Commentary: In the Wake of An Unnatural Disaster (Part Five)
#1307c
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 06-Feb-16; 12 minutes
description: A large, popular Protestant megachurch in Gastonia, North Carolina, regularly uses the allurement of show business and entertainment to draw large crowds. The charismatic pastor has purposely scheduled the services for late Sunday afternoon to allow people sufficient time to indulge in other activities (family, shopping, etc.) before spending a little sliver of relaxing kick-back time with God. In other words, God is reserved for last place on the scheduled list of priorities. Consequently, nominal 'Christians' are steadily losing any knowledge of God and His purposes that they may have once had in the distant past. The elite educational leadership have made sure that the Word of God has been denigrated if not altogether extirpated from public school curriculum. Even the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins was alarmed at the dumbed-down state of young people, whose ignorance of the literary heritage of the King James Bible has impoverished their appreciation of English literature, greatly stunting their cultural growth. As a second example, consider the comments of noted columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post. She revealed her woeful lack of knowledge about biblical imagery by misinterpreting a statement concerning "the body of Christ" made by Presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Sadly, American educators are more conversant with the fiction of media and pop culture than they are of legitimate historical documents. The pathetically gullible American public get their concepts about the Bible from movies and television rather than reading the Bible. Consequently, they have lost their anchorage as to what constitutes truth and what constitutes falsehood and prevarication.
transcript:
I am going to continue in pulling excerpts from comments I get from the public at large regarding how declining are the memories of the American people regarding things that went before.
There is a church here in the Charlotte area that I believe gives us a clear view of the mindset regarding what many Americans believe regarding spiritual and moral issues. This group is one of those large, popular, Sunday-worship, mega-church groups led by a charismatic personality.
This group is growing so rapidly that it has now opened what is, I believe, its sixth congregation in the general Charlotte area. The congregation I am referencing is established in Gastonia, North Carolina. I heard what I am going to use as an opening of this commentary in a radio advertisement.
The pastor of that congregation is the speaker. In the advertisement, he is inviting people to attend with them. I am not referencing this advertisement because of the way or manner of their teaching, but with what they are teaching. This group almost seems to me to be wildly popular because it is growing so rapidly. They teach in a manner that gives me the impression that attending their services compares favorably to attending a concert. It is almost like a show, featuring a great deal of music, including a live rock band up on the stage and interspersed with a number of filmed portions.
In the vocal to his advertisement, the pastor emphasizes how busy and stressful life is in this area, where our weather is normally so mild and beautiful and therefore conducive to one being outside gardening, shopping, golfing and attending sports activities. His appeal in the advertisement was to attract people to this new congregation of the organization because they have purposely scheduled their services for 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday in order to allow people—this appears right in the advertisement—time to take care of all these other interests and then spend time fellowshipping with God.
Where does this put God in their life? In this group, He seemingly comes after everything else and then is squeezed in between the self-centered personal activities of the morning, when one is fresh, and then squeezed between them and the evening’s restful period when one is worn out and probably watching TV.
Where in the world did they come up with this from the Bible? Is it any wonder that America is living in confusion, not really knowing what is right and wrong when the Creator God—who gave the law—is placed in that denigrated position in one’s life? He is reserved almost for last.
It is becoming increasingly clear that that those who hold to Christian beliefs are steadily continuing to lose ground in terms of holding a grip on issues regarding what the American people believe about what is moral and what is not.
I am continuing on with this exposé of the dearth of biblical knowledge among the American public in the wake of the centuries-long attack against the knowledge of God that I gave in that previous series—and, added to that, the knowledge of the Word of God by the elite educational leadership of the Western world.
Now, listen to this. If you are paying any attention to the news, you might want to take a guess at who said this. He is not an American, but he was much in American news:
I must admit that even I am a little taken aback at the biblical ignorance displayed by people educated in more recent decades than I was. The King James Bible of 1611, the Authorized Version, includes passages of outstanding literary merit in its own right. But the main reason the English Bible needs to be part of our education is that it is a major sourcebook for literary culture. Surely ignorance of the Bible is bound to impoverish one’s appreciation of English literature.
This person was not praising the Bible for its educational value regarding spiritual and moral matters and cultural behavior, but he is certainly well aware that it is praiseworthy for its literary value because he apparently spent a great deal of time reading from it. I have no doubt that he did. He was a very widely known man of letters. The one quoted was the English atheist Richard Dawkins, probably the most widely known atheist of our time. What even he is saying, though, is that he finds Americans pretty much ignorant of what the Bible literally says.
Here is another quote from a person of letters known for writing skills. This time it is from a woman. Her name is Kathleen Parker. She writes for the Washington Post and has won the Pulitzer prize for reporting. I have read many of her articles, and she is a good writer. The Pulitzer prize is one of the very highest awards a journalist can be given, so one would expect that as an American she would be familiar, at least to some degree, with the Bible, including some biblical terminology.
She criticized presidential campaigner Ted Cruz (whose father, incidentally, is an ordained minister) for saying that the solution to America’s internal problems could be resolved. He continued on saying, “It’s time for the body of Christ to rise up and support me.”
It was right here she took issue with Mr. Cruz and the Bible. She commented on this in her next Washington Post column,
I don’t know anyone who takes their religion seriously who would think that Jesus should rise from the grave and resurrect Himself to serve Ted Cruz. I know so many people who are offended by that comment. And you know if you want to talk about grandiosity and messianic self-imagery, I think Ted Cruz makes Donald Trump look rather sort of like a gentle little lamb.
She very clearly revealed her ignorance of biblical imagery because Mr. Cruz was accurate in his use of that biblical imagery and she was in virtually total ignorance, thus revealing she hasn’t spent much time either in church, listening carefully, or reading the Bible with understanding.
The body of Christ is of course the church. They are the followers of Jesus Christ, as Mr. Cruz used it in his comment. Kathleen Parker was totally off base. Her ignorance was not caught either by herself or her editors before it was published. So much for the Pulitzer prize in regards to the Bible.
It wasn’t many years ago that it hit the newspapers that a teacher in one of the Atlanta area high schools was teaching the young people in her history classes about the American Civil War from the movie, Gone With the Wind. What a good source that was to turn to!
In like manner, it is becoming ever clearer that the American public is getting their concepts regarding Christianity, morality, and spirituality from the movies and TV, and carelessly thinking they are true representations. If this is close to being true, it is no wonder they do not know right from wrong. Because they are being taught by those people producing the movies, who, like Kathleen Parker, are pretty much in the dark regarding what the Bible truly says.
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