Christian Living/Church Related | HumanityRenewed

More Thoughts, and a Few Stories, on the Cultural Captivity of the Church

Years ago I came across a great book written by Douglas Hyde entitled Dedication and Leadership. Hyde was a former Communist turned Roman Catholic who wondered why his Communist comrades had uniformly displayed deeper levels of commitment to world revolution than the typical Christian had for the gospel of Christ.

One of his suggestions for explaining this disparity focused on the church’s lack of anything resembling Bolshevik self-criticism. Recognizing that Communism required a complete reconstruction of the way people think about and interpret their world, the movement gathered members together into small groups for discussion and “self-criticism.”

Together these Communist study groups held each other accountable to purging old ways of thinking and behaving, while assembling, piece by piece, the renewed mind of a faithful, Communist ideologue.

Hyde laments that it is a rare church indeed that invests any deliberate effort into helping its members cultivate disciplines of healthy spiritual introspection, self-examination, and Christ-like self-criticism. Yet, this is precisely what Paul expects every Christian to be doing as a part of their daily discipleship. In Romans 12:2 the apostle says,

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…

Fallen, sinful minds like ours (you will understand, dear reader, that I assume you too are a guilty sinner like me) do not renew themselves automatically. Yes, every Christian has the Holy Spirit to turn the impossible into the actual, but personal effort is the required fuel for all personal transformation.

Thus, far too many folks who call themselves Christians fail to think or to behave like people directed by the mind of God.

I was reminded of this personally a while back when talking with a friend about my time visiting my youngest daughter as she worked in the Kenyan slums surrounding Nairobi. I was struck by the near universal happiness regularly on display in the lives of these people living in the most squalid poverty imaginable.

I couldn’t get over the beautiful smiles and the hearty laughter that I saw spontaneously erupting from the poor and destitute.

My friend listened to me and then quietly asked – with a beautiful smile on his face – David, why is it surprising that the poor would be happy?

That sentence hit me like a ton of bricks. Good question, I said to myself. Why indeed?

I suddenly realized, with the help of a friend exercising some good Christian/Bolshevik self-criticism, that I harbored an unrecognized prejudice.

I had spent my entire life in Christian ministry teaching people that money cannot buy happiness; that the love of money is the root of great evil; yet burrowed deep inside my brain remained this hidden assumption that people who lack money certainly can’t be truly happy and content.

Figuratively speaking (I hate it when people say “literally” when they mean “figuratively”), this moment of critical self-awareness blew my mind.

It also reminded me that cultivating the mind of Christ is a life-time process that demands daily self-criticism as well as good friends who are in the habit of similarly criticizing themselves.

Only such genuine disciples can make other disciples.

Getting together in small groups to socialize and hang out together is all well and good, but in and of itself, socialization it is a not an effective recipe for growing serious followers of Jesus.

I was thinking about this particular problem as I attended a Saturday morning men’s breakfast at a nearby church.

The speaker began by deriding what he believed were secular society’s efforts at emasculating, even feminizing, modern men. The church needed to help men to proudly reassert their masculinity. Or so we were told.

(I found this a very strange thing to be saying in the age of the #MeToo movement. But evangelicals have lived in a cultural ghetto for a long time.)

To facilitate the growth of masculine, godly men, the speaker announced that he was starting a new men’s Bible study for the church. A handy video played on a big screen up front introduced the study’s content.

The 300 or so men present in the auditorium with me were all treated to a 5-minute action movie showing Navy SEALS fully armed, wading through water, jumping out of helicopters, and firing their weapons at (and undoubtedly killing) unseen enemies. A very masculine sounding narrator described how this new study (now available nation-wide) would teach us vital principles for godly manhood from the Navy SEALS handbook.

I groaned audibly and nearly regurgitated my breakfast.

I had spent my entire life thinking that Jesus of Nazareth was our perfect model for godliness. Silly me!

Worse yet, I now discovered that my personal Bible study needed to be directed by a military training manual. Rats!

Those of you who know me will not be surprised to learn that it took all the self-control I could muster to remain seated. Every fiber of my being wanted to stand up and loudly denounce the secular, unthinking, anti-Christian rubbish being shoveled out from the stage.

