I was watching a documentary show on Much Less Music the other night which dealt with the several musicians who’ve become successful designers such as Gwen Stephani, J-Lo, and P Diddy Combs, etc. The commentator said about P Diddy: “He’s so successful because he knows what people want!” I’d like to finish that thought: “He’s so successful because he knows what people want because he told them what to want!” Who’s the designer here? It wasn’t me! He’s the designer. I’m the consumer. He told me what was cool. He designed it. They made it. They sold it. I bought it! All you need to sell absolutely anything, including an idea (which is basically all we’re ever selling), is a marketer of any skill level, an audience of any intelligence and a product of any value. The product can be the silliest object or the most diabolical idea. The audience doesn’t have to belong to any certain intelligence level. They can be stupid or highly intelligent. We learned that from Hannah Arendt’s important book, The Banality of Evil, where she documents the testing of Nazi war criminals for emotional or psychological illness only to discover that they were perfectly normal, intelligent human beings following simple orders. All the audience has to be is ready. And if they’re not, begin to prepare them. No one swallowed the big pill of the Nazi “Final Solution” until they swallowed smaller pills already. This is actually where the skill level of the salesperson or marketer becomes important. The better they are, the more incredible the sale. Methodological patience is the best virtue.
Which is why we will believe almost anything. Which is why theology, spirituality and religion seems so ridiculous to me lately. Some of the things that are being said and done are unbelievable (literally) but are extremely popular. It’s because we’ve been told what to believe. The theological marketers have created the need and then designed and provided the product. We’ve been sold a bill of goods and are willing to die (or kill!) for such silly notions.
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David Hayward is a pastor artistically stripping to the essential.
I have a friend who has been using this phrase a lot lately: “I don’t drink Kool-Aid for anybody anymore.”
I agree.
Of course conversation about drinks of choice (even Kool-Aid) is always welcome.
I’m finding lately that a lot of the stuff I’ve been told to do or believe over the years is wrong. It’s scary to think of why I believed some of that stuff and how many people I tried to convince I was right. Sad!
The only Kool-Aid I drink any more is Jesus.
I keep searching for Jesus in all the places They keep insisting He’ll be found, to no avail.
It is lonely leaving Vanity Fair. I think it’s meant to be.
np, you said, “Which is why theology, spirituality and religion seems so ridiculous to me lately. ” Can you be more specific about what you think we are being sold? Thanks, Shelley
shelley: i’m not sure i want to be specific about certain ideas, at this point anyway, because i think it is so thorough.
That’s probably what Martin Luther thought as he penned his 95 theses. I’ve been thinking a lot about him lately, about the courage it took for him to stand up to the religious establishment – of which he was a part – and say, “This is not right.”
Don’t know if this fits or not but on Youtube you can watch a video of mentalist/con man Derren Brown convince Simon Pegg that the gift in the hidden box is exactly what he wants. Pegg has previously written down on paper what he really wants and after Brown gets through with him he’s sure he got exactly what he wanted. Brown insists he check the paper he wrote on and he does so reluctantly because he knows it’s exactly what he wrote down the day before. When he opens the paper it reveals something very different than what he got from Brown and he can’t imagine why he wrote what he wrote the day before because he knows that what Brown gave him was what he really wanted all along.
On Youtube you can find other videos of men doing the same thing but being less honest about their technique. I teeter on the edge of despair over some of the wildly popular – what my doctor calls my usual daily diet – empty calories.
np, but it feels like you are warning us about something that can be very harmful and yet not giving us enough information to avoid it. Without specifics we can only guess and perhaps become paranoid. I feel like without specifics how can I consider what you are saying as being of any value to me as a warning? I think you have our best interests at heart, even the things I disagree with but I often feel you are being too vague. Sorry, thanks, Shelley
Shelley,
You are a witness to theological Marketing and salesmanship right here on Nakedpastor.
NP, you throw out these little bites of provocative theology and opinion, and then you say I like to argue. Are you going to tell me you don’t realize that much of what you say and some of your art is not going to solicite reactions and debate???
You leave a few, just a few of the less enlightened [fishon] with a tease, then you say: shelley: i’m not sure i want to be specific about certain ideas, at this point anyway, because i think it is so thorough.
fishon
You want to find Jesus? Look in His Word and sacraments. He is right there where He has always been. From there He will make His way into your heart.
Or, you could stand on one leg and bark like a dog while swinging a rubber chicken over a dead goat with a full moon at midnight in Sedona.
