"Don't be a Person, be a Personality!"

I saw the above words on a billboard on my way to St. Louis last week. It is a succinct expression of the American ethos. What matters is not "persons" with common-garden-variety lives and callings. What matters is "personalities" with fame, wealth, power, and all the toys these things can get.

It set me to thinking. It set me to thinking about persons and the "cult of personality."

A "person" is a human being of either sex with a particular name and history. Theologically, a person is a son or daughter of God, made in his likeness and image. Because of this theological content, every human being of either sex with a particular name and history is unique, significant, and valuable. They are persons, and no matter what their station, status, calling, limitations, or historical obscurity, they are wonderful. Nor, is this to say that all persons are morally good. Many are morally indifferent, blown by every wind. Some are morally evil and leave a legacy of suffering behind them. All of us are morally weak and vulnerable. But, despite these qualifications, persons are wonders. Even the capacity of the truly evil is the result of being persons, of being a composite of creative mind, emotions, and will. It is the wonder of "persons" that the Psalmist celebrates in the 8th Psalm, and, in a different way, Walt Whitman glorifies in "Leaves of Grass."

A "personality" is another thing altogether. A personality is a fictive creation of the market and the media. Here, talent is the main thing, the only thing. This is talent in terms of the ability to do something well, even extraordinarily well- say, like playing a five-string banjo with your feet, or preaching a "wow" sermon. And it is the talent of presenting oneself in a winning, impressive way, personality in the sense of "she has a great personality." Both of these things are necessary if one is to become a real "personality." Charisma without talent will soon lose its attraction, and talent without personality will usually be unable to get the attention necessary for success in the first place.

What is important for this discussion, however, is the realization that the cult of personality does not value personhood. What is valued is talent and charisma. I was struck by this recently while talking to a Tulsa firefighter who moonlights as a security guard at rock concerts in his city. He told me that he and the other security guards were prepped before each concert. Among other things, they are told "Never look the stars in the eyes." Such talent and personal magnetism must be treated like royalty in the high Renaissance! Persons must not presume to be on the same footing as Personalities!

Now, the making of a Personality does involve more than talent and charisma. It requires "handlers and improvers," or, as they are sometimes called, "star-makers." These are the experts who know what is necessary for a person to be morphed into a Personality. This may involve physical changes-the right makeup, wardrobe, even plastic surgery, voice and accent alterations. It will involve story changes- the writing, even the inventing of new histories, name changes, etc. It will compel even personality changes, the loquacious will be made into the silent type, the timid into the wild-boy-or-girl, the chaste into the slut, the temperate into the addict, or vice-versa.

When this happens, for whatever motive, the person is transgressed, invaded, violated. A dark playground of cognitive dissonance is created. A kind of practical schizophrenia is let loose. The real person is separated from the Personality. It is little wonder that such persons become alienated- from their histories, their families, their friends, and from themselves. It is also, unsurprising that such persons frequently fall prey to destructive addictions/behaviors, to chronic depression and other mental disorders, and, too often, to suicide. The human person is not made to live in dissonance with himself. When the dissonance becomes insanely cacophonous, relief must be found.

To be sure, there are a few people who seem to manage Personality without these destructive side-effects. I mention Jimmy Stewart and Tom Hanks, and on a different level, Wendell Berry. But what is immediately apparent in these people, and others like them is this: They have retained their personhood by solid relationships, connection with their own personal histories, faith (not necessarily religious faith) and family and friends.

I am especially concerned with and critical of the cult of personality in religious life, and within the Christian Church in particular. One does not have to go far- the television remote control will do just fine- to find the Personality Cult rife in American Evangelical Christianity.

The process is the same as that outlined above, but it is mixed with another, and more potent and toxic element. The cult of personality is fed in these circles by the motive of "the greater glory of God." We make and handle our Personalities in order to honor God and to impress the world with our talented and charismatic "stars." In this way, we hope to convert the duly impressed.

Little wonder that the result is often the same: scandal resulting from drugs, sex, financial fraud, etc. And why? Because we have created Personalities in conflict with their essential selves, their persons. I wonder how often it is the case that a famous Christian Personality who has destroyed himself and brought dishonor on the Name of Christ, really just wanted to have a little farm in the Ozarks and keep bees. But, the handlers had their way, and a life is lost and a person and his family are destroyed.

What is needed, perhaps, is "a lust for little things." The little things that make up our quotidian existence are replete with lush richness. The creation, family, honest work, friendships,the family dog... And for the Christian, the knowledge that, whether we are ever known outside the circle of these things, we have been known, are known, by the God who gave himself for us in a bloody death of love and ever lives to give our little lives meaning.

The Psalmist says it well: "O LORD,my heart is not lifted up;/ my eyes are not raised too high;/ I do not occupy myself with things/ too great and too marvelous for me./ But I have calmed and quieted my soul,/ like a weaned child with its mother;/ like a weaned child is my soul within me." Psalm 131: 1,2.

You see if you can tease out the Psalmist's meaning for yourself.

Rabbi Tbone