Sadly, I was witnessing another instance of American evangelicalism’s cultural captivity to the godless forces of social conformity. Political conservatism, militarism, patriotism, the myth of American exceptionalism, and gross nationalism had all conspired to trample the gospel of Jesus Christ into the ground, buried beneath the spit-polish black boots worn by “Christian soldiers” LITERALLY marching off to war.

And THAT is godly manhood?

We had been divided into groups of 10 sitting at circular tables. As the meeting drew to a close, we were encouraged to talk among ourselves about the morning’s lessons.

I believed that it would be irresponsible of me to say nothing. I had to speak my mind, fully convinced that I was speaking with the mind of Christ.

So, I grabbed the moment and told the other men at my table that this was a horrible example of un-Christian, anti-Biblical thinking infiltrating the church. I will spare you all the details of my little speech condemning everything we had just been subjected to, but I will mention the response of a young man sitting opposite me at the table.

This young man in his 20s had accompanied his father to the breakfast. As I spoke, his head began to nod heartily in agreement. As I finished, he said that he was glad I had spoken up. He told us all about how difficult it had been to grow up in Montana where everything in the surrounding society insisted that he become a tough guy, a macho-man, a fighter.

Not even the church provided any refuge from the cultural conditioning of a male dominated society where rugged individualism depended on a daily overdose of testosterone.

This young man, quite rightly, wanted to become more and more like Jesus, not a Navy SEAL. He finds words of life in the holy Scriptures, not in a military training handbook.

He was fighting against his church’s cultural captivity, not surrender to it.

So, why was the “men’s pastor” employed by the church promoting a program developed by a nationally known evangelical media organization that will teach men to conform to American culture rather than stand against it?

Why My Posts Have Recently Become More Erratic

Perhaps you always thought my posts were erratic (…which reminds me of a story: back in the days when I was working with college students, I once met a young woman for coffee who asked me to define the word erotic. I thought this a bit odd, but answered her question and then asked one of my own. Why do you ask? “Oh,” she said. “I was trying to explain an idea to one of my professors. I was getting flustered and said, ‘Sorry, sometimes my thoughts become so erotic.’ I didn’t understand why he blushed and walked away.” Ok. End of story.)

Even if you have always thought my postings were erratic – yes, I have erotic notions too, but I will never share them here with you – I feel the need to explain why they are now more erratic than usual.

I am trying to work diligently on my current book project, which means less time is available for blogging. I will continue to post my occasional thoughts on theology, politics, world affairs and the church for you, my readers, who, for some odd reason, find my thoughts worth considering.

But, at least for the time being, the majority of my time will go to a new book addressing the damaging contributions made to the Israel-Palestine conflict by the advocates of Christian Zionism in the American church.

The book will have three interwoven streams of argument.

The first will discuss the history of Zionism and its implementation in Israel. The second will tell a few of the many heartbreaking stories I have personally encountered during my visits to the West Bank and Israel. The third will open up the Bible and explain how Christian Zionists (i.e. Christians who believe that modern Israel is God’s chosen nation) misinterpret Scripture with disastrously immoral consequences.

I am now working on chapter 4 (of a projected 12). After completing the first chapter that includes a personal story of Palestinian suffering, I sent a copy to my friends in the West Bank for their review. I have promised them that I will not publish anything personal without their approval.

So, after writing the story of a friend who was shot in the face, for no particular reason, by an Israeli soldier, I sent off the first draft.

Below is a short excerpt from his response:

You have presented a summary of our plight in the strongest way ever… It’s heart felt with facts and legal dimensions. It’s not biased with empty weak claims, but in defense of justice and humanitarian rights that’s rightfully presented. You made my soul cry and screaming…enough injustice…How the world is really blindfolded intentionally and unintentionally… I could never present our case any better…. thank you, brother…

Completing this book is my mission right now. It is one small thing that I can do. It may not be much, but just think of how different the world could be if everyone did the one small thing that they alone could do to improve the lives of others who were suffering.

