Why does a Jesus tattoo make the news?

Because it’s on Justin Bieber’s body, I guess. Those who follow the kid figure he got the tattoo of “Yeshua” spelled out in Hebrew while touring biblical sites in Israel. He had his shirt off in Hawaii recently so people could take pictures of it while he romped around with his Disney girlfriend, Selena Gomez.

Whooptidoo.

Reminds me of a book I’m waiting for, though: Gods Behaving Badly
Media, Religion, and Celebrity Culture by Pete Ward. Not to be confused with the hilarious novel by Marie Phillips with the same name,

Gods Behaving Badly examines the blurred boundary between popular culture and religion—one that has given way to an often confounding fusion of the sacred and the profane. Flipping through pages of tabloid media and looking underneath the veil of Hollywood’s glamour, Pete Ward exposes how, in its consumer life, Western society elevates celebrity to the theological and, in so doing, creates a new para-religion. Inevitably, whether despised or extolled, individual celebrities evoke public moral judgment, creating fertile ground for theological innovation.

Plucked straight from the headlines, the narratives in Gods Behaving Badly give concrete evidence of how the religious themes of incarnation, revelation, sin, judgment, and redemption are all woven into narratives we construct about our most cherished—and most villainized—personalities.

Sounds delish. I look forward to digging into it.