BROOKLYN, NY – Sean “Puff Diddy” Combs insists he is innocent and will not take a plea bargain after being arrested and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He is being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY, where he is reportedly on suicide watch.
Diddy is a three-time Grammy Award winner. In 1993, he founded his record label, Bad Boy Records, and has since discovered several notable artists, including the Notorious B.I.G. and Usher. He is one of the wealthiest musical artists in the world, and before his legal troubles, Forbes estimated him to be worth $1 billion.
Origen would subscribe (maybe?)…
Ancient Christian answers for our culture’s deepest questions. Subscribe for a new article in your inbox every Monday.
Diddy has been accused of hosting large, degenerate parties attended by A-list celebrities, where illegal drugs, prostitution, and forced sexual activities were allegedly commonplace. According to reports, minors sometimes participated in the activities. Diddy videotaped everything and has reportedly used the recordings to blackmail attendees into silence.
Celebrities and politicians are frantically hiding their involvement with Diddy. Usher deleted all 7000 tweets on his X account with over 11 million followers, while pop star Pink deleted all 4000 tweets on her X account with over 30 million followers. Jennifer Lopez, Diddy’s ex-lover, is on high alert—her legal team is ready for a possible indictment. Kevin Hart, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Khloe Kardashian are some celebrities rumored to be on the guest lists of Diddy's more explicit parties. Even LeBron James remarked in an Instagram Live video that there “ain’t no party like a Diddy party.”
Diddy is not the first high-profile figure accused of hosting depraved parties and promoting promiscuity among celebrities and political elites. Jeffrey Epstein held similar events with famous individuals on his famed “pedophile island”—he was found dead in the same detention center where Diddy is now awaiting his trial. Another example is Harvey Weinstein, a notorious celebrity predator. As far back as 2005, over a decade before Weinstein’s arrest, Courtney Love warned young actresses, “If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party at the Four Seasons, don't go.”
It seems that sexual deviancy is the price of admission into the celebrity class. The depravity of celebrity also reveals something deeper about the human condition.
Diddy’s actions, like other celebrity scandals, highlight humanity's universal struggle with sin. Celebrity exemplifies that man is inherently sinful, not merely because of circumstances or external influences, but due to a fundamentally broken nature. The pursuit of fame and fortune stems from this sinful nature, which craves the power to satisfy its lusts. When someone, driven by their fleshly desires, gains the means to indulge those lusts through fame and wealth, it inevitably leads to depravity. Before the commoner judges the elites of society, he should realize that sexual deviance is not limited to celebrities—61% of Americans report that they view pornography, most of which say that it has little or no impact on their lives.
While the population criticizes their perverted elites, they still widely long to be a part of the Hollywood pantheon. Those with power, fame, and fortune hoard them—those without desperately claw for them. For example, around 57% of Gen Zers say they would become social media influencers if given the opportunity. Humanity cannot trust their desires. Those who become powerful are often deceived by their own hearts in the process. After gaining renown, what once seemed unimaginable and heinous becomes an overwhelming temptation for the undisciplined heart, especially when it opens the door to more power, fame, and fortune.
Yet, man was also made in the image of God. Every man inherently knows he falls short of that purpose and thus strives to become like God. However, his sinful nature twists his understanding of deity. Man foolishly believes that becoming like God is simply a matter of gaining power, wealth, and fame. This was Eve’s error—though she was already a pure image of God, the snake deceived her into thinking that being like God meant seizing His power for herself. She thus made herself very unlike God.
And man must become like God—it is an irresistible drive. But he cannot achieve this on his own. Herein lies the wonder of God’s love and wisdom as seen in the incarnation. The incarnation is the central doctrine of Christianity. In the time of Christ, Rome was familiar with men seeking to become gods—emperors declared themselves divine and forced their subjects to worship them. But the idea of a god becoming truly human was almost unimaginable in Roman and Greek mythology.
And yet, the central claim of Christianity is precisely that God became man. Even the reality of the resurrection rests on the validity of the incarnation. The ramifications of the incarnation reach far beyond theology, touching even the very nature of humanity itself. St. Athanasius, the patriarch of Alexandria, was a Church Father in the 3rd century. He wrote,
“For He became Man that we might be made God: and He manifested Himself through the body that we might take cognizance of the invisible Father: and He underwent insult at the hands of men that we might inherit immortality. [emphasis mine] For He Himself was nothing injured, being impassible and incorruptible and very Word of God; but He was taking care of and preserving in His own impassibility the men who were suffering, at whose hands also He underwent these things. And to sum up, the successes of the Saviour, brought about by His Incarnation, are of such kind and magnitude that, if one wished to go through them all, it would be like those who gaze at the expanse of the sea and try to count its waves.”1
Athanasius was one of the greatest ancient defenders of the uniqueness of God. By saying that “He became Man that we might be made God,” Athanasius is not arguing for a crossing of ontological boundaries between God and His creation. Man does not gain the substance of God. Still, through the incarnation of Christ, a man can gain unity with God and thus share in the blessings of the divine, such as moral holiness, incorruptibility, and immortality.
Christ is the ultimate revelation of God—as a man looks more like Christ, he becomes more like God. Thus, every person should seek to reflect Christ and reject the temptation to pursue celebrity.
This is the miracle of Christianity: that the Divine became man so that man could partake in the Divine. The Son of Man humbled Himself to elevate humanity as a nation of kings and priests. The Son of Man laid down His life to give man eternal life. The Son of Man forsook His celestial riches to bestow upon man heavenly treasures. And upon seeing the Slain Lamb in all of His glory, His followers will worship Him forever,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)
Diddy and his celebrity associates may be idols in this fleeting world, but idols fade, rust, and eventually perish. How do you destroy a god, an earthly idol? Just wait—they will do the job themselves. Worldly idols may pass away, but heavenly images of God will endure forever because they are like God. Seek to become like God—conform to the likeness of Christ, not the image of Hollywood.
Athanasius of Alexandria, Athanasius: On the Incarnation of the Word of God, trans. T. Herbert Bindley, Second Edition Revised. (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1903), 142–143.
What a beautiful read! Thank you so much for writing this.
I love how you write about our desire to unite with God, yet due to our sin and ignorance, we fall short, worshiping the idols of money, name and fame. The material wealth that comes as a by product of fame only makes this abundantly clear.
I'm planning on reading through On the Incarnation with a group from my Church in the winter. This article has made me more excited about it! Thanks for you thoughts!