I won’t disappear altogether, but I felt the need to tell everyone what I am up to.

My blog’s home page tells me that I have 485 subscribers. I find that hard to believe, to tell you the truth. I suspect that someone at Bluehost is pulling my leg. But I do appreciate those of you who actually exist out there is cyberspace and take the time to look at what I write.

I am extremely blessed. Yet, every day my blessings remind me of the unjust suffering endured by others whom Terry and I dearly love in the land of Palestine.

I am incensed at the way American Christians can use the Bible and theology to excuse the blatant oppression of an entire group of people. As I work my way through volumes of Christian Zionist literature I must periodically stop and take a break so as not to give myself a coronary.

Healthy theological debate is always worthwhile. But there is nothing healthy about any theology that teaches us, no matter how inadvertently, not to care about others.

No follower of Jesus Christ is ever justified, no matter what his/her theological argument may be, in siding with the strong against the weak; in enabling the powerful to exploit the powerless; in blessing the oppressors standing upon the neck of the oppressed; in using God’s word as a cover-story for murder, racial discrimination, and ethnic cleansing.

So, I’ve got to complete this task while I can.

Thank you for understanding.

U.S. Media Ignores Israeli Chants for Genocide While Condemning Legitimate Criticism of Pro-Zionist Lobby Groups

I am offering this post to highlight the stark contrast that exists between the way U.S. news outlets cover criticism of Israel (think of Rep. Ilhan Omar) vs. the way it covers, or fails to cover, truly horrific, racist events in Israel itself.

The difference is telling.

The events described in the article below occurred in 2016. Think back two

A large anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv. The sign says, Kill Them All

years ago. Can you remember hearing a news story describing these anti-Palestinian rallies in Tel Aviv?

Compare the number of times you’ve heard a public figure suggest that Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite with the number of similar condemnations you’ve heard of these despicable Israeli demonstrations.

The article was written by Whitney Webb, a reporter for Mint Press News. She describes an anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv, Israel. The article is entitled, “Thousands of Israelis Take to the Streets Calling for Palestinian Genocide.”

Israel in 2016 was no different than it is today. No, I take that back. Israel in 2019 may be worse.

While mainstream America, including too many of our politicians, are ready to muzzle Israel’s critics, a sizeable portion of Israeli citizens publicly advocate racist violence against Palestinians.

So, which is the more “dangerous” type of speech? Ilhan Omar’s criticism of the power of pro-Zionist lobbying groups in D.C.? Or large public rallies in Israel calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people?

You can read the entire article by clicking on the title above. I also provide an excerpt below:

“Israeli government concern over recent violence has led them to arrest Palestinians for social media content that could potentially lead to crimes. So far, 145 Palestinians have been arrested this year for ‘pre-crime’ via social media ‘incitement.’ This practice eventually led to a collaboration between Facebook and the Israeli government, whose joint effort to curb social media ‘incitement’ has led to the banning of several Facebook accounts of Palestinian journalists and news agencies.

“However, social media, as well as mainstream Western media, have failed to condemn Israeli ‘incitement’ against Palestinians, a practice that is surprisingly

Another anti-Palestinian rally in Israel, photographed by Dan Cohen, a Jewish-American journalist. The crowd was chanting, Death to Arabs.

common considering the little to no attention it receives. Often these anti-Palestinian posts, pictures, and rallies are rife with calls for genocide, with cries of ‘Death to the whole Arab nation’ and ‘Kill them all’ surprisingly common.

“Even the Times of Israel ran an op-ed article about ‘When Genocide is Permissible’ in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Though the post was eventually taken down, it points to an all-too-common and dangerous mentality that social media, the Israeli government, and Western media ‘conveniently’ ignore.

“An Israeli news agency even put the then-suspected preferential treatment to the test and found that Facebook and the Israeli authorities treated calls for revenge from Palestinians and Israelis very differently.

