Khloé Kardashian has been talking about her faith a lot lately.
Over the last several months, the reality star has been unusually open about her prayer life, her beliefs, and what it means to follow Jesus. On a recent podcast episode, she spent the entire time answering questions about her faith—speaking boldly and honestly about what she believes and how it’s changing her life.
But when clips from the podcast started circulating online, the response from many Christians wasn’t exactly welcoming. Commenters who identified as believers questioned whether Khloé was being truthful, pointing to her lifestyle, things that happened years ago, and her family’s controversies as proof that her faith couldn’t possibly be real.
She isn’t the only famous believer to face criticism and skepticism from Christians. The backlash was reminiscent of the reactions that other celebrities, such as Chris Pratt, Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes have faced when speaking openly about their faith for years.
Last year, celebrity Kat Von D spoke out about her own experience sharing her faith and baptism with her followers. In a video shared on her social media, Von D said that “Christians were the worst” critics:
“It was really just sad to see this critical display of judgment from Christians, and I don’t understand what would inspire that, aside from something that’s more egoic, because that isn’t Christlike, to judge people or judge people’s journey. You would think that most Christians would be happy for you when you come to this point in your life, especially when you get baptized. Baptism is so beautiful and it’s such a big landmark in time. For me, at least, it was one of the most important days of my life, so it’s strange that these handful of negative, critical Christians would come at me in such a public way.”
Some Christians may take issue with celebrities like Von D and Brand’s past choices, but in light of a desire to live more like Christ and embrace faith, those things should be trivial. These are real people who are just trying to be honest about their own journey to God.
And for some Christians, that’s a problem.
The Judgement Problem
Whenever a high-profile personality discusses faith, there’s a tendency for some Christians to scrutinize every decision they’ve made or pick apart every phrase they’ve uttered to make sure it matches our own ideas of what a real Christian should look like. In doing so, we’ve created standards that no one could live up to. It’s no wonder someone like Von D or Brand would want to embrace Jesus, but be hesitant about getting too close to the Church.
The modern mix of consumerism and an ever-present media cycle has infected some circles of Christian thought with the need to be skeptical of anything associated with their faith. So many Christians are used to being marketed to with things that are labeled “Christian,” that their theology filters are constantly locked on the highest setting.
The impulse is to protect ourselves and the Church from things that could possibly distract us into ways of thinking that aren’t true or biblical. At its core, that’s a noble goal. But in being so skeptical that we criticize every new convert who doesn’t look or act exactly like we think they should, we let judgment overtake grace.
That’s when we start deciding what and who is actually Christian. We start trying to determine who looks and sounds like one of us. And that’s not our job. Supporting someone’s genuine desire to emulate Christ doesn’t have to be an endorsement of everything else they say or do.
God is the one who will separate the wheat from the chaff. Our job is to focus on bringing in the harvest.
Extending Grace
There’s a reason why God says that judgment is His alone. It’s because we can’t handle it. We have a tendency to look at temporal circumstances, outward appearances, and certain cultural taboos. God sees a different picture. He sees the heart. He judges on scales that are imbalanced by the weight of grace and mercy.
Who knows what’s going on in the heart of Brand or Von D or any celebrity—or any non-famous person, for that matter? It’s not our job to make that judgment. We’re called to extend grace, teach truth, and speak life.
This was a concept even the early disciples had trouble with. Peter famously asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Seven times seems reasonable, right? How many screw-ups does one person need before we can confidently deem them unworthy of forgiveness?
“Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” For Jesus, grace should be the default. If someone wants forgiveness, it’s our job to give it to them—without strings attached. The reason Jesus said we shouldn’t say “‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye,” is because he understood the great irony of human nature: Even though we all demonstrate imperfection, we can’t help ourselves from pointing out flaws in others.
Discernment Vs. Skepticism
In Philippians, Paul says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” We can pray for discernment and knowledge, but it’s so that love may abound.
There’s a difference between discernment and skepticism.
Yes, we are called to “approve of the things that are excellent.” But extending grace to imperfect people doesn’t prevent us from living our own lives to a standard we feel called to.
God called us to make disciples, not to try and determine who we think is worthy of becoming one.
Just like anyone who has encountered Christ, celebrities are all on their own spiritual journeys. It’s easy to think of faith in simple terms, making something Christian or non-Christian. But Paul paints a picture that makes spirituality seem more like a spectrum than a black-and-white image. We are told to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
No matter where anyone is on their journey to work out their faith, we should be standing beside them in encouragement, not tearing them down from the sidelines.
