AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM IS A MENTAL GHETTO--Part II Some Causes

This post is now complete, but the Mental Ghetto series will now have four parts, not three. I hope you get REALLY, REALLY angry.

The last time we discussed this issue I said that a ghetto is a place where lots of poor folk live because it's easier to stay poor than to get a job and because there are some in our society who enable folks to remain poor. Likewise, the mental ghetto is possible because of the laziness of its occupants and because a group of enablers outside the ghetto get something out of others being stupid.

IN THE GHETTO.

Enablers always get something out of enabling others. (They don't do it jusscuz.) The biggest losers are the enabled. Political enablers are bureaucrats who get paid to pass tax-payer money to those who never hold a job, workers who maintain the free housing, contractors who build the projects, landlords who get money from the government, and political figures who make a living out of the power they get by appealing to the foulest characteristics of man. "Hate those outside the ghetto because they have more than you and, after all, they put you in here," say the ghetto pimps. Then morality goes upside down. Those in the ghetto become romantic figures, while working folk are suspect.

The mental ghetto is the same. We are often too lazy to do the hard work of Bible study. We can feel bad about that or we can hear a sermon on "Knowledge puffs up." The preachers, youth leaders, and conference speakers who denigrate the biblically literate are the ghetto pimps. They get approval by telling the occupants that they're spiritual and good and godly, even though they have been in the church for years, but still haven't read the Bible through even once. They couldn't come up with a dozen memory verses to save their souls (ironic) and they couldn't lead a person through the gospel without a concordance or a very colorful tract. And if the ghetto preacher is nice enough to them, assuring them that they are the spiritual ones even though they can't find the minor prophets, they drop a buck in his offering plate, go to his conference, buy his music, attend his concerts and pay his way to the major profits. And if someone actually tries to tell ghetto occupants something from the Bible that doesn't square with ME (Modern Evangelical) bromides and sayings, then he's obviously unloving and knows too much. It's his fault, not theirs.

NO BEREANS ALLOWED--A wink and a nod.

While all this happens, no one quite explains just how all those quiet folks outside the financial ghetto, raising kids, working jobs, and paying taxes actually forced all the ghetto occupants into the ghetto. But that doesn't matter. The belief itself performs a function so vital to the existence of the ghetto that it must never be questioned. Both ghettos are philosophically justified with a set of assumptions that are preposterous to everyone who cares to think, but neither set of assumptions can be examined. If that's ever done, the occupants will be faced with their own guilt and either change or admit that they simply like their vices more than they hate their conditions.

The preacher/pimp in the mental ghetto needs these lies to remain in tact for his own reasons, too. He gets paid two ways. First, the externals are paid. The preacher/pimp gets paid money and a certain amount of power and recognition. But there's another, more subtle payment the preacher gets. The stupider the ghetto occupants stay the less likely it is that his surfs will recognize the sins in his life. That's one of the reasons for the scandals in the ME "church", not the least of which is the scandal of laziness in the study and pablum in the pulpit. His laziness, lust, greed (and whatever else) is enabled by the laziness of those around him as long as they remain in the ghetto. If the pimp is a musician, he doesn't have to come up with biblical lyrics. Sappy will do just fine. The adult Sunday School teacher can simply read from the quarterly, asking questions like, "So, Brother Frank, what do YOU think the word 'the' means here?" In this way the teacher attempts to make those in the class think he knows something about the topic of the lesson, or maybe just that he actually cares what it says. He doesn't. And his hearers know that. But the ploy makes the class able to kid themselves that they are actually learning something and further kid themselves that their teacher isn't lazy and unfit to teach. It's an unspoken agreement to lie to themselves and each other.

Feel abused yet? Wait until you see what "Christian" businesses are doing to you!

HEY, $TUPID! "Christian" corporate pimpery.

It's not just dime store stuff. It's not just your pastor. The mental ghetto is big business. Here on my desk I have a flyer that came in the mail from Berean Christian Stores. I just opened up ONE PAGE AT RANDOM as I type. On that page I find seven Bibles for sale and nine other books. Of the nine books, I can recognize the names of all the authors. Of the nine books, at least one is written by a heretic who suggests we follow quite a number of mystics and study the Bible less. Three of the books are written by authors who only produce fluff--feel-good and self-help books. Four of the books are written by folks whom I don't know much about. The previous page has six books. The first is by Rob Bell, who wants to re-imagine Christianity and pushes meditative breathing to find God. One is written by a man who is nationally famous and denies the trinity. A third is written by a nationally-known pastor who was separated from his wife and later divorced, all the while remaining in the pulpit.

Berean Christian Stores took in just over 600 MILLION DOLLARS in 2001.(1) Having been in their stores, my guess is that at least 2/3 of their book business is either fluff or outright heresy. If it's only 1/4, that means that if Evangelicals left the ghetto, Berean Christian Stores would lose 150 million dolars a year.

Do you really think they'll sell books that will educate you?

Zondervan has been in the vanguard of publishing the Emergent heresy. Zondervan revenues are about 160 MILLION. They are the publishers of the gender-altered TNIV "bible". Zondervan is a wholly owned subsidiary of HarperCollins, a secular publisher and sold 15 MILLION copies of The Purpose Driven Life in one year alone.(2) The book twists Scripture and advocates the study of mystics like Thomas Merton. Can you imagine the collapse that would occur at Zondervan if the average Evangelical suddenly would no longer put up with such sinful things? Zondervan has at times accounted for 15% of sales for HarperCollins.(2)

HarperCollins doesn't need smart Christians. They need Christians who buy their books.

Think it through,
Phil Perkins.

FOOTNOTES:

1. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Standex-International-Corporation-Company-History.html

2. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Zondervan-Corporation-Company-History.html

STIILL TO COME IN THE MENTAL GHETTO

Part III. The Extent of the Problem.

Part IV. Why You Should Stop Having Devotions.