Are You Manipulated?

A guest post by Richard C. Pierce of Alpha & Omega Ministries


The world has been laughing at Christianity for hundreds of years. This video shows how "Christianity" has surrendered the ground by reversing the roles and employing the manipulative techniques that Hollywood and Madison Avenue perfected years ago. It is, of course, a parody, but it is also a perfect example of how everything that goes on in the modern church, the lights, the décor, the music, the “sermon”; everything is calculated to exude a particular reaction from the congregation.

The music makes you feel a particular way? They tell you, “That's the Holy Spirit! Now you’re worshiping!” (Don't mention that this is the very technique that Mormons use and call “a burning in the bosom.”) The pastor makes you feel guilty about something half a world away? Give more money and don't think about the fact that they are tracking and analyzing how much each and every heart string that they pull yields in cash. The message is disjointed and watered down. Little effort is made to actually examine the text at hand, and the “pastor” is an expert at knowing when to make you feel guilty, yet he also knows exactly when to switch over to making you feel good about yourself so that you will be back next week. And everything is orchestrated, manipulated, poll-driven, focus-group tested, and tracked for accuracy.

Seriously, this really goes on! They count on the fact that music affects us that way and they know how to use it. This video didn't come out of thin air. It is an accurate portrayal of the “market-driven” mentality that sees church as just another commodity to be sold. The whole “marketing-driven” character of modern worship has the stench of deception about it, and it’s time that God’s people woke up to the smell!

Two things:

First, I would remind everyone of the great hymn lyric, "turn your eyes upon Jesus....and the things of the world will grow strangely dim," which reminds us that our eyes are to be upon Jesus, not ourselves or on the people up front.

Second, I want to point out how any religious event makes us "feel" is a poor standard for right worship. Proverbs 14:12 and Jeremiah 17:9 make clear that our hearts are Satan's playground. He uses our hearts to manipulate us and our feelings cannot be trusted. Yes there are lots of things in church life that make us feel good, but what happens when difficulty comes and we have grown dependent on those feelings? Have we not then traded the humble obedience and self denial that is called for in Romans 12 for a self centered, "I have to get X, Y, and Z out of church or I am not going back,” mentality?

Of course, if anyone thinks this is an issue about music, they have missed the point entirely.

Music consists of instruments and singing, and is shown in the Scriptures to be a normal part of worship (Ephesians 5:19). Musical styles, whether contemporary or traditional or whatever, are not the issue, but rather the use of music to manipulate the “target audience.” Evangelicalism is being seduced by people who have been trained to know just how to manipulate the emotions of others in order to prod them into performing a desired result. And the style of music doesn’t matter at all. Take, for example, the Baptist preacher who plays 27 stanzas of "Just As I Am" during an altar call. It is all just an effort at manipulating people into doing what they want and then telling them to be led by the "Holy Spirit." It’s all a big con and works very well, even to the point that those being conned feel that they can't "worship" without it. I often wonder what would happen to these people if the power went out or even if the church burned down with all of the toys inside. Would they still be able to "worship" without all the trappings? What would they do if they found themselves in a situation of persecution where they had to worship quietly for fear of being discovered? Would they still go to church?

Disturbingly, this entire marketing-based movement is what leads to the whole “cult of personality” culture with “celebrity pastors” who are more interested in self-promotion then they are in proclaiming the truth.

Something to think about.

~Richard C. Pierce

What is Wrong with Most Science Fiction Films?

“Science really doesn't exist. Scientific beliefs are either proved wrong, or else they quickly become engineering. Everything else is untested speculation.”
—James P. Hogan

It really, really drove this squirrel nuts.

Our intrepid heroes are “on the other side of the galaxy” while listening to a battle on their handy-dandy “faster-than-light” radio. The Forces of Good are losing. Suddenly, unable to stand it anymore, the captain, in violation of the orders he has been given, takes his ship, at top speed, to Earth, where they arrive just in time to avert disaster.