Nicely said, np. One of my goals in raising my kids (yes, I have goals in raising my kids) is to make then cynical towards marketing. So far it’s starting to work I think, but they haven’t hit their teens yet.
i never claimed NOT to be a part of our fallen system(s) and thinking. this is why I say it is so thorough. we are all implicated. we’ve all gone astray. what i do is question it all.
David,
If truth is anything, it is “black and white†and, since Christ declared Himself to BE truth, let’s concede that it is eternal and therefore best represented as Christ described it: a “strait gate†and a “narrow way†that stretches from infinity to infinity (It’s even better if one can visualize this in 3D with the line running through a vacuum). If you will allow me, then, to utilize my life in such illustration, I was born in 1941 and, for thirty years went forward (since time gives us no other choice), but merely wandered without ever coming into definitive contact with the “lineâ€. In March of ’72, however, I fell “into†that line, got up, and began to try and walk it, in spite of the fact that only One has ever perfectly accomplished that task. If anybody charted my journey since, the resulting graph would portray a drunken man’s stumbling along, now tethered to that line by the inner re-connected supernatural voice of His Spirit, yet still wrestling with his own reasoning. “Theology, spirituality, and religion†are good labels to hang on the latter portion of that process. Christ “in me†equates to the “ropeâ€. Where we all shall stand, in the end, is not a matter of how well we navigated the path, but how much importance we gave to the tug on the anchor-line.
It’s funny, so much of what goes on in my mind resinates on this blog. It’s like a reaffirmation that I am not crazy, even though my christian subculture would tell me that I am because I may have an “unorthodox” thought once in a while. Thanks David, I would love to meet you in person someday and shoot the #$*& with you……
I would like to add a little bit here, as I stated that many of David blog posts often resonate in my head. I have been a person traditionally who has never thought much about the faith I find myself in. I just went with the flow; I paid my tithe, attended church, never questioned anything and ALWAYS voted republican, no questions. Because that is what “real” Christian do, according to the visible “leaders” of the faith. These past 7 years in the USA have shown me what ugliness can happen when the faith is tainted by politics. The more I dig the more disgusted I become with what I see. At times, I have felt like throwing up by the ugly web of politics and faith. When I read a post like this from Dave, I want to dig further into what he is talking about because, while I feel the same way about the issue, I think we are approaching it from a different angle. He doesn’t experience (at least I don’t think) the same issues that we do in the US. David has an inside track on the church at large that I don’t. It would be great David to see you back on Youtube to discuss some of your experiences, especially to see that you have so many and still are in the faith. I think you could help a lot of us in coping with the ugliness of the faith that we think is off track.
I know you have a face for blogging but I would love to see it back on youtube to encourage us who are wrestling with the faith and where God truly fits in.
If only we could figure out something NEW!
…well we can’t. It’s all been tried. There is nothing new under the sun, or the Son.
The same old tired self centerd, religious BS just in new packages.
It always has been, and still remains…all about ‘me’.
In the meantime…Christ is trying to kill you off…to the self. But we just won’t have it.
Nope, we won’t have it. And the quest continues…
I’m loving this post. Especially your comments Jeff. You seem to be reading my mind.
I guess we are left with 2 questions now:
1. (multi-part) What does a Follower of Christ/Believer/Christian and the church actually look like? How does one relate to many in a group, let’s call that a “church”? How/what does that “church” do and look like and relate to the rest of the world/politics/everything?
2. When do we all get to meet in the frozen north to “shoot the #$*&” with David and others?
open invitation. i got spare rooms.
1. (multi-part) What does a Follower of Christ/Believer/Christian and the church actually look like? How does one relate to many in a group, let’s call that a “church� How/what does that “church†do and look like and relate to the rest of the world/politics/everything?
I read a quote in a book I read recently that stated, “if your church were to cease to exist, would your community weep?” How many think it would with the churches you attend? Not mine, they are open on Sunday morning and Wednesday, other than that I don’t know what “good” is done in the community for those in need. We are encouraged to pay our tithe to support the ministers and the empty building, because it is “after all” God’s anyway, right. I have a hard time being a cheerful giver under those circumstances.
I honestly have a very hard time relating to what I used to call my community, especially when I go out with them and it is almost imply that my political views are right wing because I am an “evangelical” Christian. After all anything outside that would just be plain “weird”. I feel like I am alone in my thoughts, I want to be part of a community of believers but it is hard for me to relate any longer. I feel our faith has been tainted to much that I simply can’t relate. Of course, should I express my thoughts to those in the community it would be implied that “I” have been tainted as the faith is “unchanging”.