“Even massive rallies calling for Palestinian genocide have been ignored entirely by social media and the corporate press. Earlier this year in April, a massive anti-Palestinian rally took place in Tel Aviv where thousands called for the death of all Arabs. The rally was organized to support an Israeli soldier who killed an already-wounded Palestinian by shooting him execution-style in the head…

“A Jewish reporter at the scene remarked that it seemed ‘more like a celebration of murder than anything.’ Despite the obvious animosity and incitement made evident at the rally, it isn’t difficult to imagine what the response would have been if this has been a pro-Palestinian rally calling for the deaths of Jews. The stark divide between what is permissible for Palestinians and what is permissible for Israelis should concern us all as the widespread bias of social media, the press, and many governments threaten to blind us from the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The Day I Met a Kenyan Saint

I had obviously taken the wrong bus. I thought I was going to the Kenyan Museum of Natural History. Instead, I was let out on the side of a road facing a large open savanna with a few scattered trees. I decided to try again tomorrow, but in the meantime, the savanna was new to me and waiting to be explored.

As I wandered into the grass, I quickly noticed a woman off in the distance praying beneath a tree. She was shouting with a loud voice in Swahili with her arms in the air. I decided to pray for her. Having no idea to whom she might be praying, I asked the Lord Jesus to show himself to her if she were praying to another deity, and to bless her with positive answers to her prayers if she were praying to him.

Wandering further into the open grassland, I discovered a large warthog who seemed quite comfortable with approaching strangers. So, I sat down close enough to share in his morning activities. After all, how often does one get a chance to share a seat with a wild warthog?

I communed with my new, multi-tusked friend for no more than a few minutes when the woman who was praying approached me and asked to sit with me. I said, Yes, of course, and asked her about her morning prayers.

A smile spread across her face as she told me about her relationship with Jesus Christ and her desire to preach the gospel, in America if possible. I quickly began to ask about the Lord’s work in her life. How did she become a follower of Jesus? Where did she live? What about her family?

I then heard a very sad but revealing story about faith and suffering.

She lived in the nearby slum; tin roofs covering cardboard shanties

bordering the prairie just visible on the horizon. She had been a Christian for about one year. During that time, her husband had left her and taken away her children. He and his family objected to her faith in Christ and wanted nothing to do with her. The children were forbidden to see her.

She shared one successive story of heartbreak after another, yet each chapter of her loss was punctuated by some declaration about the goodness of God; how much He loved her, and how much he had done for her.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. The details of her story were tragic. While the statements about the Lord’s goodness were non-specific. I finally asked, “Can you tell me about one specific way in which God has shown His goodness to you recently?”

She paused. I waited. After several moments of thought, she looked at me, smiled and said, “My heavenly Father sent His one and only Son to die on the cross and rise again so that He can forgive me of all my sins. Since my Father has done that for me, what more does He ever need to do to show me His goodness?”

I knew in that moment I was sitting in the presence of an African Saint.

Here was a poverty-stricken, maligned and persecuted disciple of Jesus who was also filled with the joy of the Lord. She was daily experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection and the hope of eternal life made possible by Easter morning.

She was suffering but not beaten down; oppressed but not defeated. The world had been against her, but she knew that Christ was for her, and that was enough.

That woman will forever provide a model for me to emulate. I have never had reason to weep as she had. Yet, her eyes and her heart were set on Jesus, and no one could wipe the overflowing joy from her face.

I pray that this Easter season, I will take a few more steps to becoming more and more like her.

Why is Slaughter More Acceptable Than Nudity?

(This is the third in a series of posts addressing questions about the cultural captivity of the church. You can read the previous posts here and here.)

During my last semester as a college professor, I came across a surprising article in the weekly student newspaper. At least, I found it surprising; though in retrospect, I should have been known better.

It was a detailed review of a newly released computer game. I didn’t pay any attention to the game’s title because I was so caught off guard by the fact that the student newspaper at a Christian college had no qualms about praising, and encouraging others to buy, the latest graphic game of military slaughter.

The reviewer described in bloody detail the game’s improved graphics, enhancements that depicted the bloodshed more realistically than ever. (I wondered how he knew what realistic blood splatter looked like.) The game was the newest “first person shooter” game. (That is, a game where the player holds the computer gun in his/her hand, then points and shoots at human figures on the screen in order to survive and accumulate points).

