Should celebrities tell us how to vote?

Singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow made headlines over the weekend by posting an Instagram video in which she waves goodbye to her Tesla as it is driven away. She explained: “There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla.”

She added: “Money donated to @npr, which is under threat by President Musk, in hopes that the truth will continue to find its way to those willing to know the truth.” She included hashtags for “PresidentMusk” and “ProtectTheConstitution.”

Actor Gabriel Basso, who stars in the Netflix thriller The Night Agent and played a young JD Vance in Hillbilly Elegy, takes a different approach. “I don’t believe that actors should be famous,” he said, speaking out against celebrities who use their platforms to deliver political messages. “We’re saying words that we’re told to say,” he stated. “We’re told how to say them, we’re told where to stand. And then we’re telling people how to vote?”

He believes that an entertainer’s job is “illegitimate in that way.” In his view, “We’re court jesters. We’re entertaining. We’re public servants. We’re there to perform, to entertain. And then all of a sudden, the jester, because he’s in the courtroom, starts to be like, ‘I might want to go sit on the throne!’”

 “The man who would not be king”

The preponderance of celebrities seeking political influence across the partisan spectrum stands in sharp contrast with the hero our nation celebrates today.

Presidents’ Day (sometimes spelled President’s Day or Presidents Day) is officially Washington’s Birthday at the federal level. Since 1879, the US has honored George Washington in this way. And appropriately so: He led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and served as the first US president from 1789 to 1797.

However, he was in many ways a reluctant hero who avoided celebrity whenever he could.

When asked to lead the army, he responded, “I do not think myself equal to the Command I am honored with.” After winning the War for Independence, he was reluctant to lead the Constitutional Convention lest he be perceived as grasping for power. When elected president, he lamented that he lacked the “competency of political skill . . . necessary to manage the helm” and said, “Integrity & firmness is all I can promise.”

When he voluntarily stepped down after his second term as president, a dumbfounded King George III proclaimed him “the greatest character of the age.” Historian Matthew Spalding calls him “the man who would not be king” and notes that “no one walked away from power with more dignity.”

Washington exhorted his fellow citizens: “The name of ‘American’ which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism.” But his sacrificial and humble patriotism made him the “father” of our nation in ways no words could.

Now it’s our turn.

We must be the change we wish to see

An article on the proliferation of pornography in popular culture notes: “The logical endgame of the sexual revolution has been to turn sex into a recreational activity whose only meaning is defined by the people experiencing it, and whose only moral issues center around consent.”

The facts regarding the devastation of pornography are clear, from its ties to sex trafficking and child abuse to the brain damage it causes. However, given its pervasiveness, if Christians want our broken culture to adopt biblical morality regarding sexual purity, we will first have to model it ourselves. Only when we “remain faithful to one another in marriage” (Hebrews 13:4 NLT) can we expect others to follow our example.

In other news, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a request from Louisiana to extradite a doctor who prescribed abortion pills to a pregnant minor in their state, violating their strict anti-abortion law. According to Louisiana authorities, the girl who received the pills experienced a medical emergency and had to be transported to the hospital.

The facts regarding the devastation of abortion are clear, from its emotional damage and medical risks for mothers who choose it to the tragedy that more than sixty-three million babies have lost their lives since the procedure was legalized in 1973. However, despite bans in many states, the number of abortions in the US actually increased in 2023.

Given the pervasiveness of abortion, if Christians want our broken culture to adopt biblical morality regarding the sanctity of life, we will first have to model it ourselves. Only when we “bless” children as Jesus did (Mark 10:16) by encouraging adoption and caring for women with at-risk pregnancies can we expect others to follow our example.

I could go on, but you understand the point. In a secularized culture that rejects biblical authority, we must be the change we wish to see. This is only fair: If we claim that Jesus transforms people into “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17), the world has a right to expect such transformation in us.

How “Christ takes shape in a believer”

Imagine the difference in America if every American Christian imitated Jesus; where we asked, “What Would Jesus Do?” and lived accordingly. Consider the evangelists we would become, the ministry we would share, the obedience we would model.

Here’s what makes imitating Jesus different from emulating any other laudatory figure of history: Jesus will help us do so.

St. Augustine observed:

Christ takes shape in a believer through the faith that is in his inmost soul. Such a believer, gentle and humble of heart, is called to the freedom of grace. He does not boast of the merit he gains from good works, for they are worth nothing. It is grace itself that is the beginning of merit . . . [as] Christ is formed within the believer who accepts the form of Christ, who comes close to Christ by means of spiritual love.

How can we “come close to Christ” today?

1. Make it our ambition to imitate Jesus (cf. Romans 8:29). This and nothing less must be our highest purpose in life.
2. Admit we cannot imitate Jesus without his help. Ask his Spirit to “fill” and control us (Ephesians 5:18), manifesting the “fruit” of his character in our lives (Galatians 5:22–23) and using us to demonstrate Christ to the culture.
3. Join the Spirit in our sanctification through prayer, Bible study, worship, and other spiritual disciplines. These position us to experience the transformation only God can make in our lives.
4. Measure success by service. As with Jesus’ earthly ministry (Matthew 20:28), the consequences of our faithfulness will far outlive our obedience.

