Popinjays in the Church?!

I  may be showing some ignorance here, but I recently read the term “popinjay” for the first time in nearly 70 years of living. It was in an article by Cable Neuhaus in the March/April 2024 issue of “The Saturday Evening Post Magazine” (p 12). Keep reading. The title of the article was “STARSTRUCK” and a sub-heading read, “Once upon a time people became famous because they did great things.” The article was a thoughtful critique of what we call “celebrities” in America. He notes the number of people we call “celebrities has proliferated in modern times, writes: “Today, what we refer to as serious ‘celebrity’ is cooked up in a stew consisting of personal vanity, bejeweled popinjays, and hyper- caffeinated publicists, amplified a billion times by the internet, especially on social media. The process by which [a person] is fabricated into a bonafide celeb’ is not always ugly, but usually it ain’t pretty. Having talent helps, although it’s not essential. (Hello, any Khardasian).” Neuhaus also states the obvious — our biggest celebrities are found in TV, film, and music, and already famous professional athletes who seek even higher profiles in showbiz. His view is that neither our definition of nor our rabid fascination with these “bejeweled popinjays” as celebrities and “stars” are positive forces in our culture.

Let’s define these “popinjays” Neuhaus referred to in the paragraph above. The term originally referred to a parrot, and being compared to such a beautiful bird was considered a compliment. But over time the term popinjay developed a pejorative sense and has come to mean a vain or conceited person, especially one who dresses or behaves extravagantly. As used today popinjay describes a strutting, supercilious person (that is, a person who thinks and behaves as though superior to others). The website vocabulary.com defines popinjay as “a person who is talkative and cocky, who struts around chattering like a parrot.” Let’s see now — conceited, cocky, extravagant, supercilious, talkative, chattering, strutting people. Seen or heard any of them lately? Abundant evidence points to a proliferation of popinjays in our culture. Yep, from the well-known on the national stage to those who are legends only in their own minds, to be a popinjay seems to be the rage of the age as cocky, conceited people strut and chatter. What’s the point, preacher? Just this. No Christian, including preachers, should ever be a popinjay. Words from the Bible in 1 Thess. 2 provide Biblical proof for that assertion. In that chapter the apostle Paul denies he ever used flattery or deceit or was greedy (vs 5); he denies self-centered motivation or that he ever sought glory or praise from people (vs 6). Instead, he asserts he was “gentle, just as a nursing mother cherishes her children” (vs 7). He expressed genuine affection and his desire to share not only the Gospel but also his own life “because you had become dear to us” (vs 8). He affirms they were witness to “how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you” (vs 10), as he “exhorted and comforted and charged” them with all the care / concern of a loving father for his own children (vs 11). His whole concern was to help them “walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (vs 12). Cocky, strutting, chattering popinjays in the church’s pews and pulpit? May it never be!!

by: Dan Gulley,  Smithville, TN