Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Window dressing and Acceptability

It happens whenever I’m in the presence of glossolalia (speaking in tongues) or of a prayer for immediate healing. I quickly scan the room and do a mental recall of who is present and how this will be perceived. If I remember that we’re all friends and family, I feel safe. If I remember that someone present may not understand, I feel uncomfortable. Will this be shocking, interesting, or unacceptable? The experience is not unlike forgetting that you are half undressed and standing in front of a window. If you live on the first floor of a house along a busy street you would consciously never do that. But if you live ten floors up it’s not a big deal. Yet even high above the street, you might scan for a high powered telescope.

In the last year I’ve written quite a number of articles related to Evangelicals and Pentecostals in the media. 2006 happened to be the year to do that. It was almost as if the media had removed the roof we’d all been hiding under and stuck a 300 watt bulb and a video camera on us. There was (and is) a scramble for acceptability. Many churches feel strongly that they are under attack and so they go on the defense. Others feel confident that with God on their side, their position is invincible. What’s fascinating is that regardless of how Pentecostals and Evangelicals are pressed, they have a ready defense.

If there’s pressure on the political Right wing to change, there’s a ready Left winger available to answer questions. Mainstream Evangelicals have so much experience with Pentecostals at this point, that they are a welcome part of Evangelical heritage. Of course, it’s notable that many Evangelicals love the fact that many Pentecostals don’t speak in tongues! A historical review of Pentecostalism reveals that the movement’s acceptability and growth owe a lot to two things: demographic shifts and the openness to new forms of communication. Now it just so happens that these same things contributed to the growth of Evangelicalism!

But here’s the hard question, the elephant in the room if you will: If child-birth and radio or television waves form wave this movement-ship is sailing on, what happens when the baby grows up or when ratings change? The answer to that question should reveal that exciting new religious movements, at the end of the day, have to face the same thorny issues that every religion faces---even if they squirm and claim not to be religious! To boil it all down, these include the Nature of Discipleship and Public Relations in a changing age. Suddenly, things get a lot more complicated.

Tags: Evangelicals, pentecostals, discipleship, public relations

Good Morning America! Have Some Hate With That Waffle!

Well, American mornings are about to get a lot friendlier, as the ABC morning show "Good Morning America" has just signed Glenn Beck as a commentator on its program. Here's a peek at Glenn's illustrious track record on CNN:  

GLENN BECK IN HIS OWN WORDS

On August 10 and September 5, 2006, Beck stated that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism—completely ignoring the positive contributions of the community, especially in regard to national security—and warned that Muslims "who have sat on [their] hands the whole time rather than 'lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head' will face dire consequences. One of those consequences being that Muslims will be "looking through a razor wire fence at the West."

On November 14, 2006, Beck interviewed then Congressman-elect Keith Ellison and asked him to "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies" simply because of Ellison's religious affiliation.

On November 15, 2006, Beck said he was surprised by an American criticizing Al Qaeda because "the man who wrote it is a Muslim."

Here's the ADC's (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee) letter to ABC and their response:

http://adc.org/Doc/Joint%20Letter%20to%20Beck.doc http://adc.org/PDF/ABC%20Glenn%20Beck%20Reply%20Letter.pdf   

Tags: Good Morning America, Glenn Beck, CNN, hate speech, anti-arab, ABC, ADC

Quote on what TV is

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. Good night, and good luck.

Edward R. Murrow (in the movie: Good Night and Good Luck)

Struggle? Are there people struggling anymore to understand the medium of the flickering screen? I hope so. I hope I'm a struggler.

Here's the text of the full speech to the RTNDA Convention in Chicago on October 15, 1958.

Tags: Edward R. Murrow, TV

Why yes I yell at the TV

Sometimes I get angry at my Television. Well not actually at the television, but at what's on the television. As a heterosexual male with a fine working libido and a healthy attraction toward the opposite sex I consider it unfair that network television considers my libido a target for sexually charged advertising. Do any of you other men feel the same way? Do you ever feel like as a sex, we American men are considered vaccuous dolts led around by our short hairs by popular media? Can I get a witness?!!?

Let me go for the brass ring here and tell it like it is. I am a married Christian man. I consider that God has provided for my wife and I everything we would need for sexual fulfilment. That is why I yell at the TV. Someone somewhere is unhappy that I have my sexual needs met. They need me to be aroused to buy a product I don't need. But they're using the most spiritual and relational human desire as though it were toilet paper! Shouldn't that bother me?!! Most certainly so. Even when its not a blatant advertisment, maybe its just a young woman wearing an alluring fashion, the device is the same: become aroused, keep watching, then buy a product.

This is obviously not what God intends for us humans, male and female. Consumption is not really community. God made us humans male and female. That means (and Karl Barth goes into detail on this in his anthropology) that as a man I am meant to relate to all other women in a way that fosters true creative, mutual, life affirming reciprocity. That's why I yell at the TV. Far from empowering women, it makes them virtual sex objects.

A married couple can enjoy coitus any time they like. There is really no end to the matter in that regard. Everything about them is unveiled and they have the patient knowledge that it will continue to be. That is real relationship. Coitus is a part of the larger mutual intercourse. But this kind of fulfillment and satisfaction is a threat within our society. So be it.

I guess that makes me a love vigilante.

Tags: coitus, TV, sex, yelling, marriage, fulfillment

Me on Television

Well, if you've found this blog because you saw me on NLEC's Telethons: welcome! I hope my singing and playing were not too painful an experience for you. Then again, whatever it takes to get you here! Because I care about fairness, here are the artist's songs that I did and the albums where you can find these songs. I'm sure you'll find their versions much more appealing.