All in living color, of course.

I initially considered writing a letter to the editor to express my dismay, but I thought better of it. Why not wait to see if anyone else shared my dismay.

No one did, apparently. Or, perhaps they were biting their tongues like me. Several weeks passed with no response.

So, I devised a better plan. I would submit my own article reviewing the latest version of my favorite sex game. (No, I have never played any such thing, but I assume that they must exist. My imagination was not strained at all by concocting one ex nihilo.)

My review would go on and on in effusive detail praising the graphic depictions of the female (or the male) anatomy – in living color, no less – and the many arcane, sexual positions available as the player scored more and more points by scoring with more and more sexual partners.

Then, at the end of my imaginary review, I would admit to my satire and ask a simple question: Why, dear reader, are you preparing to write a letter to condemn my fictitious review when you had nothing to say about an earlier review glorifying a graphic, bloodthirsty game of war, complete with exploding bodies and crushed skulls?

What kind of moral calculus is that?

I wish I had gone through with my plan, but I didn’t. It was my final semester before moving on, and I didn’t quite have the energy needed for another campus-wide controversy. In my experience, many readers of that particular newspaper had difficulty recognizing, much less appreciating, the art of satire. And my days as an educator were coming to an end.

But my questions remain.

Why is bloodshed and human slaughter, the kind of violent acts that our Lord Jesus explicitly prohibits, so much more acceptable to Christian people than images of nudity and sexuality?

No, I am not diminishing the destructive power of pornography. But is pornography any more corrosive to the human psyche, any more more dehumanizing for those who participate in it than a blood-thirsty killing game that transforms a player into a butcher, that desensitizes him to the horrors of murder, pain and human suffering?

At least sexual intercourse was God’s idea, and He blessed it with the bonds of marriage.

But human violence arose from the sulpherous heart of original sin. Our Creator rendered his eternal verdict over this brand of wickedness when He cursed the first murderer, Cain, and banished his blood-stained hands from his presence.

Does the church think or act any differently than the rest of our violent society when it comes to this problem of casual, gaming violence? Murder as entertainment?

I don’t know the definitive answer to this question, but I suspect that on average, we are no different than anyone else in the neighborhood who relaxes after school (or work) by watching a computer screen filled with atrocious, bloody acts of human carnage created by yours truly.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has written a fascinating and disturbing book examining the psychological effects of violent video games on children and adolescents. It’s entitled Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing (Little, Brown and Co., 2016).

Grossman excerpts the findings of a medical report presented to Congress in July 2000 by a coalition of 4 professional medical, psychiatric and pediatric associations. Their congressional report concluded that:

“Well over 1,000 studies…point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children…[V]iewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children. Its effects are measurable and long-lasting…[it] can lead to emotional desensitization toward violence in real life.” (10-11)

Grossman also compares first-person shooter games to the military training methods used to desensitize soldiers to killing on command. He says:

“Violent video games teach kids to kill using the same mechanisms of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning employed to train soldiers.”

What happens when a depressed teenager who is addicted to violent video games and feels that the entire world has become his enemy grabs a family gun and walks to the local mall?

We all know the answer to that question. We have seen on TV time and again.

Sadly, this is the kind of world we live in.

What are the people of God doing to address the social plague of daily violence traumatizing our school children? Placing armed guards inside our churches is the devil’s own suggestion, though I have seen and read about many churches doing just that.

But surely, everyone can understand, that is not the way of Jesus.

We need to examine ourselves and confess to the many ways in which we have eagerly conformed to a godless society. We are unable to find wisdom in the mind of Christ because we are too busy entertaining ourselves (for hours and hours) with the latest version of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare 2. So, we turn to armed guards instead of the Spirit of compassion.

Ask yourself this question. Can you imagine Jesus sitting for hours in front of a computer screen, laughing with glee and giving himself high-fives over his rising body count as he plays Call of Duty: Black Ops?

How many throats could Jesus slit?

The question answers itself.

It is long past time for God’s people to return their eyes to Jesus, the lamb of God, prince of peace, our suffering servant who came not to kill but to be killed. What does he ask of his church today?

