Presbyterian Church In America Goes Full Gospel Coalition! Never Go Full Gospel Coalition.

The Presbyterian Church in America operates a denomination magazine and news outlet, as is customary of large denominations. But it’s rare for a Christian outlet to match the level of cringe that is traditionally expected of The Gospel Coalition. Nevertheless, the PCA set out to find the intersection of church liturgy and the Oscars, the penultimate celebration of Hollywood.

Madeleine Dorst writes the ironically titled, “The Liturgy of the Academy Awards.”

To my right, eight seats down, is Martin Scorsese. 

To my left, Valerie Bertinelli shares my armrest, and Wolfgang Van Halen sits beside her.

Mere inches from my face is the back of John Mulaney’s head. And three rows in front of me is Sandra Hüller, star of two of the Best Picture nominees.

Jimmy Kimmel walks across the stage, and the 96th Academy Awards ceremony begins.

The opening salvo set the tone for what is the most cringy article we’ve covered all year.

As I watched the show, something felt familiar about this rare event. It took time to pin down what I was experiencing, but I can finally name it. 

The Academy Awards felt like a religious ceremony. 

That may sound absurd. But when you work in campus ministry in Los Angeles, you find yourself constantly discussing the intersection of faith and vocation, particularly when it comes to art and popular culture. I’ve benefited from the writing of James K.A. Smith, who introduced me to the concept of “cultural liturgies.” Across his work, Smith argues that our cultural institutions are not spiritually neutral.

Indeed, cultural institutions are not spiritually neutral, but the point of this article is that the Oscars remind her of a proper liturgy and how this is rightly ordered in a sense.

He explains that when we participate in activities like going to a shopping mall, attending a football game, or even singing the national anthem, we are participating in a form of worship, a cultural liturgy. These activities form us spiritually. Like a church worship service, these repeated rituals have a liturgy that intends to shape the desires of our hearts. Nothing is truly secular.

When everything is worship, nothing is worship.

Like church, people put on their Sunday best. In most of our churches, we rarely have a moment where we acknowledge what people are wearing. But clothing is hardly an afterthought to God. From the fig leaves given to Adam and Eve, to the robe given to the prodigal son, to the saints dressed in white in Revelation, throughout the Bible, clothing is a potent symbol of identity.

The emphasis on what people are wearing at the Oscars does not stem from a good. Even though in church, people should dress nicely, we ought not care to draw attention to ourselves in our dress.

There are other horrendous liturgical comparisons, but the comparison to winning an Oscar to baptism, takes the trophy.

The rest of the ceremony is spent giving the awards to the nominees. I think of these moments as a type of baptism. The winner comes up on stage and gives a speech that sounds a lot like a testimony. They outline all the ups and downs of how they came to this life-changing moment, and thank people who helped them along the way. They accept the award, and they are ushered into the inner circle. They have been made part of the family. They’ve been baptized. They have a new identity that can never be taken from them: they are Oscar winners. 

Madeleine Dorst has a future as a writer for The Gospel Coalition.