Johnny Cash: Personal File and American V: A Hundred Highways

Iris Dement: Lifeline

Billy Joe Shaver: Victory

I also taped a show with my dad to be aired after Christmas where we discussed the medium of Television, Media Ecology, the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" and I'm pretty sure I mentioned Jacque Ellul's book The Humiliation of the Word. Dad says he thinks most of his audience are as computer illiterate as he is, but on the slim chance that you find this blog as a result of this program: Welcome!

This little youtube video brought tears to my eyes today. I laughed so hard I was exhausted.
For the two of you who know me from the days I worked for a UHF TV station in central Missouri. . . .I'll tell you a little inside story of a serious mistake I made one morning.

Nancy Larson used to have a Christian exercise show on TV 38 titled "Shape Up." We ran it down on Ch. 24 and 25 in Missouri. One morning around 6:30am I was running "the board" (master control board, the switches that put shows over the air) while Nancy was doing her thing. She was encouraging her audience not to quit because they can "do all things through Christ who gives them strength." She reminded them that she'd been doing the show for years and that they should take it slow if they were new. If they had heart troubles or were pregnant they should consult a doctor before joining in. The music began and she started into jumping jacks. At just that moment an ink pen rolled off of the top cabinet and landed perfectly on the fast forward button of the board. I can still imagine the people at home trying to follow along at three times the speed!

Tags: Christian Broadcasting, TV, Nancy Larsen

Me & Mylon

I know I've shared in the past some of my deep aversion for Prosperity theology, but let me relate the other side of this. Back in 1988 I was living near a little town in mid Missouri. I had just been really turned on to Jesus, with a serious salvation experience and some radical in-filling experiences with the Holy Spirit. My dad told me I nursed my Bible at the time like it was a teddy bear. He caught me running through the tall grass in front of our house, dancing in the Spirit, high on Jesus. When I came inside he asked me what I'd been doing. He said it was an embarrassment to him as he was sure the neighbors were watching. I'm sure he doesn't remember any of this now. Anyway. . . .

With some friends I began a music video TV show on NLEC's Christian TV station. One of the coolest music videos was from this band called Mylon and Broken Heart. Beginning with an interest in the videos I started buying Mylon albums every time they came out. Now you have to understand that when I listen to music I get nutso about it. That started here as a teenager. I memorized every note, every riff of the Mylon albums. (As I did with a ton of CCM music at the time. Keith Green had 24 hour nonstop play in my head. I got all his music on cassette for "whatever I could afford"--- which was nothing. I wore every tape out to where they wouldn't play anymore. My girlfriend's dad made the remark that I could have easily started a local chapter for a KG cult!)

But Mylon was more than music to me. I subscribed to his letters. I was very lonely at 16 and a real struggler. So I wrote to Mylon Lefevre. And the wild thing was that he answered me personally. At first I couldn't believe it was really him. I thought it was a stamp there instead of his signature. So I made each letter personal and asked specific questions. And he wrote back with specific answers. When Mylon and Broken Heart came to Columbia and Jefferson City, I made it to the concerts. Now Mylon was a real preacher in his concerts and he gave altar calls. So it was after a concert there in Jeff City that I went forward to recommit my life to Jesus again. I prayed with Mylon personally and just poured out my soul and asked all kinds of questions about what to do with my life and how to know if I was really following God's will---questions nobody could possibly know given the circumstances. But in a wonderfully personable way Mylon very patiently prayed for me.

A few years later Mylon got out of Rock n Roll. You can read about it on his website. He did a mellow solo album which I don't remember buying. I just read on a tribute site that while struggling with his heart condition he met up with Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. For over fifteen years now he's been hooked up with the Copeland family and has been teaching from Kenneth Hagin. That really pains me. So there you have a little connection between me and prosperity theology. I actually feel caught in tandem between these polar worlds of religious liberal and conservativism. Its an epidemic with Bible teachers. It's never enough to relate the words of Jesus. The audience must be drawn into a Kingdom here and now. Among Liberation theologians Jesus is the "yes" to a new civilization here and now. Among Prosperity teachers he is the "yes" to healing and wealth here and now. While Liberation theologians are content to "imagine" the new realities and act toward a future, prosperity teachers tell the poor that God hates their poverty and wants them wealthy now! Either way the identification with felt need is there. Trouble comes with the realization that God is much more than economics, medicine, and politics. Spirituality that focuses on these is less concerned with God's person than with what God gives. The question that should be looming in the subconscious is "What do we have when we get what we want?" Is there no more need for God? I feel suspicious of any lifestyle that needs a religio-philosophy to justify its' existence. As though its not enough to live, we need the heavens to resound "Yes, thatta boy!"

On the plus side, I do feel that Liberation theology highlights a political reading of the Bible that is intended. I don't feel it needs to be quite so forced, often times the textual criticism involved begins with a bias against history. With prosperity teachers I find it particularly inconvenient that there is a lot of evangelistic witness going on. Yes, many prosperity teachers are less prosperity than they are soul-winners, I must admit. And while I personally have spent so much time in (what felt like) manipulative spiritual meetings, I have to be honest and say that as far as I can tell the gospel is preached. It ticks me off to say that. I get angry at God that he uses people who turn around and malign the very gospel they preach. But its a human problem! I can't think of a preacher who doesn't fall under the weight of the gospel he/she preaches!

Jesus' command to "love one another as I have loved you" is alone enough to humble anyone who takes him seriously.

Tags: Mylon Lefevre, TV, Music, Prosperity Theology, Liberation Theology, Kenneth Copeland, conversion, discipleship