Israeli Journalist Says, Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar!

Gideon Levy, of Haaretz newspaper, has written an important endorsement of Ilhan Omar and her fellow newcomers to Congress. Mr. Levy is an anti-

Zionist, Israeli Jew who has condemned the inhumanity of political Zionism, both in Israel and the US, for many years.

Levy speaks as an insider and knows what he is talking about. We should listen to him.

His article is entitled, “Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar.”

I have copied the article below:

“Maybe Mogadishu will turn out to be the source of hope. This war-torn city was the birthplace of the most promising U.S. congresswoman today.

“Ilhan Omar is not only one of the first two female Muslim members of the

House of Representatives, she may herald a dramatic change in that body. “Hamas has entered the House,” Roseanne Barr was quick to cry out; “A black day for Israel,” tweeted Donald Trump. Neither Hamas nor a black day, but a glimmer of hope on Capitol Hill.

“Maybe, for the first time in history, someone will dare tell the truth to the American people, absorbing scathing accusations of anti-Semitism, without bowing her head. The chances of this happening aren’t great; the savage engine of the Jewish lobby and of Israel’s “friends” is already doing everything it can to trample her.

“The president mentioned removing her from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congress was set to pass a resolution, the second in one month, against uttering “anti-Semitic expressions,” specifically aimed at Omar’s statements.

“When will Americans and Europeans stop running scared every time someone screams “anti-Semitism”? Until when will Israel and the Jewish establishment succeed in exploiting (the existing) anti-Semitism as a shield against criticism? When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate reality and anti-Semitism?

“The gap between these two is great. There is anti-Semitism one must fight, and there is criticism of Israel and the Jewish establishment it is imperative to support. Manipulations exercised by the Israeli propaganda machine and the Jewish establishment have managed to make the two issues identical.

“This is the greatest success of the Israeli government’s hasbara [the Hebrew word for propaganda]: Say one critical word about Israel and you’re labeled an anti-Semite. And labeled an anti-Semite, your fate is obvious. Omar has to break this cursed cycle. Is the young representative from Minnesota up for it? Can she withstand the power centers that have already mobilized against her in full force?

“Maybe it’s important that she knows there are people in Israel crossing fingers for her?

“Her success and that of her congressional colleagues, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, could be the first swallows that herald the coming of spring. This is the spring of freely expressing opinions about Israel in America. Cortez already asked this week why isn’t bigotry aimed at other groups condemned just like statements against Israel are.

“What, after all, has Omar said? That pro-Israel activists demand “allegiance to a foreign country”; that U.S. politicians support Israel because of money they receive from the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, and that “Israel hypnotized the world.” What is incorrect in these statements? Why is describing reality considered anti-Semitic?

“Jews have immense power in the U.S., far beyond the relative size of their community, and the blind support given by their establishment to Israel raises legitimate questions regarding dual loyalty. Their power derives from their economic success, their organizational skills and the political pressure they exert. Omar dared to speak about this.

“Just imagine what Israelis and Jews would feel if Muslim Americans had the same political, economic and cultural power Jews have. Such power, above all the intoxication with power that has seized hold of the Jewish establishment, comes with a price. Omar and her colleagues are trying to collect on it.

“Due to the Israel lobby, the U.S. does not know the truth about what is happening here. Congress members, senators and shapers of public opinion who are flown here ad nauseam see only Israeli victimhood and Palestinian terror, which apparently emerged out of nowhere. Islamists, Qassam rockets and incendiary balloons – not a word about occupation, expropriation, refugees and military tyranny. Questions such as where the money goes and whether it serves American interests are considered heresy. When talking about Israel one must not ask questions or raise doubts.

“This cycle has to be broken as well. It’s not right and it’s not good for the Jews. Omar is now trying to introduce a new discourse to Congress and to public opinion. Thanks to her and her colleagues there is a chance for a change in America. From Israel we send her our wishes for success.

“When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate Israeli reality and anti-Semitism?” (all emphasis mine)

The Cultural Captivity of the Church: Corporate Worship as Group Therapy

(This is the second in a series of posts that I am calling The Cultural Captivity of the Church. You can find the first post here.)

