The Cheapening of Church, And Other Matters

Around the time that the Disney version of the “Lion, Witch & Wardrobe” came out, it was revealed that Disney had begun a church-based marketing campaign for the movie. This was not unusual in itself; the Purpose-Driven books, the Left Behind movies and Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ had also been marketed through churches. The unusual thing about Disney's campaign was that it hosted a sermon contest in which pastors could enter sermons which mentioned Narnia by name. The winning pastors would then receive a free trip to London and $1000 in cash. It was a sign – by no means the only sign – that secular corporations had discovered the vast potential of the “evangelical market.” To be sure, there were other signs, such as the marketing of George Bush to evangelical voters (but that analysis will have to wait until we get into the discussion of Power.) The Disney campaign spawned a new, rather pejorative term: the “sermo-mercial,” which is a product commercial disguised as a church sermon. (Sources: “Product Placement in the Pews,” Knowledge@Wharton, 15 November 2006, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1605; “Blessed are Those Who Preach About Narnia,” Catharine P. Taylor, http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2005/week49/index.html)

Even before the 2004 elections or the launch of Narnia film franchise, there was so-called joining of sacred and secular in a marketing campaign which, surprisingly, had nothing to do with books, movies or political candidates. It was the 2002 “Chevrolet Presents: Come Together and Worship” concert/speaking tour sponsored by General Motors and featuring a number of leading CCM artists and Max Lucado, a popular preacher and author. Chevrolet and General Motors hoped to get some sales mileage out of that tour, although their hopes were somewhat dashed. But the secular business world became fascinated by the success of Mel Gibson, Disney and Rick Warren in marketing their products via evangelical churches. Secular corporations also wanted a piece of that pie.

Thus in 2007, Chrysler launched the introduction of a new luxury SUV model by sponsoring a Patti LaBelle gospel music tour through fourteen black American megachurches. Megachurches in particular have begun to attract the interest of a growing number of secular corporations and service providers, who now regularly consult seminary professors and church researchers to devise marketing strategies most likely to succeed in a church setting. For instance, a financial planner looking for more clients consulted Greg Stielstra, Vice President for Marketing of the Christian Trade Group of Thomas Nelson Publishers. Stielstra told the planner that the number one reason for marital discord is finances, and that church-going couples experiencing such trouble first consult their pastors. He put the planner in touch with a number of local pastors, who now refer many of their church members to this financial planner. There are many examples of such “networking” nowadays.

And now I must confess a certain problem which I believe to have an actual medical basis, namely, that it's hard for me to handle cheese. When I was a kid, I could drink milk, though I didn't like it all that much, and over time I lost my ability to digest anything other than yogurt. But I was really turned off by cheese. My parents believed that my dislike of cheese was some sort of finicky childishness, and eventually I also came to believe that this was true. Yet as an adult, there were times when, if I walked into a room in which a strongly-flavored cheese dish was being cooked, I would start feeling nauseous. Even now, certain strong cheese smells can make me feel like I'm about to hurl.

The money-driven cheesiness of the modern church experience is a cause for nausea. Just writing about all of this makes me want to hurl. I remember times during my search for a “healthy church” in which I would hear the pastor or presiding elder of some big modern church exhorting his audience to “Buy Book X, because we really want to support that kind of book, and it can be used as a witnessing tool!” This was also done to us when the Passion movie came out. And one time I heard a pastor hawking his youth minister's new worship CD, saying something like, “Folks, you have a wonderful opportunity to hear Justin's great heart for worship! You'll be blessed by his passionate lyrics,” etc. But has it really come to this, that now in 2008, the secular marketers whom I spend so much time and energy avoiding are waiting at church to shake me down the moment I set foot inside?

And what does this say about the sort of things one can expect to hear from the pulpit? Some people still go to church in the expectation that they will meet someone who is willing to tell them the truth. When the church and the pulpit become simply another organ of secular corporate big business, that expectation vanishes and the church becomes yet another expression of cheesy corporate commercialism.

Commercialism defines the culture of American evangelicalism. Commercialism is the antithesis of truth-telling, because truth-telling involves risks. Telling the truth does not always lead to increased sales of things. Truth-tellers are frequently unpopular. Commercialism, on the other hand, emphasizes the quarterly report and the bottom line, and its tendency is to stick with “what sells,” with proven formulas for commercial success. The Christian faith has been known historically for its martyrs, for its unpopular, Scriptural, risk-taking, “Thus says the LORD” truth-tellers who more than once “turned the inhabited earth upside down.” The faith of today's evangelicalism is quite tame in comparison. To be sure, we have our CCM praise/rock/metal/hip hop bands, our action movies and our books. But they are all so commercial, so identical, so formulaic, so insincere. They are paycheck efforts.

Let me illustrate by playing movie critic for a moment and analyzing three movies I saw within the last three years, namely, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Sixth Sense (yes, I saw it for the very first time in 2006), and Osama. All three movies have similarities. Two of the movies are about people facing situations beyond the physically normal, movies which require an audience to suspend disbelief for a while and buy into the movie's premise. Children are the main focus in all three movies. And two of the movies were risk-taking works of art. The Sixth Sense was M. Night Shyamalan's first blockbuster. During the making of the movie, however, he was an unknown, and the studio which backed him took a risk. Shyamalan did his best to craft a ghost story which, while frightening, was also a multi-layered statement about life. The acting, moreover, was superb. Shyamalan and his cast showed that it is possible to tell a gripping, thought-provoking story with a small cast, ordinary settings and few special effects. I do not believe in ghosts, nor do I share Shyamalan's views on life. But he was able to draw me into his world through that movie.

Osama was every bit as powerful as The Sixth Sense. It had no ghosts, unless one counted the ghosts who haunted the face of the young actress, Marina Golbahari, who played the title role. In that role, it seemed as if she was more than acting, as if she was actually re-living in vivid flashbacks the horrors of surviving under an extremist religious government. It was twice a risk-taking venture – first, because it was not destined to be a moneymaker, and second, because those who made that movie risked their lives to make it.

The impression I got from the Lion, Witch, & Wardrobe, on the other hand, was that this was a movie that was made solely to collect money from evangelicals. The story was subtly twisted away from C.S. Lewis's original version in that the focus was no longer on Aslan entirely, but rather on Peter's evolution into a king. Aslan as Divine allegory was de-emphasized, and became instead, Aslan as interesting cartoon character. Disney did this in order to make the movie commercially salable to a wider audience. Yet in doing so, they weakened the narrative flow and dramatic movement of the story. The Disney version seemed sort of hacked together. The wisecracking American-style villains were another tacky departure. And the kids were horrible actors, merely going through the motions, except, maybe, the kid who played Edmund.

If the Narnia movies, unfortunately, are the high point of evangelical culture, then much of the rest is unspeakably tacky. (For instance, the Left Behind books will probably never be used in a high school literature class.) But this sort of thing is what is hawked from church pulpits Sunday after Sunday in many places. Even now, I'll bet that millions of churchgoers will be reminded today of how the upcoming Prince Caspian can be used as a witnessing tool. We are told that we must have the latest Purpose-Driven, Every Man's Study Guide to the Next Big Thing (for a small fee, of course). It's all produced in order to collect a paycheck, not to tell the truth. Now much of evangelical publishing has been taken up with teaching us how God wants to bless us and make us successful, and secular marketers have discovered the benefits of going to church. Are you trying to find out where to spend the blessings God wants to give us all? All you have to do is ask some megachurch pastor to hook you up with a businessman in need.

This brings up another thing about the present evangelical culture, namely, the glorification of worldly success. I am thinking of people like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar and others who preach and write so much about securing material wealth by seeking God's blessing. What they are actually doing is promoting a very false idea of life in general, and especially of the life we all can expect to be living during the next few years. The life they offer us is one which our secular, commerce-dominated society loves, namely, a life of unending and ever-increasing consumption. Just name it and claim it and it will come to you. And if it doesn't, well then, just rebuke the demon of poverty and cast it out!

The problem is, however, that we are now starting to face functional, structural, global limits to consumption. World crude oil and oil liquids production is now around 85 to 85.5 million barrels per day and hasn't risen for over thirty months, according to the Energy Information Administration. Dozens of countries around the world are facing energy shortages of one sort or another. This is leading to a slowdown of economic growth. And our excessive consumption is visibly and demonstrably destroying the earth. There are also the economic troubles we are now facing because of the subprime mortgage crisis – a crisis caused by too many people trying to get something for nothing. These problems are God's way of telling us that we have become greedy and are in need of a change. These problems can't be named and claimed away or rebuked away. But we are not listening to what God is saying. When hard times come, as they certainly will, many evangelicals will be utterly unprepared, spiritually and emotionally. They will collapse like a house made of matchsticks.

