The End of....Well, Everything

Geez, you take a few weeks off blogging, and the whole world falls apart. Or so it would seem, given three major news stories I found over the past few days. And these were linked from major sites--I didn't have to dig through the Internet's trash to find them.

The first was David Wilkerson's latest prophecy of doom for America, which has gotten quite a bit of play in the media. I really don't want to spend much time or energy on this, because David's been making similar predictions for over 30 years. Could he be right? Of course he could. Just as many secular "prophets" are predicting some pretty nasty stuff, and let's face it--anything can happen. But I think this prophecy is only getting more attention than his previous ones because of the economic collapse happening around us. The current crisis has primed the culture for something even worse, and predictions like this feed that fear. Me? I'm not hungry.

Next came this AP story on the Drudge Report that tells the story of yet another religion poll in America, this one claiming that the number of people who identify as having "no faith" is up from seven years ago. Again, I don't want to spend much time or energy on this. Why? Because I could think of any number of alternate titles for this story. Here are a few:

• More Americans Choose Not to Lie in Religion Survey
  
• More Americans Understand that Faith is Not a Cultural Inheritance
• More Americans Embarrassed by Christian Excesses Than Ever
• Mainline Denominations Shed Excess Weight

I know some Christians who were totally freaked by this survey. Do they interpret it to mean the Holy Spirit is no longer moving in America? I hope not. Maybe we need to spend less time fretting over statistical data and more time showing the love of Christ to the disenfranchised and distraught--then we'll realize that numbers mean squat. Don't get me wrong--I fully recognize that the rejection of God is on the rise, and it bothers me greatly. But I also recognize that this is something we've been told would happen. Go read 2 Timothy 3 again, folks.

Then, finally, came the coup d' état--this powerfully affecting editorial by self-proclaimed "Internet Monk" Michael Spencer which was linked, also, on Drudge. It's the end of the evangelical world as we know it, and yet...I feel fine. But I guess I shouldn't, given dramatic and dire statements like this one:

"Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I’m convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close."

He forgot: "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" But I jest...

Anyone reading these words needs to remember, first of all, that Spencer is not writing without an agenda. He already self-identifies as a "post-evangelical," proclaiming that evangelicalism "is a mess," which gives you a strong indication what his starting point is in all of this. This isn't the depressing assessment from a proponent of evangelicalism who is declaring an unfortunate, unstoppable future: this is the voice of a rebel, who does not rejoice in what he writes, but supports its ultimate conclusion.

Don't read what I'm not writing--I empathize with may of Spencer's "rebellious" views. But I think one of the things that happened with this article is what I call "Headlinitis." It's a malady caused by the fact that many people today read only the headline and first couple of lines of a news story, then jump to a conclusion of what it's really about. So we had tons of evangelicals reading a smackerel of this (and no doubt mixing in a little Wilkerson and the aforementioned AP story), and running off like Chicken Little to their friends and pastors.*

But a careful reading of Spencer's stuff clearly indicates the strong editorial nature of his words. I wonder how many folks made it to this paragraph:

"Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time."

Them's strong words, Mike. And words with which I don't necessarily disagree. But the problem is, those who never managed to get this far in the article missed the real point of what Spencer was saying. They took what was really meant as a damning critique of evangelicalism and turned it into a pity party.

But then again, Christians are pretty good at that.

I'll wrap up by saying this: doom and gloom is nothing new. And the junk we're dealing with is nothing new. In fact, we're dealing with less junk than a lot of generations of Christians. But for me, I just can't get worked up by prophecies of catastrophe, snapshots of the culture's spiritual pulse, or one man's personal portrait of evangelicalism's future. I'm too busy being amazed by watching God at work in the lives of my friends, my church, and heck--even me. Cynical, sarcastic me. And if I'm not beyond hope...then nothing is.

*Personal note to friends who sent me the article--I do not include you in the "Chicken Little" email-forwarding crowd. I know you know that I love this kind of stuff, and I appreciate you calling it to my attention.

American Idols

I have to admit, for me American Idol is a guilty pleasure. Normally the only shows I obsess about watching are Lost and House, but every January the Fox Network manages to grab me again. What is it about this show I enjoy? I'm sure part of it is nostalgia--we used to watch the British version called Pop Idol long before anyone in the U.S. had heard of Simon Cowell. But another part of it is that every once and a while you stumble on a kid who is so incredibly talented, and so incredibly free of all the junk that comes with celebrity. I think that's what really does it for me--those contestants who are completely devoid of ego and any sense of entitlement, yet possess talent that makes you stand still. Granted, those contestants are few, but they are precious.

On the other end of the spectrum, nothing bugs me more than celebrities whose egos seem to have the gravitational pull of small planets, who seem to suck those around them (and large portions of the public) into the illusion that they are somehow unrestrained by any boundaries of decency and respect that the rest of us adhere to. Just this past week we've seen two high-profile examples in the news of celebrities who exposed sides of themselves that no doubt left their publicists' heads spinning.

Why do we worship celebrity so? I know, I know...it's nothing new. I suppose it's just bugging me a little bit more today than usual. On a local radio show yesterday they asked if an Olympic gold medalists' recent scandal had changed opinions about the man. I wanted to call in and say, "Not at all. I knew he was human then, I know for sure he's human now." Yet I was flabbergasted when some callers said, "I still think he's a good kid, and I'm happy for my children to see him as a role model." In the words of Seth and Amy, "REALLY?"

Forgive my moral posturing, but I wanted to shout at my radio, "HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU CALL HIM A ROLE MODEL FOR YOUR KIDS? YOU DON'T KNOW THE MAN AT ALL!" And that's just what bugs me--we blindly accept the well-crafted, media-friendly image of these stars of big and small screen as the real thing. We look at a person's accomplishments and make judgments on their character from them as though talent=virtue. Then when we discover they're human--when the singer turns out to be a junkie and James Bond likes to slap women around to put them in their place--we give them a pass and continue to encourage our kids to idolize them.

I don't want my son looking up to talented people as role models--I want him looking up to decent, grounded people. I'm not saying these celebrities who have brushes with scandal aren't decent--I'm saying WE DON'T KNOW BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW THEM. These falls from grace might be momentary slips, they might be the tip of the iceberg. But in the end, we simply don't know. So all I can do in light of that is respect their talent and enjoy their work, but I can't appreciate their character. After all, John Whorfin did say, "Character is what you are in the dark." Unless I can see who they are outside the bright lights of celebrity, I just can't say.