I recently attended a Sunday morning service where the sermon topic intended to answer the question, “why do we sing together during worship?” (Check out my series about the Biblical understanding of worship vocabulary here.)

The message had three points. We sing “worship” songs together because it:

Stirs our faith.
Helps us to remember the truth.
Connects our emotions to the truth.

At no point was there any discussion of the lyrics or the content of these songs; of the importance of understanding and reflecting on the words we are saying, and whether they are appropriate words; of how or why the words we repeat may help or actually hinder us in remembering and becoming emotionally connected to “the truth.” (The clear implication was that we simply trust our worship leaders and sing – with more enthusiasm and raised hands, no less – whatever we are shown on the big screen.)

Don’t misunderstand me. I do not begrudge the fact that each of these things may happen when we participate in well-planned, well-led, congregational singing with meaningful content. And I agree that they are three important experiences when song leaders lead well.

But notice the final outcome of this three-point outline.

From beginning to end, the message is entirely self-centered.

The clear implication is that we attend congregational worship and sing praise songs purely and simply because of what it does for us.

So, I should go to church because of what I can expect to get out of it. I worship my God because of the things that I expect him to do for me.

The further implication, then, suggests that I can determine whether or not a service “has been a good worship service” by how it makes me feel. Did it excite me? Did it make me feel happy, or elated, or boisterous, or whatever – fill in the blank here.

In fact, the message’s final application was a rather guilt-manipulating insistence upon louder singing from more people with many more hands lifted higher into the air. Apparently, the outward measure of worship “acceptable to the Lord” is measured by our conformity to denominational traditions about public, physical gesturing and emotional elation.

I couldn’t help but wonder what a Roman Catholic visitor might say about the absence of their traditional kneeling benches and the fact that this church never provides time for a congregation of sinners collectively to confess their sins.

I am sorry, but devoid of any broader context reminding us of God’s holiness (see my series on holiness here), of God’s majesty and his worthiness of our adoration, such messages are nothing more than lessons in religious self-gratification. (Note – the speaker did offer a 30-second introduction about glorifying God. But it was so brief, so hurried and so undeveloped that the speaker left the impression that God’s nature was incidental to the things he had to say about music.)

Why do I offer this Sunday sermon as my first illustration of the cultural captivity of the American church?

In 1966 Philip Rieff, a professor of sociology at the University of

Pennsylvania, wrote an extremely insightful book entitled, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud (check out the 40^th anniversary edition, published by ISI Books in 2006).

Reiff was a keen social critic who observed a self-destructive trend in American society. According to Reiff, the public role of traditional, Western religion had been to function as a faith community that defended (and even enforced) moral standards and ethical expectations in society.

But American life after Freud had begun to shift dramatically.

In post-Freudian America, the purpose of all religion was purely therapeutic; that is, religion is now supposed to cure our ills, not point out our wrongs. How will we know when that’s happened? The church will become a principle agent in teaching us to feel good about ourselves. Our spiritual, that is, egocentric, dreams will be realized.

Let me share a taste of Reiff as he first quotes and then critiques a British spokesman for this new “therapeutic Christianity”:

“’Any religious exercise is justified only by being something men [sic] do for themselves, that is, for the enrichment of their own experience.’ Attached as [this writer] is to the word ‘Christian,’ the writer even seeks to make Jesus out to be a therapeutic…

“What then should churchmen do? The answer returns clearly: become, avowedly, therapists, administrating a therapeutic institution – under the justificatory mandate that Jesus himself was the first therapeutic. For the next culture needs therapeutic institutions…

“Both East and West are now committed, culturally as well as economically, to the gospel of self-fulfillment…Grudgingly, [church leaders] must give way to their Western laity and translate their sacramental rituals into comprehensible terms as therapeutic devices.”

Sadly, professor Reiff was a secular prophet. Though he lamented this social transformation (rooted in an American abuse of Freudian psychology) as the growth of an “anti-human” culture, his predictions have been realized.