If our church were to cease to exist I can honestly say that our city would say, “well that sucks, oh well.” We do do our bit of mission in the community but it’s always seems so forced, like people do it not because they want to but because it seems like something to do, a way to hang with friends. People like my wife and I seem to get left out in the cold since we were late comers (church is only 1.25 years old). We don’t have community we have groups of friends who put on a show of community.
Cheerful giver? Ha, I have a hard time with that too since when ever we have any sort of church thing it costs $5-15. Who ever heard of such a thing? “Come learn how to be a man/woman/parent/, what your gifts are, let’s eat together; please bring your checkbook, this ain’t free!
I completely agree, what I thought was community, has turned out to be nothing more than people that I go to church with. Most are so concerned with their own self that if you don’t fit into their plans then you are left out.
Wednesday nights we were doing what we call Community Groups, This has stopped for the summer because apparently people have stuff going on.
It’s not really community any way since like you said, If I was to open my mind and let them see what I think they would run screaming (not that I don’t run screaming from myself, but you get he point).
Where do you live Jeff?
Michigan, just north of Detroit…..
“No one swallowed the big pill of the Nazi “Final Solution†until they swallowed smaller pills already” (NP)
I believe this is absolutely true and is what Jesus is hinting at in the teachings in Matthew 5 (about murder and adultery – which start in the heart). No one becomes a murderer or leaves their spouse because of one big choice – but because of many small concessions in their mind and heart…and then at some impasse – the person moves towards the action they were thinking all along. These people are not crazy – they are just brainwashing themselves into believing a little lie + more little lies – until they get a unified lie that works.
I think we all have to guard ourselves concerning this type of thinking – that says ‘we are correct’ – humility is to be the key to dismantling this process.
jeff: close enough.
shelly and fishon: i figure that in a culture that spoonfeeds us everything, i thought it might be best for me to throw out the question and the suggestion and encourage us to think intensely on our own specific applications. maybe i’m wrong.
“i never claimed NOT to be a part of our fallen system(s) and thinking. this is why I say it is so thorough. we are all implicated. we’ve all gone astray. what i do is question it all.”
Hmmm…acknowledging our subjective limits is the first step to the attempt at true objectivity.
Thanks, np. I agree with everything you’ve said. But I’m interested in your comment that “No one swallowed the big pill of the Nazi “Final Solution†until they swallowed smaller pills already.” My experience is that people don’t like to be challenged to ask whether they are swallowing a ‘pill’. And occasionally, after coming to believe that they had swallowed a lie they, at some levels, look back with nostalgia to the days when they accepted things they were told, without questioning. Also, many ‘pills’ (the smaller ones) often seem innocuous. So, my question is : do you continue to relentlessly encourage people to question the ‘truths’ they are told? Are all pills equally important, even the many smaller ones? If not, when do you get people to question and when do you let it go?
thanks mark. well, in my opinion, and what i try to do in practice, is to question everything, even to the very foundations. friends bought an old house once and renovated it. years later, when they tried to sell it, an inspector noticed some problems with the foundation, and they almost had to start from scratch.
nakedpastor, do you find that you have to have the same arguments over and over again with yourself? Or are there things you take as a given? It seems to be you could realign your foundation over and over again and never really get as far as installing windows…
well, if the argument is fundamental, when is it ever settled? i’m convinced that exploring the truth at the most fundamental level releases truth at the higher levels.
My only question is, do you start with any presuppositions? It seems that if you don’t assume that Portland Cement, sand/rocks, and rebar will create a solid foundation, then you go no where. I guess I’m asking the same as Fred, but to me there seems no way to function without some foundational absolutes.
For me, I worked through some things and came to:
1. God exists
2. Man sucks, God doesn’t
3. Jesus saves
4. The Bible is God’s communication to us. (not that we have it all figured out, come on, it’s from God)
I entered into, and later came out of, an extremely controlling religious environment when I was in college. After it was all over and I was trying to put together the pieces of just how I’d slipped into such a place, I realized that it hadn’t been overnight. The switch had been very slow, steady, almost undetectable…like watching paint dry. At a certain point, you’ve gone so far down the path of assumptions that it takes a great deal of work to get back to the original assumption and find just where things went wrong.