The commercialization of the evangelical church is just one more thing that has made church unsafe for many people. Think about it. How many junk mail ads do you receive each day? And some of them are cleverly disguised to look like Government notices – until you open them up and discover questionable refinancing offers. How do you feel when you know you're being hustled? How many people have signed up for the National “Do Not Call” list? Why do you suppose they did so? How many people have Caller ID and Anonymous Call Blocking? If there was a National “Do Not Junk Mail” list, how many people do you think would sign up? How many people are there who are sick and tired of being hustled? They go to church, expecting it to be a safe, truthful place, and are they supposed to let themselves get hustled there? It's bad enough that they have to dodge pleas to buy tacky books, CD's and DVD's, that a portion of their money goes toward paying royalties to read a Bible translation or to sing a worship song. What kind of freak three-ring circus is this, that they now have to deal with insincere, paycheck pastors introducing car salesmen and financial planners from the pulpit? Does this make me angry? You bet it does. Who broke my church?

The next post will be my final post on the topic of Money. Anger will be a big part of that post.

Money and Christian Books

This next post will, like the last, be rather challenging. There are many facts to consider, and much ground to be covered. I will begin by telling the history of one Christian publishing house and move on to more general facts regarding the Christian publishing industry.

The Zondervan Corporation was founded in 1931 in Grandville, Michigan, by Peter and Bernard Zondervan. Its specialty was the publication of Christian books, including Bibles. In 1932, the brothers opened their first bookstore in Grand Rapids and in the next year began publishing books under the Zondervan imprint. In 1959, the company bought a religious music company, Singspiration, and in 1960, it took over the publication of Halley's Bible Handbook, buying the rights from a private concern. In 1966, the company acquired Harper Row Publishing Company's Bible department, which transferred to Zondervan the publication rights to a number of Bibles and Bible textbooks, including the widely adopted Harper Study Bible.

In 1971, Zondervan invested capital in the financially troubled International Bible Society and its translation of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, an investment that paid off handsomely when that publication, completed in 1978, became a best-selling Bible, ranking second only to the King James Version. During the first part of the 1980s, Zondervan acquired other companies, including, in 1980, the John T. Benson Company, a religious music publisher, several book publishers, and Tapley-Rutter Co., a specialty bindery. It also acquired a foreign subsidiary, Marshall Pickering Holdings Ltd., a UK-based printer and publisher of religious books and music. Zondervan became a publicly traded company in 1976, and by 1983 its annual revenues were $93 million.

From 1984 to 1988, the company suffered financial troubles due to accounting irregularities which resulted in lawsuits and SEC sanctions. Therefore, in 1988, Zondervan's directors sold the company to Harper Row for $56.7 million. Later, Harper Row merged with Collins Publishing to form HarperCollins and Zondervan became a division of HarperCollins. In 1989, prior to the merger of Harper Row and Collins, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought Collins. Thus HarperCollins, and its Zondervan division, are wholly-owned by Murdoch's News Corporation. HarperCollins, through Zondervan, owns the publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible. They own the rights to the works of C.S. Lewis. They also publish Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven franchise, and the works of Lee Strobel, Jim Cymbala and Philip Yancey.

In becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of a secular company, Zondervan is by no means alone. Anther “Christian/religious/inspirational” subdivision is Waterbrook, owned by Doubleday/Random House, which is in turn owned by Bertelsmann of Sony BMG. There is also Warner Faith, a division of Time Warner. Thomas Nelson was recently bought by a private equity group called InterMedia Partners VII, which also bought Integrity Publishers. Howard Publishing is now owned by Simon and Schuster.

The publishing arm of Zondervan was more easily assimilated into HarperCollins than was the bookstore arm, however, due to a difference of values between the secular executives at HarperCollins and the Christian executives of Zondervan. Therefore, in 1994, the management of the Zondervan's Family Bookstores chain purchased it from HarperCollins in an amicable buyout. The buyout group was headed by Zondervan's Family Bookstores president and CEO, Leslie Dietzman, with the additional financial backing of a group of private individuals who were not affiliated with any other corporation or company. The bookstore chain became known as Family Christian Bookstores.

From 1994 to the present, Family Christian Stores has acquired several other store chains, and now also owns Joshua's Christian Stores, among other subdivisions. In 1999, the investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners began investing in Family Christian Stores. Madison Dearborn has a wealth of experience in specialty retailing. It now owns over 70 percent of Family Christian. Family Christian Stores is the largest Christian bookstore chain in the United States, followed by Lifeway and Berean. Incidentally, Berean Christian Stores was started as an independent chain in 1934, but was bought by Standex International in the 1960's. Standex is a technology company that makes food service equipment, air distribution products, industrial engraving equipment and hydraulics products, among other things. Standex sold the Berean chain to JMH Capital, a private equity firm, in 2006.

Thus it can be seen that most of the largest “Christian” publishers are largely or wholly owned by secular corporations, as are two of the three largest Christian bookstore chains in the United States. Well, then, what do these people sell? The answer falls into three broad categories: Bibles, nonfiction books that teach/instruct/inspire, and fiction. What is the character of these three offerings?

Zondervan and Thomas Nelson both publish Bible translations produced by the International Bible Society. Thomas Nelson also publishes the New American Standard Bible, produced by the Lockman Foundation. These are typical of translations which arose during the 20th Century because of concerns that the language of the King James Bible had become archaic and therefore hard for modern people to understand. Now, in what I am about to say, I assure you that I am definitely not one of those “King James Only” fanatics. I have no problem at all with other translations, as long as they are literal and accurate.

But the King James Bible is a public domain document, because it was published in 1611 A.D. Thus people have become used to using it freely as a public domain document, including extensive quotes in published works, as well as inclusion in song lyrics. The new translations, however, were not released in the public domain. For each of the newer translations, there are restrictions, such as limitations on the number of verses that can be copied, reproduced, recorded or included in song lyrics, as well as the requirement to include a copyright statement in each reproduction. The NIV has the most restrictive limitations. In fact, if a person opens a Web page containing NIV scriptures, he is not legally allowed to re-post those Scriptures onto another Web page. Uses of the NIV which deviate from their stated restrictions must be approved in writing by Zondervan. These restrictions on the uses of the various translations can all be found on the web pages of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan.

The other book types produced by Christian publishers were covered somewhat in my post, “Money: Wonderland – A Trip to a Christian Bookstore.” I will briefly re-state them here. Nonfiction books are predominantly about breaking free from bad habits/addictions; miracles and prophecy; successful parenting; inspirational talks, biographies or books “based on a true story”; and financial success. Books on doctrine or Bible exposition, aside from prophecy, account for less than a third of the nonfiction sold in these store chains. “Financial success/life coaching” books are popular, including the titles coming from Thomas Nelson's new Nelson Business imprint, books such as The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell, as well as titles by Zig Ziglar, Todd Duncan, Don Soderquist, and Laurie Beth Jones, who wrote Jesus, CEO. There are also financial success books written by a man with an improbable name, the Rev. Dr. Creflo A. Dollar. And last, but not least, there are the conspiracy theory books, which often go together with the prophecy books, and are typically extremely patriotic and radically pro-war, especially regarding the Middle East.

Christian fiction of course existed throughout much of the Christian era. It really took off in its modern lucrative paperback form with the works of Janette Oke and the “translations” of George MacDonald's books by Michael Phillips. Christian fiction is where a lot of the money is at. But in order to understand what is sold as “Christian fiction”, one must understand how the Christian publishing industry defines their target audience. Penelope Stokes, in her book, The Complete Guide to Writing and Selling the Christian Novel, says, “Let's be honest here. Our customers are not, by and large, bright-eyed, eager, deeply spiritual intellectuals who want to be challenged, educated, and stretched. They are ordinary people – usually women and middle-aged – who want a good story with strong values, likable characters, a fast moving plot and a satisfying ending.” This assumption – that the target audience of Christian fiction is rather simple-minded and easily satisfied – explains much of the formulaic, genre writing found in Christian fiction books – and in Christian movies also, by the way. Complex characters don't usually exist in Christian novels, nor is the message in any way complex.

How are these books written? The answer may surprise you, but often the Christian books that are supposedly written by a famous author are actually written mainly by a ghostwriter, whose name is never mentioned on the front cover of the book. This is true of books supposedly written by Gary Smalley, Bill Hybels and Pat Robertson, for instance, according to one source. In the early 1990s, Colorado radio minister Bob Larson, whose name is on a novel trilogy that began with Dead Air, sued a woman who broke confidence by claiming she was the real author. The top-selling Christianity in Crisis by radio host and "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff ended in a lawsuit by a ministry staffer who claimed to have done much of the work. I am no stranger to the practice of ministers relying on “ghostwriters.” The “head honcho” of the abusive church I used to attend, which is described in my first few posts, used to deliver Bible prophecy sermons which were basically plagiarized from books written by G.H. Lang, an early 20th century Christian writer. But this head honcho would claim that he got his messages by “being on his knees before God with an open Bible, laboring in the kitchen of Heaven!” He's going to feel heat in that kitchen some day...

The “Every Man” series of books also bears mention, although it is not such a blatant case of ghostwriting. However, on each book of the “Every Man” series, Stephen Arterburn is listed as the main author. Yet if you read the authors' introduction to the first book, “Every Man's Battle,” you will discover that the book was mainly written by another man. When that man approached Doubeday about getting his book published, he was basically told that it needed some “star power” in order to maximize its chances of wide readership. Thus the partnership with Arterburn was created. The “Every Man” series also illustrates another aspect of Christian publishing, namely, the tendency to take a successful book and turn it into a franchise, complete with sequels, study guides, and speaking tours. And the speaking tours are lucrative ventures in their own right. For instance, Beth Moore will be speaking at the Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho soon. It will be a two night engagement. The Qwest arena seats at least 5,000, and tickets to the Beth Moore event are $55 each. You do the math.

