“…Divisions between religious groups and celebrities exist, yet in the American context the rise of the celebrity as a commodity and the dynamics of modern religion have been inextricable. Examples of this commingling may be found in recent works describing the life and ascent of Mary Bakker Eddy, Billy Graham, Aimee Semple McPherson, Ronald Reagan, Martha Stewart, and Oprah Winfrey, all of which indicate that American religious history and charismatic celebrity are deeply collaborative through the media, style, and sentiment that comprise the collective American public sphere (Gottschalk, 2005;Wacker, 2009;Sutton, 2007;Kleinknecht, 2009;Leavitt, 2001;Lofton, 2008). Celebrity culture informs the religious imaginations of its consumers, and the consumption of celebrity increasingly formats expectations of religious leadership and its distribution and communication.…”