{"id":41007,"date":"2015-10-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-no-other-gods-except-celebrities\/"},"modified":"2015-10-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T00:00:00","slug":"worship-no-other-gods-except-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-no-other-gods-except-celebrities\/","title":{"rendered":"Worship No Other Gods\u2014Except Celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few research psychologists have looked into the relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship. The team, consisting of a researcher from England and the United States, conducted a study in which 307 participants were asked questions that gauged their attitudes toward religion and toward their favorite celebrities. The final paper from the research, titled &quot;Thou Shalt Worship No Other Gods&mdash;Unless They Are Celebrities,&quot; found that &quot;as religiosity increases, for both men and women, the tendency to &#39;worship&#39; celebrities decreases.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>This seems to suggest that religiosity and celebrity worship are mutually exclusive activities&mdash;or competing &quot;faiths.&quot; But the study also found a distinct subgroup of dual worshipers who scored high on both scales. They concluded, &quot;Many religious people apparently ignore the religious teaching that &#39;Thou shalt worship no other gods,&#39; or fail to connect it to their &#39;worship&#39; of celebrities.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles; <strong>Idols; Idolatry<\/strong>&mdash;This isn&#39;t just true in regard to celebrities. We can also conclude with the author by stating, &quot;Many religious people apparently ignore the religious teaching that &#39;Thou shalt worship no other gods,&#39; or fail to connect it to their &#39;worship&#39; of ___________.&quot; Fill in the blank and you&#39;ll uncover your idol.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3469,3552,3726,3776,3907,4061,4206,4207,4396,5210,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41007","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-backsliding","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-devotion","tax_ctp_tags-exaltation-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-glorifying-god","tax_ctp_tags-idolatry","tax_ctp_tags-idols","tax_ctp_tags-love-for-christ","tax_ctp_tags-unfaithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Worship No Other Gods\u2014Except Celebrities - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-no-other-gods-except-celebrities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worship No Other Gods\u2014Except Celebrities - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few research psychologists have looked into the relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship. 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