Lastly, there is the political world view of mainstream Christian publishing – socially and fiscally conservative, pro-business, pro-America, and as I have mentioned, radically patriotic and pro-war. I personally agree with some of this. Homosexuality and abortion are un-Biblical, and should be opposed. But Christian publishing also unquestioningly supports many of the positions of the present-day Republican party – positions which may also be un-Biblical, positions which I will examine in detail when we leave the subject of Money and move on to Power. (By the way, these positions are increasingly being adopted by the Democrats also.) For instance, books sold in Christian bookstores do not question the rationale or justification for the invasion of Iraq. They solidly support the Bush administration's denunciations of Iran, and some of them call vehemently for an American military strike against Iran. There are no books about global warming or environmental stewardship sold in Christian bookstores. No mention is made of fair trade, or the damage being done to Third World cultures by Western economic practices. There are no books promoting nonviolence.

Here again I must mention Zondervan and its position as a subsidiary of a media empire owned by Rupert Murdoch. The Wikipedia page describing Murdoch spells out his use of his media resources to achieve political outcomes favorable to him. During the run-up to the Iraq war, all of the newspapers and other news outlets owned by him issued editorials supporting the war effort. In 2006 he supported the Senate reelection of Hillary Clinton, who is now running for president, and who both supported the Iraq invasion and the branding of Iran as a terrorist state. Both Iraq and Iran are supposed to have large amounts of oil reserves, by the way. One can only wonder whether Zondervan is now being used to promote an interpretation of Christianity which is favorable to Mr. Murdoch's interests.

Sources (I have to list sources. Plagiarism is evil and I have to be able to sleep at night without dreaming of eternal fire):

• Wikipedia articles about Thomas Nelson Publishers, Doubleday, Random House, Zondervan, HarperCollins and Rupert Murdoch
• David at http://faithinfiction.blogspot.com/
• "Ghostwriting Haunts Christian Publishing," Larry Witham, Charisma Magazine, July 2002
• "A Christian Publishing Scandal," David Aikman, Charisma Magazine, July 2002
• "Whatever happened to Christian publishing?", Gene Edward Veith, WORLD Magazine, July 1997
• Christian Ghostwriting Services Advertisement at The Scribe's Ink, http://www.thescribesink.net/
• "The Scandal of Evangelical Dishonesty," Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, http://www.epm.org/
• Post by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, on 12 July 2007, www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit
• Standex International website
• www.berean.com/about
• http://www.answers.com/Family+Christian+Stores?cat=biz-fin
• Thomas Nelson press release, 23 September 2003, “THOMAS NELSON RE-SIGNS MAXWELL TO FOUR-BOOK CONTRACT”

And if I referred to someone's work and forgot to include the reference here, please, someone, let me know. There was a lot of material to digest...

Money and Christian Music

This post will be a somewhat challenging post, because it has many factual details to consider. For that reason it is a challenging post for me to write, because I want to be accurate. I will begin by describing the history of two Christian music companies, and show how they are representative of the place of Christian music within the music industry.

Sparrow Records was founded by Billy Ray Hearn in 1976, as an outlet for contemporary, traditional and children’s church music. Its artist roster has, at times, included such famous names as Keith Green, John Michael Talbot, 2nd Chapter of Acts and Michael Card. However, Keith Green was less than satisfied with the business arrangement between himself and Sparrow after a while, as that arrangement hindered his growing conviction that he should give his music to whoever wanted it, for whatever people were able or willing to pay, rather than charging a set price for the music. So, in 1979 he severed his ties to Sparrow and began to distribute his albums as he saw fit. According to Wikipedia, by 1982, Keith Green had shipped more than 200,000 units of his album, So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt under his new distribution arrangement, with 61,000 of those 200,000 albums being given out for free.

In 1992, Sparrow Records was bought out and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of EMI, a British media corporation, and one of the “Big Four” music/electronic media corporations. Sparrow is part of the EMI CMG subdivision, a religious arm which also includes the labels ForeFront Records, Gotee Records, Tooth and Nail Records, and EMI Gospel. Eddie Degarmo is the Publishing President for EMI CMG, and is also on the board of advisors for Christian Copyright Licensing International, or the CCLI, for short. I shall have more to say about CCLI later on. As for Mr. Hearn, he is now a member of the Board of Directors of the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA for short. I shall have more to say about the RIAA also, later on.

Essential Records was founded by Robert Beeson in 1992, as part of a “second wave” of contemporary Christian music (also known as CCM). Essential signed artists whose sound was a breakaway from the more straight-ahead rock or folk-rock sounds of CCM predecessors such as Benny Hester, Don Francisco, Keith Green, Phil Keaggy and so forth. The new sound was instead a sort of fusion between the acoustic revolution typified by “MTV Unplugged” and Shawn Colvin on the one hand, and the acoustic guitar-driven “alternative pop” of Hootie and the Blowfish and the Dave Matthews Band, on the other hand. CCM artists in this second wave included Jars of Clay, Caedmon's Call, Third Day and Jennifer Knapp, bands whose lyrics, like those of many secular “alternative” artists, were often metaphorical and indirect, as opposed to the declarative, straight-ahead lyrics of the “first wave” artists.

In 1993, Essential Records was also bought out by a large secular music/electronic media corporation, the Zomba Group, based in Germany. Zomba was bought out by the Bertelsmann Music Group, also known as BMG, and eventually Essential became part of Sony BMG, another of the Big Four music/electronic media corporations. Essential is now part of Sony's Provident Music Group, which includes Brentwood Records, Benson Records, Flicker Records, Beach Street Records, Reunion Records, Praise Hymn Music Group, Provident Specialty Markets, and the Provident-Integrity Distribution venture. Sony is also a contributing member of the RIAA.

In the early days of CCM, before the personal computer made such a huge impact on modern society, many CCM artists and the companies they founded tended to view their music in much the same way that Keith Green did: as a ministry to God, to be given freely to whoever was in need of it. To be sure, many of them considered themselves to be full-time “evangelists with guitars”, and thus worthy of the support of the Church, but it is hard to imagine that any CCM artist from the '70's to the early '90's would ever have sued anyone for singing a cover of that artist's song, or for reprinting song lyrics, or for copying an album to share with a friend, as long as these uses were for the purpose of ministering the Gospel and not for profit. But the secular media soon discovered that CCM was popular, and thus lucrative, and so began wave after wave of buyouts of companies that had originally been started by sincere Christian musicians. With the change of ownership came a change of rules.

The new secular masters of the lucrative CCM business began to enforce copyright law with the same rigidity and vengeance that they had exercised all along with secular music. This rigidity and vengeance took on some surprising forms, once personal computing and the Internet became widespread. When widespread sharing of music became possible, Sony responded in 2005 by shipping CD's containing secret digital rights management (DRM) software that automatically installed itself onto people's computers to prevent them from unauthorized copying of Sony CD's. Unfortunately, that same software made these computers vulnerable to viruses, while hindering operating system performance. Sony was successfully sued for this by those who had bought their CD's, and wound up recalling all affected CD's from the market. It is not known, however, if Sony fixed all the computers which had been damaged by their CD's.

The digital revolution also inspired both big media corporations and software corporations to create the concept of “intellectual property” and to impose restrictive conditions on the use of intellectual property owned by the big corporations. For instance, it became illegal to buy a DVD of a movie, take it to your house, and show it to the neighbors on your street. That DVD was licensed to be viewed by the purchaser alone (including, I suppose, his immediate family), but if one wanted to show the DVD to a larger audience, one needed to buy an additional license for every showing of the DVD. It also became illegal to copy songs from a CD to computer, even if you owned the CD and were simply trying to make a backup copy. These and many other restrictions were codified in a landmark piece of Federal legislation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, signed into law by President Clinton in 1998.

To follow the letter of the new law meant having to pay a lot of money for things that were formerly free – free of charge, free of hassle and free of restrictions. But for those who were unwilling to follow the letter of the law, there was the RIAA, waiting in the wings like a gang of thugs in an alley. The RIAA ruthlessly sought to enforce the new restrictions through subpoenas of records from phone companies and Internet service providers (ISP's). The RIAA initiated hundreds of lawsuits against private citizens, seeking penalties of tens of thousands of dollars for each alleged illegal download of a song. In a number of cases, the RIAA sued college students enrolled in computer engineering courses at universities, for inventing file management systems that “could be used for illegal file sharing”, regardless of whether these systems were used for that purpose or not. The RIAA has sued single mothers on fixed incomes. It has sued people who never owned a computer, and has even sued a woman who later turned out to have been dead for a long time. At first, defendants who wanted to fight the lawsuit were required to pay the court costs and lawyers fees of both sides. This exerted tremendous pressure on defendants to settle, even if they knew they were innocent. The RIAA required that defendants who wanted to settle had to pay all of their assets and savings to the RIAA. According to James McQuivey of Forrester Research, EMI, an RIAA member, was until very recently, one of the most die-hard supporters of the RIAA tactics, although since being bought out in 2007, they have started to change their approach. (Sources: Free Culture, by Lawrence Lessig, released under Creative Commons license in 2004; “I Sue Dead People”, Ars Technica, 4 February 2005, http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050204-4587.html; “EMI, Apple partner on DRM-free premium music”, Caroline McCarthy, News.com, 2 April 2007; RIAA vs. the People: Two Years Later, Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/)

All of this legal sound and fury did not achieve the effect for which the RIAA had hoped, namely, to revive lagging sales of CD's published by the Big Four corporations, who, by the way, control over 70 percent of the music market in the United States, and who had blamed lagging CD sales on “digital piracy.” But the flurry of lawsuits did not go unnoticed by certain key individuals in the Church and in Christian music. For churches were among those sued by the RIAA and by some of its member companies. Enter the CCLI.

According to Wikipedia, CCLI is “a privately owned company that was founded in the US in 1988 by Howard Rachinski, who is the President and CEO...the aim of CCLI has always been to provide services to facilitate worship..., benefiting the churches, while at the same time benefiting the copyright owners.” The CCLI is based in Portland, Oregon, where Howard Rachinski resides. Howard is also part of the leadership team at City Bible Church, also in Portland. The CCLI arose as an organization offering churches a one-stop source for properly licensing and paying royalties on every form of electronic media used by the member churches.

The CCLI issues a number of licenses, such as:

• the Church Copyright License, for the reproduction of songs
• Photocopy/Music Reproduction License for the photocopying of worship music
• SongSelect which provides online access of worship song lyrics, sound samples and download of lead sheets, chord sheets & SATB hymn sheets
• Video License, in a joint venture with MPLC, under the company name of Christian Video Licensing International, for the copyright licensing of the playing of videos / DVDs for church activities
• Screen Vue, for movie scenes and illustrations for use in sermon illustrations
• and finally, Song Touch, for MP3 song downloads
  

CCLI has also expanded from the United States to such countries as Australia, Botswana, Canada, Germany and many others. Its member churches in the United States number over 140,000. It is constantly seeking to expand into new markets for providing licensed content to churches.

The CCLI website repeatedly stresses the need to obey the law, and the severe penalties (up to $150,000 per infraction) for doing things which require a license without having that license. And the CCLI has pioneered the concept of “per use” fees. In other words, every time a church displays a lyric to a copyrighted praise chorus on a projection screen, it must pay a fee. Every time a church plays a licensed video or DVD, it must pay a fee. It does not matter that churches are classified as non-profit organizations; they must still pay. According to the Oak Ridger newspaper, in 2006 the CCLI collected over $20 million in revenue per year. The CCLI states that that revenue is shared with member artists and copyright holders. Yet how much of that $20 million is profit is unknown, since they are a private company and do not disclose their financial records to the public.

When you go to church therefore, you will notice at the bottom of every lyric projected on a screen a CCLI catalog number, with copyright information for that particular song. Songs that are in the public domain are also listed in the CCLI catalog, although they do admit that no royalties are required for these songs. But sometimes the praise and worship industry will take an old hymn, change some of the older English to a more modern form, add a few extra words, and voila! Yet another CCLI-licensed, copyrighted song is born. This is what happened to “When I survey the Wondrous Cross,” with the addition of the modern refrain, “Oh, the wonderful cross! Oh, the wonderful cross!” etc. In fact, even modern praise band arrangements of old, public-domain hymns such as “Amazing Grace” are now being copyrighted, and are subject to CCLI licensing. Every time these songs are sung in a church, there is a very good likelihood that part of the offering made in that church is going toward paying for the right to worship.

So here we are to worship, here we are to bow down, hear the money meters whirring in the background...

(Additional source regarding the CCLI: “As hymnals are replaced by video screens, Christian music licensing group takes center stage”, the Oak Ridger, 7 April 2006; http://www.oakridger.com/)

Money: Wonderland, or a Trip to a Christian Bookstore

I walked into a Christian bookstore this week, something I haven't done in almost two years. This store was one I had never seen before, and I wanted to go in and check it out, to see if my opinion of such places is still valid.

The place was rather large. Immediately as I walked in I saw a life-sized plaster Nativity setting, with a blond-haired, blue-eyed Joseph and Mary staring raptly down at a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby Jesus lying in the manger. Just to the left, against the wall, was something unexpected – a display of locally produced canned salmon and preserves, with a small flat-screen TV showing a lady discussing recipes. Had I not been on a mission, I might have gotten hungry. There were also plates, mugs, saucers, and so forth, all decorated in a style reminiscent of Thomas Kinkade, and all costing anywhere from around $10 to over $30 each.

As I continued moving to the left, I saw another plaster Nativity scene and a shelf of books and gifts marked, “Christmas Clearance.” Many of the books were heartstring-tugging “inspirational” stories with pictures of mild-faced middle-aged female authors on the backs and pictures of blond-haired, blue-eyed little boys and girls on their front covers, faces often showing expressions of rapt wonder. From perusing the back covers and dust jackets, it seemed that many of the stories had plots involving not-so-subtle “miraculous visitations.”

Moving on toward the adjacent wall, I saw a large number of paintings bearing the usual inspirational verses on them or carved into the picture frames (things like Psalm 46:10, but definitely not things like Mark 9:47-50), and then I ran into yet another life-sized plaster sculpture. This one showed yet another blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus , this time as an adult with a mild face, and several children, all blond-haired and blue-eyed, surrounding Him. One of the boys was on His knee.

By this time I was near the back wall of the store. On the back wall was a display of pastoral helps. A couple of books stood out to me, each dealing with the youth culture and how, since many of us have become adults, we have forgotten completely how youth think – thus the need for these books to show us how to have an effective youth ministry. Right next to the ministry books was a display of various worship accessories, including things needed to celebrate Catholic Mass. On the same shelves were bottles of anointing oil – with a 5 ounce (?) bottle to be had for as little as $30.00! Of course, if you couldn't afford the large size, you could always get a 1 ounce bottle for $8.00. (I am guessing at the sizes, since I didn't read them when I was looking at the bottles. All I know was that that was a lot of dough to spend for such a small amount of oil.)

All that kitsch was fascinating, but I had gone into the store to look at the books, so I turned my attention to more of the books. There was a large selection of “inspirational” novels, one of which dealt with a young boy (blond haired and blue eyed on the front cover) who wanted to play football, and the reluctant mentor who befriended him and his mom. This theme of people coming together by Divinely ordained romantic coincidence was prominent in several of the inspirational novels. As far as authors go, there were the usual suspects, such as Janette Oke and Jan Karon, but there were surprises as well, such as Jerry B. Jenkins of Left Behind fame, who with his wife, authored a novel in this group.

I had spent a bit too much time in the inspirational section, so I moved on to the conspiracy/end times section. There were several books talking about the threat of Islamic jihad and how Iran is supposedly infiltrating the United States with sleeper cells who are about to perpetrate a “nuclear 9/11” attack on America. One author's dust jacket even went so far as to say that the United States must attack Iran in 2008, or else there will be dire consequences. Also, there was the conspiracy/end times fiction, with novels from Lahaye & Jenkins, and from Oliver North.

I moved on to the "Christian Living"/devotional section, and found a few books on finance, breaking free from bondage, how to harness the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit in your life so that you can experience miracles and healing, and so forth. These were authored by some “usual suspects” such as Beth Moore, but there were authors I had never heard of, including the author of one finance book that caught my eye. It had perhaps 200 pages, but it was written in what looked like 16 point type, and it was sprinkled with heartwarming anecdotes which backed the author's assertion that if you just followed his plan, you too could be financially independent and have (lots of) money in the bank. One of the anecdotes said something about how a couple was now debt-free and had a BMW too! Icing on the cake! And there was a book about winning principles to apply in life, written by a coach for some pro football team whose name I never did get.

I wound up in the biographical section, where of course there were the usual books paying tribute to C.S. Lewis. There were also books showcasing the faith of President George W. Bush, and of Condoleeza Rice. There was a short autobiography by Amy Grant, and there were a couple of books containing inspirational stories about God's protection of our troops.

Speaking of troops (and of music as well), somewhere back while I was near the NYMEX light sweet anointing oil selling for $$$ a barrel, I became aware of a song playing over the store speakers. The song was about a father saying goodbye to his ten-year-old son, because the father was going off to fight in a war - “that's what soldiers do” was the refrain, or something like it. The song exhorted the son to trust in Jesus, and that if the father didn't make it back, they would still all meet in Heaven some day. The song was part of an album made by a duo – Monk and Neagle – of whom I had never heard until just then. The song pulled my interest in another direction, and as the store was now closing, I made a hasty dash over to the Christian music section to take a quick look. There I found that the largest genre of Christian music is the “praise and worship” variety. There was also standard CCM – hip-hop, metal or pop, depending on your tastes; but none of these categories seemed to be more than a third of the size of the praise & worship category.

Having an interest in things related to Narnia, I last looked at the Narnia section of the store. It is relatively bare now. To be sure, there are all the seven books actually authored by C.S. Lewis. But there were relatively few of the knockoffs which came out after the “Lion, Witch & Wardrobe” movie – books written by people who never came within a country mile of C.S. Lewis, books with titles like “Peter's Quest,” “Susan's Journey” or “Finding Aslan,” books whose copyrights (and authors too, probably) are all owned by Disney or Harper Collins. I know I'm getting the titles wrong, but they are close enough. I was assured by the store staff that more of those books would be coming out in the next few months.

And with that I had to leave. I had stayed fifteen or twenty minutes past closing time, and to their credit, the store staff was too nice to just bluntly throw me out. Rather, they found me at ten minutes past closing and informed me that “...the store is uh, supposed to close at seven, but there's no rush...”

This store, and thousands of stores just like it, are at the center of contemporary American Christian culture – they define that culture, and are defined by it. Stores like this store, and the merchandise therein, set the tone for much of evangelical thought. Stores like this, and the corporations who stock their shelves, define the current evangelical worldview. But the corporations are largely secular. And many of the writers and musicians write and sing because they or their corporate sponsors want something – money or political power. Therefore, the stuff merchandised in Christian bookstores is determined largely by the same market forces that drive the merchandising of every other aspect of life in modern America. I will discuss this in more depth in my next post.

The Church and Money - An Introduction

This post begins an in-depth critique of American evangelicalism as it displays itself in the present day. But before I dive into such a critique, I believe I must explain where I've been for the last several months. Let me just say that I was tackling a rather different kind of writing assignment, namely, a series of articles on the subject of Peak Oil. For those who are in any way still unfamiliar with this subject, Peak Oil refers to the time at which worldwide oil production will reach a maximum, then enter into terminal decline. It is a topic of intense interest to many, because of the implications and effects that declining oil production will have on the world economy, and because some reputable scientists believe that we have already reached the peak of oil production and are now starting to decline. Those articles have been published in the Fullerton Observer, starting with the July 2007 edition, and can be read online at www.fullertonobserver.com if anyone is interested. Please forgive the typos and grammatical errors in some of the later articles.

I first became aware of Peak Oil in February of this year. As I studied this issue and the related issue of global climate change in more detail, I also thought about the implications for American evangelicalism. I began to believe that changes were coming upon our society which would make many of the problems of the evangelical community irrelevant, since they would be overtaken by the events of distress and possible collapse in the broader society. Thus I thought that even this blog might become irrelevant within the next year or two. Indeed, I was almost ready to abandon it altogether. But certain events over the last two months provoked me and convinced me that I should not do so. First, there is the Republican presidential campaign, and the candidates posturing to try to secure the evangelical vote. There were also the conversations I kept having with co-workers where I was explaining that although I am orthodox and evangelical in my faith, I don't go along with many of the practices of present evangelical churches. There was also the recent shooting incident involving Matthew Murray at a famous Colorado megachurch. And there is a new movie being advertised over four months before its release date, based on a Christian children's story written by a man who has been deceased for over 40 years and whose legacy is still being milked for all it's worth by the religious arm of big secular entertainment companies. Finally, there was the fact that I noticed one day that people are still reading this blog, and are probably wondering, “When is he going to write more?” So I'm back. Now then, let's talk about money.

The intersection of faith and money is a danger zone for Christians, a collision between moldy corruption and pure bread. That intersection, or rather, collision, is a big issue in evangelicalism today, and many evangelicals have become moldy. There are the obvious examples of greed and excess – pictures splashed all over television screens and newspaper front pages, showing pastors promising miracles if we only "giiivvvehuh till it hurrrrtshuh!"; pastors who own dozens of radio and television stations, who just want a little more from us so they can reach the millions of benighted people in Third World countries with the Gospel; pastors with expensive mansions, private jets, summer houses and collections of cars; pastors being led away in orange jumpsuits and leg irons by law enforcement personnel. I already mentioned in an earlier post the troubles that occurred at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California. I could also mention the disgraceful fall of Ted Haggard, and the fact that after he was removed from the pastorate by his church, he tried soliciting donations from strangers so that he and his wife could go to school to obtain degrees in counseling. Those of us who are old enough (I'm not that old) can remember Oral Roberts. Or Reverend Ike (now, I do remember him), and his famous slogan, “You can't lose with the stuff I use!” as he held a fistful of dollars in front of the TV cameras. There was also the head elder of the abusive church I once attended, which I first mentioned in this post: http://thinsoc.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-my-old-church-was-like-part-1.html, who has four Social Security numbers and used to keep thousands of dollars in cash in his home, according to some former members. Indeed, to borrow a phrase from Hebrews 11, time will fail me if I tell of Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Bakker, Al Forniss, Paul Crouch, etc.

As has been said, these are the obvious examples of people who view godliness as a means of material gain, and who pose as servants of Christ in order to take money from undiscerning, yet sincere people. Christ directed His apostles that those who preach the Gospel should get their living from the Gospel, and almost from the first, there have been those who have sought to misuse the Lord's words in order to secure an easy life for themselves by posing as servants of the Gospel. These people are also quite obvious in the damage they do, not only to the members of their “flocks”, but also to the Christian witness in the world today. The apostle Paul warns of these people in 1 and 2 Corinthians, and in 1 Timothy, to name a few passages.

But there are other forms of moldy corruption in the Church, corruption caused by the love of money. These forms are not as obvious as some screaming televangelist on a big screen. Yet because they are more insidious, they are far more dangerous. They threaten to render the worship and witness of the Church utterly meaningless. As the writings of Paul help us to understand the danger posed by the flashy false apostle, there are Scriptures which help us to understand the danger of these other forms of corruption. Because the worship of the Church is now at stake, one helpful set of Scriptures is found in Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-48 and John 2:13-22. These Scriptures all describe Jesus Christ entering the Jewish temple, whose chief business was to be the worship and service of God, and how He bodily threw out the moneychangers and those who sold animals for Temple sacrifices.

Why did the Lord get violent here? Because these moneychangers were not present in the Temple for the purpose of worship. Judging from their actions, they probably did not even believe in the God of the Bible. Rather, they had turned the service of the Temple away from the worship of God. That service had, instead, been made into a means of making the moneychangers rich. A study of Jewish history of this period shows how these moneychangers and sellers of animals worked in concert with the Jewish priesthood to disqualify worshipers from using their own animals for Temple sacrifices, forcing worshipers instead to pay exorbitant prices for “kosher” animals – animals approved by the priests and the moneychangers. It was a racket, and it discouraged the true worship of God.

It is the premise of my next few posts that secular moneychangers are now mediating the worship, culture and art of the Church, not for the glory of God, but simply to make a few corporations rich. I will explore the effect these moneychangers are having on actual worship services, as well as their effects on our music. I will discuss the train wreck that Christian literature has now become. I will also mention the constant efforts by the “Christian” media to manufacture stars who have wide-ranging appeal and marketability. I will mention how secular media corporations are moving beyond needing “Christian” subdivisions, and how this will accelerate the Church's slide into irrelevance. I will also mention how what has happened to Christian media is what is also happening in the broader secular culture, namely, a move away from a free culture of limited copyright and relatively free exchange of ideas and information, and a move toward a “permission culture” in which all exchanges of information must be accompanied by payment of royalties to a holder of copyright, which is usually a large multinational corporation. I will point out how of all who should be alarmed at this shift, the Church has been among the last to notice (indeed, we may still be asleep).

But lest anyone think I believe the situation to be hopeless, I will also propose remedies. Stay tuned...

Intermission

Many thanks to JZ in NI (from whom I got the inspiration for the name of my blog) for linking me to his blog. And now for some news: I haven't been able to post for a while, and I apologize for that. What happened is that I was talking to the editor of a local newspaper (extremely local) about the subject of Peak Oil. She suggested that I write a series of articles about the subject. I tend to be a slow writer and am as busy right now as a chihuahua in a washing machine, so this Peak Oil project is taking all of my spare time. As soon as it's done, I will get back to my regular posts. Thanks to those of you who have submitted comments. I hope this blog is helpful.

American Evangelicalism Today

In my previous posts I have described how I became a Christian, and how I was tricked into joining an abusive, cultic church. I have also described how I came to realize what kind of church I was a part of, and my leaving and search for a “healthy church”. To sum up, in visiting many evangelical churches I have discovered many of the same toxic elements that existed in the cultic church I first joined. In addition, there are other toxic elements in modern American evangelicalism which are hard to swallow. Or, rather, they should be hard to swallow if you are trying to find a Biblical Christianity!

Several years ago, Richard Foster, a Quaker writer, authored a book titled, “Money, Sex and Power: The Challenge of a Disciplined Life.” This book discussed the inner life of the Christian and how that inner life could be measured by the Christian's response to the temptations of money, sex and power. I suggest that the present diseased condition of the Church can be measured in terms of these indicators, as well as a few more, which I state below:

Money: The culture and livelihood of people throughout the world is increasingly being controlled by large corporate interests which care for nothing more than their own enrichment at the expense of the masses. Their aim is to sell dumbed-down, watered-down, valueless trash to captive markets at the highest possible price, to gain the largest possible profit. And these corporate interests have taken over the Church.

Lust: I don't just mean sexual lust either, but rather, that craving after a thing which causes a person to do anything to get the thing he lusts after – and to make up every conceivable justification for why he did it, no matter what commandment was broken and no matter who got hurt. An example: the many Christians who get a divorce even though Christ speaks against it, even though spouses and children get hurt in the process.

Power: One of the hardest sins to suffer is the lust for power, the tendency by some people to look on their fellow men and women as potential slaves, as potential property to be owned. This sin is alive and well in the Church, and can be seen in pastors who sue each other for control of a church, or politicians who try to recruit evangelicals as part of their power base in order to get elected to office.

Discernment: The Bible is increasingly devalued among evangelicals, because there are too many parts in the Bible which rebuke the deeds of these evangelicals. So their church meetings become entertainment services in which preachers give positive, “inspirational” sermons from “safe” parts of the Bible. And when people ask, “How can I find out what God's will is?”, they are told to wait for dreams and feelings instead of looking at what the Bible says. This leaves them open to being taken for a ride by con artists – of whom there are now many!

Boundaries: Walk into a lot of churches today and you will be “love-bombed.” That is, a bunch of people will come up to you and hug you – even though you've never seen them before in your life. They will put all kinds of pressure on you to sign on with them, to join their program, to be “one of us.” They will be invasive in their intrusion into your life. If you resist, they will tell you that that's not being nice, and after all, Christianity is all about “being nice.” They have been taught not to respect personal boundaries.

Over the next several posts I will explore these issues in more detail. This is a short list of issues. I am sure that some people could think of more.

Leaving, Part 4 - Not-so-Good Samaritans

Our meetings as a support group all took place at Wilt's house. During our first meeting, we went through introductions again, since a married couple from my old abusive church had recently joined us. When it was my turn to speak, I told about my experience in my former abusive church and some of the things I encountered after I left. I spoke about some of the conclusions I had recently come to regarding churches, and that they were not doing a very good job of winning my trust. “In fact,” I said, “I feel more comfortable giving canned goods to soup kitchens and homeless shelters than I feel about giving money to some pastors, since at least it's harder to embezzle a can of beans!”

This did not sit well with Wilt. He proceeded to lecture me about my bad attitude, beginning by saying, “Young man, I think you have a TRUST problem.” He went on about how so many men in ministry and church leadership were godly and good examples to the flock, speaking in a voice that grew ever louder and more disapproving of what I had said, until finally I stopped him in mid-sentence and told him that I did not appreciate his tone, since I had not come to his house to be lectured.

Now during this same time, the sexual abuses of many Catholic priests was being exposed for the world to see, and a prominent newspaper was running articles about financial abuses committed by the pastors at Melodyland Christian Center, a large church in Southern California. I left Wilt's house scratching my head and thinking, “He doesn't get it. I just don't think he gets it!” Nevertheless, I decided to give our support group another try.

Before our next meeting, I contacted a single woman who had also attended my former abusive church during the same time I was attending. I asked her if she wanted to join us, and she liked the idea. So she came to our next meeting. That meeting was not remarkable in itself, as we simply described more of what it was like to be in our former church, and the similarities between our former church and some of the more radical splinter groups of the Plymouth Brethren (There! I said it!) But after that meeting, I hung out for a while with this single woman in the street outside Wilt's house, since we had not talked to each other for a long time and wanted to catch up on what was happening with each other. As we walked out of Wilt's house, talking together, I noticed a look of disapproval on the faces of Wilt and his wife. I thought nothing of it, however, until our third meeting together.

That third meeting went very much like the second meeting, except that Wilt tried to lecture the single woman who had joined us, and she told him in no uncertain terms that she had been an adult for a while and did not need the lecture. But things got really interesting afterward, when it was time to leave. As I was going out the door, Wilt's wife pulled me aside and privately asked, “You know, you're a good looking man. Why don't you go to a nice Black church and find a nice Black girl to marry? I'm sure it would be easy for you.” Then I understood the disapproving looks on Wilt's face and his wife's face the week before, because I was black and this single woman was white! (By the way, I had no marital designs on her.)

I said, “Since when is race the basis for choosing a church? The Bible says that in Christ, there is not Jew or Greek, barbarian, Scythian, and so on. Moreover, the basis on which I choose a church is agreement with its doctrine and mission – not the color of peoples' skin. Why are you telling me to go to a Black church?” She did not know when to shut up, much less when to apologize, so she kept on about how she had Black friends who disapproved of interracial marriage, and that she was just trying to look out for me. I left that meeting with great displeasure.

Before our next meeting, I wrote a letter to Wilt and to his wife rebuking them for trying to segregate people in the Church, since in Christ God had made one new people. (It's in Colossians, by the way.) I also asked them what they thought would happen if the world at large knew they were trying to prevent interracial marriages in their church. Then I called Wilt on the phone and asked him casually if he had gotten around to reading the books on church abuse that had been suggested by the counseling ministry leader of his church. He admitted that he had not. After I called the ministry leader and told him of some of my frustrations, Wilt finally broke down and read “Churches that Abuse.” Also, I got a written letter of apology from his wife. I thought to myself that perhaps now our church abuse recovery group might at last become helpful. But I was wrong.

We had two more meetings after that. Wilt assigned us topics which each of us could present to the group. I chose to talk about the process of re-entry into church life, suggesting that people with our background should not jump immediately into a full commitment to a church, but instead, that we should take it slow, and find pursuits that we could share in common with others in a church so that trust could be built up in its own time and not rushed. Then I asked the group, “So, what are some pursuits or hobbies or interests that we have?”

Wilt jumped right in and rebuked me severely, saying that the talk I had presented was selfish and self-centered, and that Christ demands an unconditional commitment from us, holding nothing back. There was fire in his voice, I'll tell you! I told him that he was making no sense, and that we were all meeting in his house because we had made a wholehearted unconditional commitment to a cultic, abusive church that had taken us for everything we had. He told me, “Well, Christ accepts your sacrifice.”
I just looked at him. That meeting was the full proof to me that this guy didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about, or how to help victims of church abuse. That was the last meeting I went to with him.

Now, I've described some of the churches I tried after I left my former abusive church, and I've described some of the problems I found in each of them. And believe me, these were not the only churches I tried. My experiences with these churches have led me to certain conclusions regarding churches in the United States, and especially those churches associated with modern evangelicalism in the USA. My goal in all my posts up to now has been to get to this point, namely, a discussion and diagnosis of some of the problems I see with modern evangelicalism in America. Because, you see, the Bible commands us who are Christians that we should not “forsake the assembling of ourselves together,” but that we should meet together regularly as a church. And yet, I haven't been to any church for a couple of months now. Why? Because the Church in the USA is not a safe place in my eyes. Instead, a rather large number of opportunists, power-mongers and just plain jerks have taken over and trashed the place.

And I'm not happy about this.

Not-so-good Samaritans

My next forays into new churches took me to some rather interesting places. One of these places was another large mega-church of the same denomination as the one I mentioned in my last post. This church has a main pastor who does most of the preaching, as well as a large and varied pastoral staff. One of the staff members is a licensed mental health professional who picked up quite a bit of experience in dealing with toxic churches as a result of talking to a number of people who left the cult I was in when it was beginning to break up. Eventually, I got around to talking to him also, after reading “Recovering from Churches that Abuse” by Enroth.

I was really impressed by this man's understanding and willingness to listen (in fact, I still think he's a really great guy). But there was a problem, namely, that as a main staff member at that church, he didn't have a lot of time to do one-on-one counseling. So he suggested starting a support group for survivors of church abuse. And as the group was coming together, he suggested that one of his unpaid volunteer ministry assistants be the leader and facilitator.

The fun started with the man he chose to lead the group, a man whom I'll call Wilt (not his real name, of course). When the staff ministry leader and Wilt hosted a meeting one Sunday afternoon for those interested in starting this support group, Wilt showed up in a three-piece suit, wearing a grave expression on his face, as if to say, “I'm the authority around here.” We all introduced ourselves and told a little of what we wanted from such a group, and the staff ministry leader suggested that we all start our first few meetings by reading “Churches that Abuse.” Then he let Wilt say a few words.

Wilt began by lecturing us on the need to understand sound teaching and proper methods of Bible study. He made it clear that he believed that most people did not know how to study the Bible properly as he believed it should be studied. He believed that we had gotten into a cult because of a lack of sound Bible understanding, and that his instruction and teaching would set us right again. I'm sure that such a view made him feel good, but it completely ignored the following points about abusive religious groups:

1. Many of these abusive groups are fundamental churches whose doctrine seems on the outside to be quite orthodox. It is only as a person begins to invest time and commitment to these churches that they begin to show their more twisted sides. Indoctrination takes time and is often quite smooth and subtle.
2. Many of these abusive groups preach the Bible day in and day out, but with a twist: Scripture is interpreted in such a way that it serves the aim of the group and of its leaders, and not the will of God. Ask a Jehovah's Witness, for instance, how much he's supposed to study during the week.
3. The damage done by cults and abusive churches is not just doctrinal! Picture a family who joins such a church and which has one member – say the husband or wife – who falls out of favor with the leaders of the group. There are numerous cases where the leaders have alienated the entire family against that one member. Marriages are broken, money is extorted from people, members lose their health, some are driven to suicide, and all suffer from surrendering their wills and power to make decisions for themselves, and letting co-dependent “shepherds” run their lives.
4. Recovering from an abusive church/cult experience therefore involves a lot more than just “learning the right way to study the Bible.” It involves things like developing your own social life, learning to make your own decisions, dealing with anger, recovering from financial losses, being reconciled to your family, and in some cases, recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder. This list is by no means exhaustive.
   

Wilt did not understand any of this, however. In my next post I'll tell about how supportive our “support group” actually was.

Leaving, Part 2 - "Ger Sham"

The memory of where I am from
fades like a page from a Thomas guide
left to soak in the rain and bake in the sun
of this wilderness.
A stranger here, I am twice removed. – Th in SoC, 2003.

My first stop after leaving my abusive church was a group of people who structured their meetings in a manner very similar to the church I had left. In fact, there are many such groups, and they can trace their roots, more or less, to a movement which began in Ireland and England during the late 1800’s. They all believed that because they met according to a certain pattern, they were a true and pure expression of God’s church on earth. But many of these groups had the same problems of being run by overbearing, domineering leaders.

But as for the group I joined next, they were very nice on the whole, and consisted chiefly of two sub-groups: the very young and the very old. The elderly people were actually quite gracious and easy on the nerves, though they tended to think that their church was a truer expression of God’s true pattern than other churches. While most of the young people (college age and slightly younger) were also nice and laid back, there was at least one young man who was ambitious for a position of prominence. He seemed to me to be playing a few rather manipulative games to bring others under his oversight, so that he could be the leader of the “young people’s ministry.” And I had rather a lot of interaction with him, since singles (no matter their age) were also considered to fit in best in the young people’s ministry. This, combined with the fact that the group as a whole was very ingrown, was rather depressing for me, since I didn’t really find anyone I could connect with. I only lasted a few months in that group.

I decided next that I had had it with small, cutting-edge, “faithful remnant” churches, and instead tried out a large church belonging to one of the newer evangelical denominations. This church prided itself also on recognizing the priesthood of all believers and on being led by a board of elders instead of a single pastor. Their worship was certainly lively, since they had a “kickin’” praise band and a few dynamic speakers on their elder board. Their elders, moreover, knew about the abusive church I had come from, since many ex-members were now attending my new church.

I told my story to some of their elders, expecting that I would find a supportive group of people who would help me in setting myself straight. But some of their responses to me were rather surprising. For instance, in a conversation with one of their elders, I said that I thought my former church had been too authoritarian, and that we all needed to learn the concept of boundaries. “Boundaries!?” he replied. “That sounds like a psychological concept to me!” he continued, in an obvious note of disapproval. I was talking with another elder about how in my old church we had been pressured to perform, to climb the organizational ladder, to strive for a position of prominence. I said that from now on, I might just decide that my role in the church is to be a church attender and a good example of a Christian, and no more. His response: “Oh, well, that’s all right. After all, the Lord did say that he who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Now, what kind of response was that? It seemed obvious to me that he was trying to use Scripture to make me feel guilty for not wanting to do more in his church.

I noticed a few other things at this church. First, that the elders took several occasions to commend certain individuals and married couples for giving themselves fully to the Lord’s work, because “our church had a workday this last weekend, and the Smiths were right there – pulling weeds, painting walls, cleaning Sunday school classrooms, the works! They were the first to come and the last to leave. They are fully on board, in full agreement with the mission of this church. The Scripture says that we are to commend and recognize such people as these, and to imitate their faith.”

I met a younger married man whose obvious aspiration for his family was to be one of these recognized couples. Our first interaction with each other consisted of him coming up to me with a look of extremely earnest care and concern on his face, putting his hand on my shoulder and saying, “We’re so glad to have you with us! How long have you been attending Church X?” His whole intent was to “minister” to me, since I was obviously a “needy soul” in his eyes. I laughed to myself. He probably thought I was his age or younger. It’s amazing how you can fool people if you work out regularly and keep your hair cut short so the gray doesn’t show! But rather than allow myself to be ministered to, I turned the tables on him and started asking him questions about himself. I found out that he and his wife had recently both graduated from a small, prestigious seminary, and that though they had only recently been married, they were ambitious to start a small group to help married couples with any struggles they might have. A commendable ambition, perhaps, though in my opinion, he might have wanted to wait a while so that others could see whether he himself was able to walk the walk before he started talking the talk.

One thing about the small group ministry at this church: the elders frequently encouraged and exhorted people to get involved in the small groups, since “growth only happens when you are in relationship with each other.” Being a newbie, a newbie who had been recently been burned by an abusive church, I wanted to hang back and check things out before I jumped into a small group. I thought, “Why don’t I get to know these people first, and see what they are like.” So I befriended another young couple and we went out to coffee after a Sunday service. The young wife began to lecture me about how I needed to get into a small group “because that’s the only way to grow in your Christian walk,” etc., and that that was how we all got to know each other so that we could help each other. I thought, “Aren’t we getting to know each other right now?” When I asked one of the elders about their small groups, he said, “We don’t leave each other alone. You see, we’re serious about holiness. We get in each other’s lives. We hold each other accountable.” But it seemed strange to me that joining a small group meant letting perfect strangers poke around in my life as a condition of joining the group, and not waiting for a level of trust to be built up first.

Another thing about the small groups was that the members did not set the agenda for the groups, but rather, the elders did. And the elders had decided that in each small group, the only topic for discussion was to be the notes from the Sunday sermons given by the elders. Members of a small group could not decide, for instance, that they wanted to study a book of the Bible on their own. It was the elders, not the members, who also chose who would be small group leaders.

I think you can tell where I’m going with this. I lasted perhaps six months in this church. To summarize my impression of them, I thought that while there were many earnest and sincere saints in that church, their leaders were rather pushy, and that there were practices and dynamics in place in the group which could lead to abuse if not very closely watched. There’s more that I could say about this church, but I have more ground to cover, because there were more churches I visited. But more on that next time…

Leaving, Part 1

The church I left advertised itself as being “a faithful expression of God's New Testament pattern” and that their leaders did everything “exactly in accordance with the Scriptures.” They advertised themselves as being a place for “serious Christians who really want to advance in their walk with the Lord.” Yet, unknown to most of us, the following things were going on behind closed doors:

- The head honcho was an adulterer who had forced himself on several women over a period of at least twenty, and more likely, thirty years.

- The money given by the rank-and-file every week was actually spent supporting the head honcho and his two sons, so that they could live in relative luxury while doing almost nothing.

- One of this man's sons was a wife beater and an abuser of his own children. The head honcho and his deputies knew about this for over a decade, yet consistently covered it up, spending thousands of dollars in the process. This man was put in charge of one of the churches in the group, where he practiced his abusive ways even on church members, though not to the same extent as he did with his family. His wife and one of his daughters eventually left him, and the daughter obtained a restraining order against him.

- People in the group were pressured into giving thousands of dollars and countless hours of personal time to the “work” of the head honcho. In many cases, the individuals who gave so much were ruined in the process. People who had resources but were not fully committed to the group were made into targets for gossip and character assassination.

- A subtle form of racism was practiced in all the churches of this group. Black and Hispanic people bore the brunt of it, with the severest racism being reserved for Black members of the group. In a number of cases, Black members were hindered from marrying. Also, members who were single parents were persecuted by the leadership.

- Married couples with children were told not to vaccinate their children, with the result that a number of children got serious diseases such as whooping cough.

- At least two members committed suicide because of the group.

These and many other things were occurring behind closed doors, a collection of misdeeds piling up like so much raw sewage behind closed doors, misdeeds committed both by the head honcho and by his lieutenants, until the doors couldn't be kept closed any longer and burst open. The dam-bursting event was that many people at one time became aware of the wife- and child-abusing ways of the head honcho's family, and those who knew or had witnessed the abuse and cover-up became willing to speak out. Much of that speaking-out took place on the Internet, for all the world to see. It became impossible to keep things quiet any longer.

The result for many of us was that we began to see our own experiences in the group in a new light. I, for one, began to realize the true meaning of the treatment I had received from the head honcho and his deputies, and I didn't like what I was realizing. Many others came to the same realization concerning their treatment. We began to share our experiences with each other, especially those things we had been instructed to “keep to ourselves.” The anger and pain so many of us had stuffed down for a long time came at last to the surface.

Some of us elected to stay and try to fix the system. However, I had a moment where I looked into the mirror and said to myself, “Face the facts. You know, you've been in a cult all these years.” Many others I knew had similar moments. We decided to walk away.

We walked away, knowing that we were walking away from death disguised as life, from hell dressed up as a cheap imitation of heaven, from sadists dressed as doctors, from worthless liars dressed up as the genuine article. We walked away, and were walking into – who knows what? Some of us tried to do our homework in order to prepare for the journey. We read books like “Churches that Abuse” by Ron Enroth, “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen, and “Soul Survivor” by Philip Yancey. Some of us talked to counselors, psychotherapists and pastors. Over and over we kept hearing that we needed to find a “healthy church” where we could heal.

In my next installment, I will tell what I discovered while walking out and while walking into the outside world...

What my old church was like, Part 2

Here I will tell you about our leader and his lieutenants. Our leader claimed to be a seminary graduate with over 125 post-bachelor degree units in philosophy. He said that he used to be a pastor of a denominational church until "the Lord spole to him and showed him through the reading of the Scriptures that denominationalism was wrong." He said that the Lord also showed him the “errors” of many churches, such as having a paid clergy, making financial needs known publicly, instrumental music during worship services, and having printed programs for worship services. He said that because the Bible taught the priesthood of all believers, there should be a plurality of elders and of preaching instead of having a pastor as both head of a church and its sole preacher. He said that because of these things, the Lord led him to “start a new work, in order to recover the New Testament pattern for the Church.”

Accordingly, in each church he founded, there were a number of men who were recognized as “elders” or “leading brothers.” Also, all the men in each church were strongly pressured to come to each meeting “ready and exercised with a word to share with God’s people.” Those who were active in preaching and teaching and who aspired to increased leadership roles were commended as “being serious for the Lord,” and were looked on favorably as candidates for positions as “elders” and “leading brothers.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think Bible study is a good thing, and being able to intelligently teach the Bible is good. But the way these things were worked out in our group was actually pernicious. For not only was it taught that we should all be “serious for the Lord,” but it was also taught by word and by attitudes that those who didn’t put themselves forward, who weren’t ambitious, who weren’t always trying to start or lead or initiate or preach were somehow less spiritual than those who were. This resulted in tremendous pressure to perform, with the further result that many of us became intensely competitive, constantly trying to best each other in order to gain some coveted position of leadership.

The man who founded these churches also founded “training homes” where “serious” young men and women could be “trained for the work of the Lord.” These homes were usually run by a married couple who assigned chores to the young unmarried men and/or women who lived in the homes, and who assigned “consequences” to those who did not perform their chores to the standard set by the married couple. They also charged money for “living expenses”. Several of these married couples were also leaders in the various churches started by the head honcho, and they acted as his lieutenants. These training homes were billed as a way to “grow in stature and maturity”, but they actually kept many people in an infantile state, since the married couples who ran the homes got to decide how much free time you had, what you did with your free time, whether or not you could date, whom you could date, what you could eat, etc. As I said before, this group was very active in recruiting college students. When these students were persuaded to move into the "training homes", that was frequently the end of their college careers, since they no longer had adequate time to devote to their studies. As time progressed, however, the leaders of the group became more accommodating to college students, realizing that people with degrees would earn more, and would hence be able to give more money to the group.

The head honcho taught that elders and leading brothers should be selected according to the requirements of 1 Timothy 3 concerning elders and deacons. In actuality, while he asked sometimes for input regarding candidates for leadership positions, he always made the final decision. And he made his decision, not on the basis of the character of the candidate, but on the basis of the candidate’s loyalty or usefulness to him. Thus, for instance, there were many who were selected because their families had a lot of money! There was also a lot of nepotism practiced in selecting leaders and people for favored positions, both with the head honcho and with his lieutenants. Through his lieutenants, the founder exercised great control over every church he founded. Thus it was that the head honcho selected his sons to be “elders”, even though one of them turned out to be a wife-beater.

Regarding finances, as I said before, financial accountability was frowned upon in this group. We were encouraged every week to put our money into “the box at the back of the room”, but no one of the rank and file was ever told exactly where the money went from week to week. Instead, we would occasionally be presented with video shows where a piece of land or a new SUV was bought “for the Lord’s servants” in a Third World country. The leaders boasted that they did not make their needs known publicly like so many other ministries, but that they “trusted the Lord to take care of all their needs.” In reality, there was plenty of subtle pressure exerted behind the scenes to get money from people. If it was discovered that a man or woman had money, they were zealously courted as a “key asset to the Work” and were promised a leadership position of some sort.

My purpose in telling these things has been to show why I called this group aberrant. There are many other things I could write about this group. And I haven’t even begun to tell about my experiences while in the group. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t fun. But I will move on to what it was like to leave the group and to come out into the larger world of Christendom. More on that in my next post…

What my old church was like, Part 1

I told you in my last post that the church I found in college was abusive and aberrant. Let me tell a bit more about this church. I shall not name names, because of potential legal liabilities which I will explain in more detail further on. For now, let's just call them “Group X.”

Group X boasted that they obeyed the Bible exactly. They prided themselves on doing everything “according to the New Testament pattern.” When I first met them, they were constantly repeating to me Acts 2:42, “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer, ”speaking of the practices of the early church. Group X harshly criticized other churches, saying that the other churches did not faithfully devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, etc., but that Group X did. The leaders of Group X accused other churches of being “worldly” and “carnal”, referring to Christians from other churches as “mere believers with a bare salvation” while referring to all who belonged to Group X as “saints.”

Their meetings were deliberately simple. Their Sunday worship consisted of a bunch of men and women in a plain room (why plain? because stained glass and elaborate decorations were “carnal”). The chairs were all arranged in a semicircle. In the center was a table on which was a loaf of bread and a pitcher of wine. The women all wore pieces of cloth on their heads, in order to obey the command in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning women covering their heads in church. There was a time, usually lasting around an hour, in which men and women said prayers aloud, one at a time, with others offering up hymns and other songs from time to time. All the hymns were sung without musical instruments, because according to the leaders of Group X, “musical instruments are never mentioned as being used by the church in the Book of Acts, brother!” After that, two or three men of the group would stand up and preach on a passage of Scripture, with one of the leaders giving the final message.

As far as taking a collection of money, they did not pass a plate, but rather, there was a wooden box in the back of the room where people put their offerings. We were assured every week that the money “is used for the work of the Lord, both here and abroad,” but we never were given any kind of information about how exactly the money was spent. The Group X leaders justified not telling us where the money went by quoting 2 Kings 12:15 “Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully.” They criticized other churches for issuing financial statements or making agreements to be financially accountable, saying that these other churches “refused to trust the Lord.”

I only mentioned their Sunday morning meetings. As a matter of fact, they had lots of meetings, especially in their early days (I joined them at the tail end of their early days). At one time, a typical week might consist of the following: Sunday morning worship, Sunday lunch outreach (this meant going out two by two in suits and dresses into neighborhoods, knocking on doors and trying to get people to join the group), Sunday afternoon “ministry” (usually an extended sermon from the head honcho of the group or one of his deputies), Sunday evening “brothers' or sisters' meetings”, Wednesday “chapter summary”, Thursday prayer meeting, Friday “all night of prayer”, Saturday “tape ministry” (consisting of listening to tape recordings of sermons delivered by the head honcho of the group), and, three times a year, “seminar weekends” spent listening to the head honcho or his deputies giving a series of lectures in a stuffy, crowded room.

I mentioned the head honcho a number of times. In my next installment, I'll tell you something about the leaders of Group X and how they were chosen.

A little more information...

I told you it would take a long time to say what I need to say... Anyway, here's a bit more personal information.

I was born into a somewhat more than nominally Catholic family, although my mother comes from a more Pentecostal/signs & wonders background. I was a precocious kid and read a lot of science books which made me despair of finding God or heaven, since they all taught that we were the products of blind evolution. I grew up as a black member of a black family during the tail end of the more severe part of the civil rights struggle. I became a Christian while in junior high school.

My parents, unfortunately, split up during that time, and, being fatherless and somewhat directionless, I drifted away from the faith during high school. In fact, I drifted through high school and into the Army, where I came face to face with the fact that I could die at any time. Believe me, that will get a man thinking about the serious questions of life! As a result of that experience I turned back to Christ at the end of my enlistment and said goodbye to the Army.

Facing adulthood after the childhood I had lived through left a number of dents, dings and broken places in my soul, and I looked for a place of healing. I was going to a Lutheran church at the time and it wasn't a bad place, but I longed for something more. I always thought that the church was supposed to be a place of healing (after all, so many churches advertise themselves as such).

In my searching I found a church group which met on college campuses and seemed to be full of life and joy. They were headed by a dynamic leader who really seemed to have his act together. But what I didn't know was that they were actually an abusive group. During the two decades I met with them, I saw many of the abuses and aberrations they practiced, but I was taught to swallow it and accept it all as "God's will". Finally, about three and a half years ago I and a number of others left the group.

We who left read many books on recovering from spiritual abuse and on the need to find a "healthy church." In future posts, I will describe what it's been like looking for such a church, and how my experiences have caused me to look at the contemporary evangelical subculture in the United States.

By the way, I am still a Christian. I can recite the Apostle's Creed without crossing my fingers behind my back. But it's been a rather wild ride.

Welcome to my personal pulpit.

In the days to come, I will post certain observations and opinions which I have long held. I am doing this to find out, first, if I am the only one who has these opinions (I don't think so), and second, to connect with those who share a similar view. Some of what I say will, no doubt, be controversial, but not more so than the things being said each day by the 10+ billion human tongues now wagging on Earth. Since it takes a long time and much thought in order to say anything meaningful, I warn you that I'll probably take a while to say all that I have to say.