Christian and secular values for sale: the religious apostasy of celebrity and Disney's "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus

Religious apostasy is a complex phenomenon that becomes even more obscure when it involves public figures in the media industry with economic interests at stake. A paradigmatic case is that of American singer Miley Cyrus, who went from being a famous religious role model for conservative American ev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta theologica 2017, Vol.37 (1), p.97
Main Authors: Sanchez Sabate, Ruben, Gelabert Santané, Ramon Carles, Badilla Briones, Yasna Alejandra, del Valle Rojas, Carlos
Format: Article
Language:eng ; por
Subjects:
Celebrities
Christianity
Commodification
Consumers
Consumption
Culture
Cyrus, Miley
Economics
Evangelicalism
Marketing
Phenomenology
Religion
Secularism
Sociology
Spirituality
Values
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Summary:Religious apostasy is a complex phenomenon that becomes even more obscure when it involves public figures in the media industry with economic interests at stake. A paradigmatic case is that of American singer Miley Cyrus, who went from being a famous religious role model for conservative American evangelical Christians to becoming a secular and liberal celebrity, playing in highly sexualized live shows and videos. Drawing on a complementary use of sociological, economic and language theories of value, this paper explores Cyrus' religious apostasy as a transformation from a Christian commodity to a secular one. Our study shows that, while for the industry, be it Christian or secular, Cyrus' sociological and language values are always subsidiary to her economic value as a commodity, for Christian consumers, her economic value depends on her social and language values.
ISSN:1015-8758
2309-9089
DOI:10.4314/actat.v37i1.7