Some years ago a scholar at Warwick University in the UK did some interesting research on the cult of celebrity. Dr Angie Hobbs, then of the Department of Philosophy, said "It’s a phenomenon we need to take seriously. Why people are confusing fame and celebrity with the type of activities and creations that are greatly worth celebrating."✽ We probably care too much about the activities of famous people because we get to hear too much about them. Social media and the proliferation of 24 hour news means that there is an insatiable appetite for stories, and plenty of people willing to supply them.
I'm sure that much of the charitable work of the royal couple is highly worthy of promotion and fame. The monarchy itself, as an institution that brings stability and unity to an otherwise overheated political system and national differences, is to be celebrated and preserved. But not to a ridiculous extent that makes a mockery of the amazing achievements of so many who do truly great things in our land in the service of others and of God.
It was once said that the world is yet to see what can be achieved by someone who doesn't care who gets the glory! Today, give thanks for the folk who have blessed you and don't seek the limelight. I thank God for a professor of surgery and his colleagues who spent themselves unstintingly to save my life. I am grateful too, for the humble tomato grower who invited me to church in my teens so that I could learn to follow Christ.
R.T.Kendall wrote a book called 'Popular in Heaven Famous in Hell' and maybe that's the only celebrity that really matters!
✱https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/knowledge-archive/socialscience/celebrity/