So, what bugged me? Instantaneous interstellar communications? Well, maybe a little; but that’s not it. Faster-than-light travel? Nope, hard to have interstellar travel without some form of FTL (Faster-than-light) flight. What bugged me was the fact that they arrived back at Earth before the battle was over!

You see, their ship, while capable of speeds much faster than those allowed by Einstein’s theories, still had to travel at a finite speed. The battle would have been long over before they could have possibly arrived at the battlefield.

Think it through with me – The fastest boat in the world has a top speed of just over 300 miles-per-hour. Let’s say that you have that boat and are floating just off of the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, listening on your radio to a battle that is taking place in Tokyo Bay. It is 4784 miles from Seattle to Tokyo in a straight line, and that’s close enough for our purposes. In the fastest boat in the world, it will take you 16 hours to get to Tokyo, far too late to help (not that that sort of speed boat would have the range to make such a journey.)

I hear the question, “Ah, Squirrel, your thinking about this all wrong! Don’t think “boats,” think “airplanes!” Ok, I’ll play…

The fastest plane in the world is Lockheed’s SR-71, and it can fly at 2,200 mph. Not counting take-off, landing, and aerial refueling times, you could go from Seattle to Tokyo in 2 ¼ hours. Fast, but not fast enough. Again, the battle would be over before you could get there.

Nobody really expects absolute realism out of Hollywood. When it only takes Jack Bauer 12 minutes to get from Fontana to Glendale, we chuckle knowingly and enjoy the show. But we wouldn’t be so willing to suspend our disbelief if he took 20 minutes to drive from Barstow to Fresno! (I’ve been waiting for the season where Jack spends 2 whole hours stuck on the 405, trying to keep up with the action on his cell phone.)

“But, wait, Squirrel! 24 takes place in the ‘real world,’ you’re talking about Sci-Fi! It’s not supposed to be real!”

I beg your pardon! We’re talking about Science fiction. It’s supposed to be scientific! You know, science. [sci·ence (noun) – the study of the physical and natural world and phenomena, especially by using systematic observation and experiment - Encarta Dictionary On-line 2009] Science fiction is supposed to be scientifically plausible. Unfortunately, the film and television industries think all you need is a few ray-guns, robots, and rocket ships to make a good science fiction film. “Who needs good writing? Heck, a pretty girl, some wiz-bang special effects, a robot or two, and we’re on our way!”

Now, I know that some things are simply the dictates of the practicality of film making. Star Trek originally came up with the transporter device because it would have been cost-prohibitive to manufacture the special effects needed to show them landing and taking off every time they visited a planet. The vast majority of space ships in film and television also have artificial gravity, because it would be cost-prohibitive to film in the zero gravity of space. (And wire work just looks really cheesy – can anybody say Moonraker?) But none of that excuses sheer nonsense in writing.

(Science fiction books, in general, don’t seem to have this problem. Most (but, unfortunately, not all) people who write books expect that their audience is, at least, literate. But really good books can be turned into really bad movies – can anyone say Starship Troopers?)

This is more than just a pet peeve with me. I see it as a symptom of a much larger problem: the lack of critical thinking skills among people. I’ve seen this trend referred to as “the dumbing-down of America.” What’s “real” doesn’t matter anymore. In a word, it’s postmodernism, and it doesn’t affect science alone, but also history, economics, politics – indeed, every endeavor of mankind.

Since Biblical Christianity is a reasonable faith, people's lack of reasoning skills are a problem.

Please don’t get me wrong: I’m not defending modernism as a worldview. There is more truth than can be ascertained by scientific reason alone. And I’m not at all prepared to get into the religion of naturalistic materialism, which masquerades as science; at least, not today. But, dagnabit, films about science should be scientific!

I like science fiction. I like it a lot. I've been a space nut since I was a kid, and science fiction is probably at the top of the list for recreational reading material. There are good books and good films out there. And I'm willing to ignore pervasive materialism, blatant atheism, and ever-present evolutionary bias in an effort to enjoy a good story. But I've got a problem with pure irrationality.

So, Hollywood! If you want to make science fiction movies, can we go for a little more realism? Please?