St. Augustine assured us:

“The believer who imitates Christ becomes . . .  the same as Christ whom he imitates.”

Will you seek to become “the same as Christ” today?

Quote for the day:

“Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me thy servant, who humbly prostate myself before thee.” —George Washington

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San Francisco has long been one of America’s most irreligious cities, with Silicon Valley at the center of that resistance to faith. For most of the last decade, roughly half of tech workers identified as either atheist or agnostic. Yet, that resistance to God—and the gospel in particular—has begun to soften in recent years.

Christians have always been present within the tech industry but, for a time, most felt the need to keep their faith private lest it make them an oddity at best and a pariah at worst. Or at least that was the perception. Believers like Trae and Michelle Stephens felt a greater degree of comfort living out their faith than most, though even they recall often feeling like the “token Christians in the room” when among their peers.

That feeling is part of what led the couple to help start the ACTS 17 Collective last year.

ACTS 17 is both an acronym—Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society—as well as a callout to the passage in Acts where Paul shares the gospel at the Areopagus. Their hope is to take a similar approach in reaching out to the intelligentsia of their day, and God has been using them to do just that.

 “The powerful need Jesus just as much”

As Michelle Stephens notes, the group’s mission to target the wealthy and influential within the tech industry may seem like “a somewhat counterintuitive Christian calling” to many. In an interview with Emma Goldberg of the New York Times, Stephens describes how “We are always taught as Christians to serve the meek, the lowly, the marginalized . . . I think we’ve realized that, if anything, the rich, the wealthy, the powerful need Jesus just as much.”

To that end, the Collective says they are “redefining success for those who define the culture.” And their approach matches that ambition well.

Through events centered on high-profile, Christian speakers who appeal to the tech community—even if some are controversial—the group has built an environment that often appeals more to those who are looking to network with the elite of their industry than to those who are looking to know more about Jesus. And the Stephens are fine with that:

“After an ACTS 17 event, all we would like is for folks in attendance to take a next step in their faith journey. Maybe they’d never heard of Jesus, and a next step is reading the Bible.”

They understand that, for many, the very notion that some of the industry leaders they respect could be Christians is a novel concept. As such, expecting them to jump right into attending church and declaring Jesus to be Lord is relatively unrealistic. So, instead, they meet people where they are, offering something of value in exchange for the chance to tell them about Christ.

It’s an exchange that many in the tech world seem happy to make, and the early results have been promising.

In addition to events in Silicon Valley, seventeen other cities in the US have shown interest in hosting the group. Yet they have also engaged with nations beyond America’s borders, holding two events last November in Abu Dhabi and Dubai about how the Christian faith can impact career planning, as well as how it impacts their views on AI and national defense.

However, regardless of the nature of the topic or the location in which it’s given, the basic approach of using their expertise and gifting to earn the right to share the gospel remains the same. And that approach demonstrates an important lesson for each of us today.

Satan is fine with us making the world a better place

People come to Jesus for a variety of reasons. For some, he’s a great moral teacher who espouses the kind of ethic they want to see in their own lives and the culture at large. Jordan Peterson has made headlines in recent years for largely adopting this approach to the Bible, yet he seems to stop short of seeing Christ’s sacrificial death as the literal path to salvation.

Those who see Christ’s message to the poor and needy as the central pillar of the gospel make a similar mistake. While social justice movements have done a great deal to point out our society’s longstanding sins and call believers to action, it can be tempting for that message to become more prominent than our innate need for Jesus to save us. Yes, we are called to pursue justice and help those in need, but in Christ’s name and power rather than our own.

As Skye Jethani described on a recent Denison Forum Podcast, the ethical principles and social actions to which Christ calls us do not have to be either/or concepts.

Jesus did come to set a moral example for us to follow and he did teach us to care for the poor and the needy. But our first priority needs to be seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as it’s only then that we will have our priorities properly aligned to fulfill the rest of his calling for our lives (Matthew 6:33).

As Christians, it can be easy to get our priorities out of line, particularly when there’s a cause we care deeply about. But while people can come to Jesus from various places and with various goals in mind, our presentation of the gospel must center on Christ above everything else.

Social justice, personal advancement, or becoming a better person can be helpful and worthy steps along that path, but we can’t stop there if we want to get to salvation. At the end of the day, a gospel that doesn’t end with the call to recognize Jesus as Lord is not the gospel—no matter how similar it may be to aspects of the message he taught.

Satan is fine with us making the world a better place, and even doing so in the name of Christ, so long as we stop short of recognizing Jesus as Lord.

So how well are your priorities aligned today? When you think about Christ’s call for your life, is knowing him as your savior and Lord at the top of your list?

Helping others to know Jesus as Lord is far more difficult if he isn’t your Lord first. Make sure he is today.

Quote of the day:

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” — A.W. Tozer

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