It’s not a business

One of the most familiar statements we hear about the church in America is that “it is not a business.” I’ve heard this countless times over the years, and the well-meaning phrase is meant to convey a passionate idea; that the church is much more than buildings and staff, budgets and meetings. Unfortunately, few things are weighed down with more sad irony than this idea we are currently trying to sell ourselves. “The church is not a business”, we say, while sitting in the office during a church business meeting. It’s not a business, because businesses have employees, staff, secretaries, and janitors. It’s not a business, because businesses are all about making money, and we all know that our church makes no concern over money, right?

We believe in the radical Jesus

We believe he was counter-cultural 

We believe that we should be too, as

long as we are still comfortable

We believe in the accounts

of the apostles, and tell everyone else 

live like they did, while we don’t

We got this idea in our last meeting

We believe we are progressing, 

despite all evidence to the contrary

We hold onto our own traditions, 

calling it Holy

Those who progress are heretics

We believe in the spreading of the gospel,

and make those who want to spread it beg

before a board of directors

Businesses have boards, we are not a business

We say we support missionaries we have never met

and put their picture up to make it seem like we know them

That picture is in the office, one of the offices

Business have offices

We are not a business 

We believe that God rewards faith

We put our faith in our budget, and

the people paid by the budget

Business have budgets 

We are not a business

This is an adaptation of a poem written by English journalist Steve Turner. Being that it does no good to simply complain about something, I readily admit that plenty of books and articles have been written criticizing the church on different subjects. While I do believe that most of the criticism is deserved, what’s more important is the solution. When it comes to this idea of the church not being a business, I have few solutions. One, the church could stop playing word games and just admit it has become a business. Or, a better solution would be for the church to gain a sense of urgency about its mission. Do we think that God is impressed with our buildings and signs? As Dwight Whitsett once wrote, our buildings are nothing more than pitiful imitations of cathedrals. If we are going to pour obscene amounts of money into these brick monuments, they ought to at least be used to serve the community instead of ourselves. Do we think God is impressed with our programs? With our brother-big-name staff? We ought to be using our resources and time to serve, to connect, and to help the local communities. Our missionaries should never have to beg for our resources, elbowing for space on the budget among a stack of other business propositions. The world would experience shaping, extreme change for the better if churches and the people in them could energize a revolution against a stale, corporate Christianity that has assumed headship over what was once Jesus’ movement.

There is so much the church could do if it weren’t such a business.

Alarms and Indicators: Part Three

In an honest observational mindset, it would be reasonable to say that just about anyone could look around and be certain that modern social tendencies have proven destructive. I don’t mean that we can simply recognize everything isn’t perfect; it never is. But a look at history will reveal that society has been sliding down a path of degrading excellence.

If Television is any indicator, just take a look at the nature of what people sit in front of these days, and what passes for “entertainment.” We have entire T.V. shows dedicated to studying why people hoard stuff, who can be a better model, and in what ways thousands of families have failed to get a loved one to stop making obese choices. I wonder about what we call “depression” sometimes, and while I do not wish to play lightly with a very real and substantial condition, I think we ought to recognize that modern “depression” is likely fueled by the nonsense we stuff into our brains. I may be wrong, but I think there was a time when crowds of women weren’t fighting over who could more like a Paris Hilton.

I see this as intrinsically tied onto the topic at hand. Atheistic thinkers have taken the posture that it is religion, and Christianity in particular, that need to suffer the blame for various social ills. They ruthlessly attack anything resembling faith, and label it as antiquated with the goal of propagating their move toward all things antitheistic. We are told that if we can remove the stain of religion off humanity’s garment, then we can finally look and feel better.

