to celebrity status—ranging from attraction to uncontrollable behaviours and fantasies.

These fits of terror we’re having when we see that Paul Mescal has a new girlfriend or the hot flushes we get when Sabrina Carpenter debuts a new song are actually not that different from the idolatry displayed in early Israel.

The story of the Golden Calf found in Exodus 32 of the Bible depicts when the Israelites asked Aaron to make them a new god so Aaron took their golden earrings and made a golden calf from them. But the golden calf became an idol that the people worshiped instead of the real God. This led to disastrous consequences for the Israelites and too reminds us of the separation from God we can potentially bring about if we lean too far into the idolisation of celebrity culture. For those who aren’t necessarily religious, this poses the idea of what actually do we gain from celebrity worship? I’m all for going to a concert, following my favourite stars on Instagram and having music posters in my room (*cough cough* we’ll ignore the framed photo of Shawn Mendes on my wall), but if we obsess too much, are we just setting ourselves up with false hope and fantasy for something that can’t really fulfill those needs or has the potential to disappoint?

Other ways that celebrity culture can mirror religion is seen through the rituals performed. Namely, the swapping of friendship bracelets at the Eras Tour was one collective ritual seen last summer as well as fans wearing merch of their favourite artist could also be seen as a form of ‘ritual’.

We can also see how celebrities are often split into the categories of ‘saints’ and ‘sinners’. There are your classic cancelled celebrities (and rightfully so) such as Shane Dawson, Lea Michele and Russel Brand who did wrong and have never quite managed to make a comeback since. But also, we have those celebrities who seem to do something wrong, and their entire fan base manages to cover their back (the ‘saints’). Examples of this can be seen with Ariana Grande, Doja Cat and Lizzo.

Furthermore, as this ‘parasocial worship’ increases, we can actually notice a correlation between that and the decline in religious belief globally. It’s hard to tell of one causes the other but it could potentially be seen that way.

So, would we be able to call this celebrity worship an entirely new religion in itself?

And who’s a celebrity that you guys low-key treat like a deity?