I Am Not Prey

For the last four or five years, I have been growing more aware of the power and reach of the corporatocracy which rules much of our daily lives in modern industrial society. As I have seen how it harms everything it touches, I have been pushed, step by step, into trying to escape its grasp. Yet it reaches tenaciously into every corner of life, looking for prey to satisfy its insatiable hunger, like the tongue of an anteater scouring an anthill.

I don't have a television. I no longer listen to the radio, and for a while, the only reason I listened was to get the traffic and weather reports. Fine, then, the corporatists say; we'll send you junk mail. We'll even disguise the junk mail so that it doesn't look like junk mail until you read the barely discernible fine print at the bottom of the mailer. Okay, then, I counter by carefully reading each piece of junk to see if any personal information pertaining to me is printed therein – and then I shred it. The corporatists respond by placing junk phone calls. But I have a strategy: I register with the National “Do Not Call” list, and when, in spite of registering, I still get phone calls, I try other tricks: yelling at the telemarketers, playing nice in order to get the phone numbers of the telemarketers so that I can turn them in, letting the phone ring until it goes to voice mail. I even try saying a few phrases in Russian or Tagalog so that the telemarketers will think that I'm an incomprehensible foreigner and give up.

When I go to many public places, I find loudspeakers playing Top 40 hits. In some supermarkets I can find flat screens at the checkout stands, playing commercials. In fact, flat screens flashing advertisements seem to be everywhere nowadays – even on the sides of buildings. We are a society that is advertised to death. Why all the advertising? To support continuous growth, to support an economy that depends on convincing people to consume ever more stuff each passing day. Now the corporatocracy, in its quest for ever-larger profits, has invaded the Church, and is seeking to turn the Church into yet another collector of consumers, yet another market.

I've got news for the corporatists: I'm onto you. Listen real good: I'm not some piñata to be broken by you, some piggy bank to be smashed. My faith is not for sale. Stop trying to break into the “evangelical market,” because at least as far as I'm concerned, there is no “evangelical market.” Too many people have been burned by businesses with fish bumper stickers whose owners delivered inferior products or services. As a result, more and more evangelicals are becoming suspicious of companies which try to get people to buy their wares simply by saying, “But we're a Christian company.” Let the proof of your goodness be the fact that you do good work, and you'll have a steady stream of customers (Proverbs 22:29); and produce things that are actually necessary rather than mere bling bling nonsense (Titus 3:14). But stop the lying marketing campaigns. Stop trying to smash me and take my money. Stop trying to use my faith to turn me into yet another mindless “consumatron.”*

I've got a message for the “Christian” media companies: Stop trying to sell me dumbed-down trash just to make a fast buck. For instance, I'm not interested in trying to use the power of God to get rich. In fact, I have a message from God for you: “The love of money is the root of all the evils,” 1 Timothy 6:10. Stop advertising your wares as a “ministry” or as “ministry tools” if you intend to charge restrictive royalties every time someone uses your “intellectual property.” I'm telling you now: whenever I go into a church that uses CCLI-licensed songs in its worship, I will not put any money into that church's offering plate. If, on this blog, I wind up quoting extensive passages of Scripture, I will use only those translations which are in the public domain, such as the World English Bible (http://ebible.org/index.html), or translations which have a Creative Commons license. When I listen to music, I will listen to indie artists of whom only I and a relative handful of others know, people who are talented but not famous, who are not part of some content-industry machine. Whenever I can, I will also make my own culture, stories and art, and teach others to do the same. I am no longer buying your stuff, and even if I was, you'd have to do much better than I can (and I have done some studying), and you'd have to be a lot more generous with your offerings. I give mine away for free.

It may break your hearts to hear this, but I am not going to contribute any more money to Matt Redman's retirement fund, nor that of Michael W. Smith or Howard Rachinski or anyone else in the CCM industry. I am not supporting John Eldredge's speaking tours, or Beth Moore's. They may all be nice guys, but actually working for a living is hard work, and I rather need the money myself.

Also, give up your stranglehold on the copyrights to the works of people who have now been dead for decades. Release those works into the public domain, because if you don't, I will make up my own works and refuse to use what you own. Besides, depending on restrictive licensing of “intellectual property” is now a losing game. The whole reason the game got started is that the West, and especially the United States, have exhausted certain key natural resources and have outsourced most of their manufacturing. Therefore, one of the few things they have left to offer when buying goods and services is intellectual property. But the rest of the world is becoming as educated as people in the West, and they no longer need our “intellectual property.” In fact, the creation of intellectual property is itself now being outsourced. Your days may be numbered.

I've got a message for evangelical pastors who are trying to grow a “successful” church: Be careful. Be humble and transparent in your finances. Don't partner with secular corporations or businesses to sell things in your church; such behavior is shameful. If you are trying to use your church as a means for financial success, then you are guilty of false advertising, because you are telling people that your church is a place where they may hear the truth, and that you are a servant of the Gospel, whereas the truth is that you are acting like a servant of Money instead. If that is the case, you ought to repent, because the penalty for false advertising of this sort may be worse than a few years in jail. You may have Hell to pay. Church is supposed to be a safe place for wounded souls, not a place to get jacked. Read Matthew 18:1-10. The giving which God wants every Christian to practice is not meant to go toward making the clergy rich.

I have a message for everyone who is as sickened and turned off by all of this as I am: Let your voice be heard. Support churches which are models of integrity, and avoid the rest. Know what the Bible says about money, so that you can tell the difference between proper and improper uses of money, between those who are telling the truth and those who are merely trying to make a buck. Look for cultural alternatives. Rather than rushing down to the “Christian” bookstore to buy a CD or a novel, enroll in a good music class or a creative writing class and learn to make your own culture; then give it away for free. But if you intend to buy overtly Christian media, insist that it be of high quality as art or literature. Don't settle for mere knockoffs. Don't buy something just because it's marketed as “Christian.”

Consider doing your ministry for free. The Lord directed those who preach the Gospel to get their living from the Gospel, but He also allowed the apostle Paul to work for a living while giving the Gospel away for free. And He did so because of all the posers pretending to be servants of the Gospel in order to make a fast buck. I believe that it is necessary for true servants of Christ to start imitating Paul's example again. Also, let churches become simpler. Instead of spending a lot of money on an impressive sanctuary, awesome multimedia, lots of intellectual property licenses and a large staff, spend money on providing food and clothing to homeless people and help to families without medical insurance. Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD.” Practice personal charity.

And now, we are through with Money. We will next consider Power. I will give you a brief road map of our consideration. I will deal with Power as it regards those who, for their own ends, try to use the Church to gain authority and influence over a large number of people. But there are two aspects of this which I see. One is the simple desire of some to gain a high degree of ecclesiastical authority, to become big wigs in a church or a denomination. The other aspect concerns those who are not necessarily part of the Church, but who want to use the Church to gain a high degree of worldly political power. The one aspect is of interest to people who have been injured by abusive churches. The other aspect is of interest to those who are concerned about the direction in which our society is heading, about having their faith hijacked to serve ends contrary to that faith. I intend to deal with both aspects. But because this is an election year, I will consider the second aspect – the aspect of the Church and political power – first.

* I first heard the term “consumatron” used by Julian Darley of the Post-Carbon Institute during a podcast of a talk he gave. The talk was titled, “General Knowledge in a Post-Carbon Age.” It's archived at http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/, if anyone is interested.