There is no reason to act as if some terrible atrocities have not been acted out in the name of Christianity. Many people have abused Christian ideas and made a mockery of what Christ taught. That should be openly admitted for what it is. But other such atrocities, more numerous to count, have been conducted by the hands of those who have bought into antitheistic ideas. And on what reasonable basis could an atheist call Stalin wrong? If the atheist is right, and we are nothing more than a big cosmic accident, it makes no sense to pass judgement on Stalin’s actions. On what basis does a life have value, if there is no moral law on which to make such a judgment? In other words, logically speaking, atheistic thinking is morally bankrupt.

If that seems like one big leap to you; consider this: Antitheism teaches that humans arose by accident out of a cosmic accident, in that we are a result of random mutation. We happen to be here, but there is no reason for our existence. Men like Sam Harris act as if this were a joyous discovery, a freeing knowledge that there is nothing beyond our biological existence. I find that outlook to be particularly depressing, insofar as it removes any meaning from life at all. For goodness sakes, how could we expect anything other than a social-wide epidemic of depression, after plugging into our brains the teaching that says, “We are here for no reason, so stop looking for one.” ? It’s no wonder that people seem so wrapped up in silly stuff– we have removed all the meaningful things.

Alarms and Indicators: Part Two

In Nietzsche’s parable, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, the removal of Christianity’s moral constraints is displayed as being a worthy cause, undertaken by the brave and intelligent man who casts off the elementary beliefs of the past. While in other writings Nietzsche did seem to understand the horrible ramifications this impacting change would have on the world, he certainly makes a colorful scene of the “religious” man being tossed over the tightrope of time, only to be delivered by the atheist who explains that there is no heaven or hell. Currently, men such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have latched onto this thinking, and in some ways taken atheistic philosophy even further along a reckless path.

I bring this up in order to be reasonable. The modern atheistic posture says that religion is the root cause of all humanity’s problems, and therefore if we could somehow remove religion, man could find himself in a glorious new world without oppression and hardship (forgive the over-generalization; though it is accurate). This viewpoint becomes even more disturbing when one recognizes not only its utter bankruptcy, but the way in which our youth are indoctrinated to believe in its lies.

Nietzsche proposed that Christianity, more than anything else, had crippled the human potential. He taught that it was a system that hindered our achievements with the useless restraint of morality, and wished for the death of religious thought so that mankind could be allowed to push further into the unknown, without being weighed down by a belief in God. He thought that no powerful society could be built on ideas of humility, service, meekness, and peace. In other words, he saw Christianity as self-debasing. If you read his works, the mood reveals the obvious thrust of his message. In a work called “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, the picture is given of the glorious death of the “religious man.” Zarathustra comes upon the symbolized religious man, who is caught in the last moments of death. As Zarathustra, portrayed as the “enlightened” liberator, begins speaking to this dying man, he informs him that there in no heaven or hell. In striking terms, Zarathustra “enlightens” the man to the fact that this life is all there is, and to hope in God or heaven is to limit the mind, or constrain it and dwarf the intellect. The dying religious man thanks Zarathustra for liberating him, and here it is portrayed that religion is something which holds mankind hostage. The mood and pointedness of Nietzsche’s writing is clear: educate the people, let them know that the main obstruction to human progress is the Christian, and once we get the Christian out of the way, God will be obsolete. Only then, Nietzsche contends, can we progress further into our evolutionary future. He thought that once civilization accomplished the removal of Christianity, the “superman” would emerge, and men could realize power within themselves, unseen by previous generations.

While years ago atheists could perhaps claim that, if only they led the world, it would become a better place; today that claim can clearly be seen as false. The Nazi regime and the contemporary experiments led by Stalin expose the fact that atheism is not the savior Harris and others propose it to be. Reasonably, the thinking person can observe the status of the world, and see that we are not in need of such a bankrupt system of thought, which robs us ultimately of any meaning, purpose, direction, or hope. Clearly, Nietzsche was incorrect in his assertion that belief in God was the problem with society. I will always and openly concede that many have misused and twisted religion (and Christianity in particular) into what is was never meant to be. However, this new march of atheism takes us to an end that provides no answers for the most intrinsic questions of life.