Well, the big news on the religion in the public square front is that Superstar Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson has been asked to give an important invocation during the inauguration festivities, to mollify the gay rights folks who are upset by the choice of Superstar Evangelical preacher, writer and TV star Rick Warren, who's giving THE important invocation of the inauguration, but who's opposed to gay rights.

Whoo boy.

Both of these guys assented to the celebrity-making machinery in our culture long ago. Now, it seems to me, both of them are letting themselves be manipulated. Why are they letting themselves be used to stoke polarizing public debate?

It also seems to me that both of these guys are captive to American definitions of "success" -- which runs contrary to the model of the Biblical prophets, and of Jesus the Christ, whose work carried on that prophetic tradition. (Remember that, whenever Jesus' adoring followers advocated making him some sort of civic leader, he hid until the enthusiasm died down. And whenever the crowds following him became too adoring and grew too large, he worked harder to be explicit about how difficult the path of Christian faith is -- which resulted in dramatically smaller crowds following him.)

Is a bishop or a preacher faithful when s/he allows himself to be made into a celebrity?

I have a friend named Jeff Krehbiel, who is the pastor of The Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian), in DC. This is the third congregation Jeff has served, all three of which are in tough urban neighborhoods, with heavy emphasis on serving the poor. Have you heard of him? Nope. Would he offer well-worded invocations that God would listen to? Yup. Since he's not a celebrity, there would be none of the polarization. And -- bonus! -- he already lives in DC, wouldn't need a hotel room or transportation. (He could walk to the inauguration sites.) Think of the thousands of dollars that would save.

I probably should have warned you: I'm reading the letters of Mother Teresa and the diaries of Dorothy Day. I can't think of two people who more actively shunned the celebrity-making machine -- most importantly because they understood that followers of Jesus are called to humility; and also because the demands of celebrity would have made it harder to do the work God had called them to do.