Worse yet, American Christianity jumped on board this therapeutic railway, stoked its engines to overflowing and commandeered the controls.

Rather than challenging our culture, we have surrendered to it, replacing the glorified Lamb of God with a cosmic therapist whose greatest achievement is to help us ensure our emotional well-being.

Rather than proclaim the gospel of Christ which confronts a culture of self-centeredness, we float with the prevailing current wherever it takes us, as long as it helps us fill the seats, maintain the budget and grow the church.

And to add agony to agony, we are such inept students of our times, so unreflective, so lacking in self-awareness, and so ignorant of Biblical theology and church history that many evangelical leaders are dining happily with the devil while imagining they are exorcising the demonic.

The Cultural Captivity of the Church — Prelude

(This is the first in an unspecified number of posts that I will periodically produce addressing what I believe is the #1 silent killer of Christian faith in America: the average believer’s failure to recognize the dangerous, cultural smog polluting our spiritual lungs every single day. The posts will consist of various thoughts as they emerge from the mists of my own mental confusion. I have been thinking about the issues involved for a long time, but have held off on posting my thoughts for reasons that I no longer feel are binding. So here goes. Please, let me know what you think.)

Here is my thesis:

A primary responsibility of every Christian leader in every Christian congregation is to help God’s people learn to see through the lies, distortions and misrepresentations of reality that are created for us by our culture. (I begin by assuming that knowing reality fully requires knowing Jesus Christ.)

The most dangerous distortions are those that warp our perception of the things that matter most – questions of human existence, meaning, purpose, responsibility, and, of course, a right relationship with our Creator.

So here is every Christian’s challenge: We spend the majority of our lives

swimming through an unfiltered stream of cultural pollution. No, I am not condemning all things secular. Neither am I suggesting that we should try to jump into a different, a more Christian, stream. I am afraid that’s not possible, despite the testimonies of its many proponents.

I am afraid that we are what we are where we are. Period.

Our culture permeates everything, usually in ways that we don’t understand or even begin to recognize. Which is one important reason why the oft-repeated arguments in favor of solving our cultural problems by creating an alternative, Christian culture with Christian schools, Christian unions, Christian political parties, etc. is always doomed to fail.

These attempts at “engagement by means of alternatives” will always fail to address the problem because, first, we cannot extricate ourselves from ourselves. We will always be the people creating the alternatives. We are bound to who we are, where we are, and where we come from, alternatives be damned.

Secondly, even if we withdrew into the hinterlands of the furthest wilderness, we will always bring the pollution along with us. The source of that pollution is a part of us, buried deep within, because we are all fallen sinners.

Thankfully, this life is not painted solely in tones of black and white. The question is not about who is good and who is bad. Everyone and everything in this world are always a mixture of both.

Even a polluted stream can contain elements of its original, God-ordained balance, the biological diversity including fish, insect life and vegetation that makes it all worth preserving.

Sadly, however, those polluted fish now have no choice but to breathe the dirty water, inhaling the pollutants along with the oxygen. Human beings have so successfully polluted this planet that scientists can find mercury polluting the flesh of those flightless, tuxedoed birds coddling their eggs on the ice flows of Antarctica.

We are like those penguins and those fish.

The church’s cultural corruption is every bit as universal, which is why working to learn how to recognize the problem, working to learn how to address the problem, working to learn how to remedy the problem together within the Body of Christ is an essential part of spiritual maturity.

It is also a non-negotiable requirement of responsible church leadership.

Every Christian leader ought to be making this challenge a central ingredient in his/her job description. How do I recognize cultural corruption within the church? How do I learn to see it within myself? How can I help others to do the same? Then, having learned to recognize it, what can we do about it?

How can we survive swimming in this culture without being suffocated by its corruption? And, in what, precisely, does its corruption consist?

These are the kinds of questions we have to ask ourselves.

I’ll give you a hint of where I’m going with this argument.

The usual suspects of sex, divorce, alcohol, and tithing are the not church’s greatest threats. They are significant problems, but they are not the “heavy metals” of our cultural corruption. They are only the bacteria that eat away at a weakened body already diseased.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: