Making Mud Pies in a Slum: The Idolatry of Cheap Beauty

If there’s three things I know about my sister, it’s that she loves pickles, the color pink, and The Muppets. Her love for Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang is pretty incredible. I’m pretty sure if you set her in front of a television and played Muppet Show reruns or Muppet movies (yeah, even Muppets From Space… yuck…) she would be left in an utter stupor of pure joy. Because of my sister’s slight obsession, I always take notice when there’s any big Muppet news floating around (as I’m sure most of you are… pretty standard). 

Well, it should just so happen that today, August 23, 2011, a Muppets tribute album headed up by the band Ok Go was released in anticipation of the new Muppets movie being released this November creatively entitled, The Muppets, which is the first Muppets film to be released in theaters in 12 years and is hoped by fans to be a return to form for a pop culture franchise that has largely disappeared from our collective conscience over the past decade. Many of the bands on the appropriately named Green Album are some of my favorites so I decided to check it out on NPR’s First Listen when some music critics started buzzing about the album a few weeks back.

Admittedly, my sister’s love for the Muppets has rubbed off on me. Thanks to her, the Muppets have carved out a soft spot in my heart. How couldn’t they, right? There’s something about the Muppets that harkens back to the nostalgia of childhood innocence and a comedic delivery that appeals to both children and adults alike, a lost art in our day of demographic studies and targeted marketing. For me, I’m a sucker for The Muppet Movie, which is the Muppets first and, in my humble opinion, the best movie of the lot. So, when I started listening to the Green Album, I was immediately drawn to the song, “Rainbow Connection,” which appeared on The Muppet Movie and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

The more cynical among us might write off “Rainbow Connection” for being nothing more than sentimental fluff. If that’s you, I don’t blame you. I’d probably feel the same if not for some nostalgic pulls at my proverbial heart strings (sniffle sniffle). But even if your cynical leanings have sucked your heart dry of any childhood innocence that was left after you found out Santa wasn’t real (While I said I wouldn’t blame you, I didn’t say I wouldn’t try to make you feel really really guilty.), I would still like to suggest to you that “Rainbow Connection” hits on something truly profound, something at the very heart of what it means to be human.

If you watch the video linked above and you listen to the little green frog wax poetic, Kermit reflects on the longing within the human soul for transcendent truth and beauty. The lyrics speak to the inextinguishable desire of humanity to worship, to find unspeakable joy in what we perceive to be beautiful. Sadly, too many of us settle for a cheap beauty that will ultimately leave us in a vanity.

C.S. Lewis once said:

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The things human beings so often make ultimate (power, sex, money, etc.) are in the end, as Lewis says, mud pies in a slum. Those things were meant to be shadows of something far greater and foretastes of a joy that would not fade or leave you asking, “Isn’t there more to it than this?” In reality, we were all made to be worshipers but not worshipers of created things. We were made to worship God and enjoy Him forever. The truth of Scripture and the love of Christ revealed in his death and resurrection gives us an incredible glimpse into the unimaginable joy that awaits those who have put their trust in Christ. It’s not power, sex, or money that awaits us but God Himself: the infinite, uncreated, all-powerful, all-knowing One. When we are finally in the presence of the Lord, we will never be bored. We will be enjoying communion with the only person with whom we can truly find permanent joy and satisfaction.

It is so easy in this life to settle for mud pies. Life has a way of choking out of us the wonder we all know as children. In the here and now, it becomes very easy to settle for things that make our immediate circumstances seemingly more tolerable, but they really don’t. Instead, they leave us emptier than we were before and searching for the next high, like a drug addict. True joy can only be found in the transcendent presence of God. And while Kermit never explicitly states in his song, he reminds us that what is truly worth pursuing is not found in the mud pies at the slums but in the holiday at the sea, even if you’re called a fool.

The world loves to call those who pursue and long for transcendent beauty fools. But the true fools are those who convince themselves that life is without meaning and devoid of anything objectively true and beautiful. As Christians, we cannot settle for cheap beauty. As Dostoevsky once said, we must:

Believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.

Only that is worth pursuing with all strength and passion. Only receiving God as our prize is worth giving all for. As Christians, we cannot accept the idolatry of cheap beauty but only what will truly satisfy: Christ. Anything less than receiving Him as our reward is too sorry to be mentioned.

Baby, I Was Born This Way: The Idolatry of Guiltlessness

In the world of pop culture this year, one success story has eclipsed all others (sorry Rebecca Black). Her name? Stephanie Germanotta. You might know her better by her more infamous monicker: Lady Gaga. Recently, Lady Gaga released her third album, Born This Way, only to have debut number one on the Billboard charts and selling over 1.1 million albums in its first week, the most for a first week release in six years. She’s made appearances on this season’s American Idol as well as the Grammy Awards performing in prime time (in bizarre fashion… literally) in front millions of people. Her concerts known for their circus like spectacle are the hottest ticket in whatever major metropolitan area you find yourself. Her twitter following, which she “affectionately” dubs ‘little monsters,’ now counts over 10 million. In light of these impressive accomplishments, it seems safe to say Gaga has risen to the top of pop charts and pop culture.

To say Lady Gaga is no stranger to controversy would be a gross understatement. As alluded to earlier, Ms. Germanotta’s alter ego has been responsible for bizarre fashion statements to questionable subject matter in many of her songs. However, her most controversial and pervasive stance (it wouldn’t be going out on a very long limb to say her latest album title is a reference to the homosexual condition) has been her outspoken support for homosexuality, gay rights, and gay marriage. In fact, her pro-homosexual rhetoric in interviews as well as homosexual messages in her songs has raised the collective eyebrows and ire of conservative Catholic and Christian groups throughout the U.S.

While it would be well worth examining what Lady Gaga’s support of homosexuality means for the wider culture, there is something undergirding the message of the pop star in its totality that’s even more consequential. To find the ethos of Gaga we need to look no further than the lyrics of her latest single and title track of her newest album. Here are some samplings:

“My momma told me when I was young/We are all born superstars”

“I’m beautiful in my way/’Cause God makes no mistakes/I’m on the right track baby/I was born this way”

“Don’t hide yourself in regret/Just love yourself and you’re set”

When I read these lyrics, I’m struck by two things. First of all, despite all the hype regarding her controversial nature, it’s interesting how much of her songs’ content is pretty unoriginal. Gaga’s lyrics are simply the mantra of American culture recycled. You could walk into just about any elementary school classroom in America and see posters with essentially the same messages. Turn on the television and Nike or Coca-Cola will cater to your ego in just about the same way. Lady Gaga is essentially the hyper-individualism that is America.

Going hand in hand with her proclamation that we are all ‘superstars,’ Lady Gaga carries with her a message of guiltlessness. It doesn’t take much to notice that most superstars don’t seem to have the ability to feel shame. Judging by her mostly bizarre antics, Lady Gaga certainly doesn’t. With the advent of reality TV, participating in shameful behavior is now how you get famous. The dream used to be going to Hollywood, working some service industry job, and hoping you got a lucky break at an audition. Now, it’s sending in an audition tape to a reality show that shows you doing something outrageous or portraying a certain character type that will enhance the show’s casts’ ability to do outrageous things. Beyond reality TV, many “traditional” celebrities have taken their careers to new heights of fame or infamy by doing outrageous things. Lady Gaga wants America to know it’s ok to do whatever you want and be whoever you want. If it strays beyond the confines of “morality” or what society deems “ok,” don’t worry about it. You were born that way. After all, there’s no escaping who you are. Why feel bad about it then?

Here too Gaga is not the purveyor of something new. American culture has offered the same message for years. But what Lady Gaga has been proclaiming is not only an issue within our own culture but also within the human heart wherever it is found. Every human being senses there is something wrong with the world and something wrong with themselves. There is universal feeling of brokenness in the world. We spend our lifetimes trying to figure out how to fix us (ever notice how big the self-help section at the bookstore is?). We spend trillions of dollars trying to fix the world. Still, we fall so short of the perfection we seek. That leaves us with quite the dilemma.

The solution for American culture has been the message of Lady Gaga and the many who preached the same thing years before she ever came on the scene. ‘Sure, you’re messed up. But don’t worry about it. Ignore it. Be who you are. Do whatever you want. That’s where you’ll find true fulfillment.’ Sadly, the fulfillment part never seems to happen. Even a short glance at the tabloids will let you know how that sermon works out for its most outspoken preachers. Badly.

But that still leaves us back at square one. How do we fix ourselves? How do we get ourselves the fulfillment we so desperately seek? Well, we can’t. That’s the beauty of the gospel. We are all broken. So broken we cannot fix ourselves. But God can and He did. We have all sinned, and it is our own awareness of our sin that causes that sinking feeling in our stomachs that we are messed up people. God though took the punishment for the evil we have done. And He promises that if we confess our sin and need for Him, He will forgive us and begin to fix us. It will not be an overnight process. None of us will be totally restored to the way we were meant to be until God restores all things at His coming. But it has begun in the here and now. That should leave us in awe. But as the saying goes: only one who knows they are lost can be found. Sure, we are all born this way, broken and sinful. But we can be healed. We can be restored… only if we acknowledge our guilt and accept the help of God that we all need.

Are You Violent For or Against Your Idols?

Mike Anderson of The Resurgence asks the poignant question in a recent article, “What are you willing to throw someone under a bus for?” The answer may be a convicting revelation of what your idols may be. Read the whole article here.

How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell: A Western Idolatry

Before I begin to attempt walking through the minefield that is the current controversy over hell, let me begin by saying that this not an explicit critique of Rob Bell’s Love Wins. I haven’t read the book, and what I know of the book has come through secondhand sources. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit I am very skeptical of Bell’s view of hell and the contents of Love Wins. Maybe that’s unfair, but we all come with biases and preconceived notions. I’m just trying to be honest with mine. In my opinion, a lot of Bell’s past work, while well written and engaging, is riddled with exegetical and interpretive errors, a vast numbers of self-contradictory statements, bad logic, and arrogance. It’s just that combination of charisma and incoherence that, in my opinion, makes someone like Bell so dangerous: it preys on the inadequately or misinformed. You may agree or disagree with that assessment. You are more than entitled to your opinion. But that is all besides the point. My purpose for this article is to critique the prevailing disdain for hell that is found in Western culture. While some of the points that I bring up may pertain to Rob Bell’s book, many may not and should not be read necessarily in light of Love Wins. Whew… That felt like quickly reading off the long list of side effects from a drug commercial. Hopefully, I have sufficiently qualified what I’m about to say.

Talk to any random person on the street in North America or Europe (aka ‘Da West’ and I’m not talking Kanye) about hell, and you will probably get one of two responses. A lot of people will just say, convinced by their own self-attributed status as a “pretty good person” (well… at least better than that other guy), that they are going to heaven and don’t really concern themselves thinking about hell or death for that matter. Another group of people will flat out say they just don’t believe in hell, either because they don’t believe in God or they can’t imagine God would ever send anyone to such a terrible place as hell. In our postmodern context in the West, we’ve grown so accustomed to buzzwords like ‘tolerance’ and a social consciousness that rejects dogmatic assertions that such a judgmental and definite state of existence such as hell seems antiquated and contradictory to the spirit of the age. God after all, if he does exist, must be a sophisticated postmodern Westerner just like you and me, right?

The tragedy of the rejection of hell by some in the Western church is that we have made God into our image, not the other way around. In our postmodern age, the great irony of an era of so-called ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ is the imposing of our current cultural understanding on the transcendent and infinite God. Doesn’t it seem strange that the postmodern ethos, which rejects attempts by the so-called ruling elite to make power plays, imposes such a power play on God Himself? Instead of accepting the witness of Scripture that God is both a God of love as well as holiness and justice who must punish evil, we have pronounced that we know better and God couldn’t “behave like that.” We have tamed God down to a manageable size, into a nice old man who smiles a lot, pats us on the back, and says, “Oh, that’s ok.” That’s a god that mankind can forget about and pull out when we need him to make us feel good but is inconsequential for living life on day-to-day basis. I doubt that many of those who would reject the idea of hell would intend or accept that conclusion. But if you want to see the results of such a theology, look no further than the mainline liberal churches of America. They are dead or dying.

In the end, I fear many of those who have rejected the doctrine of hell have mistakenly practiced some cultural and historical arrogance. In reality, the current postmodern cultural consensus of the West is not transcendent truth. The conclusions of today have been rejected by those in the past and would be rejected today in many non-Western cultures across the globe. In fact, as unlikely as it might seem, they might be rejected by our own culture tomorrow. If we make the Bible and God into whatever we find appealing at the moment, we practice idolatry. And despite our good intentions, we will repeat the errors and eventual demise of Protestant liberalism. I don’t know about you, but I do not want a God who I can tame and thereby explain away all the rough edges. Give me the truth… all of it.

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: The Idolatry of Morality

Most of us have played the “Desert Island Game.” If you’ve ever played, it usually happens late at night with a group of friends or as an ice breaker to help ease the awkwardness of meeting new people at a social event. The “Desert Island Game” is pretty simple. It almost always consists of someone asking a variation of the question, “What would you bring with you on a desert island knowing you’ll be stranded there forever?” Usually, it gets narrowed down to books, movies, creature comforts, etc and the choice of what to bring is limited in number. My favorite version of this game is music. I am a big music fan. The choice of what songs or albums to take with me to the desert island is always quite the challenge. There are, however, a few artists and songs that always jump out for me (good thing since that’s kinda the point of the game). One of those songs is the perfect backdrop for the idolatry of morality.

In my humble opinion, few musical artists are better than Sufjan Stevens. The man writes pop/folk songs like they are orchestral arrangements with lyrics that read as poetry (Now, some of you are going to picture me gushing like a thirteen year-old girl after reading that last sentence and proceed to mock. All I’m going to say is stop, think, and ask yourself a question. Do you feel lucky, punk?!? Ahem. I mean… Do you really think that’s constructive and uplifting? I didn’t think so.) One his best songs tells the story of a serial killer named John Wayne Gacy Jr. Not exactly fluff. So be warned. But after describing what this horribly deranged man did to so many people, Stevens leaves the listener with this haunting line: “And in my best behavior/ I am really just like him/ Look beneath the floorboards/ For the secrets I have hid.” It is the most damning assessment of human nature in pop culture that didn’t involve a Jersey Shore episode I’ve ever heard. To compare yourself to a serial killer is a pretty crazy thing to say. But in the context of our sinful state and the holiness of God, it isn’t. We are all just like him.

It doesn’t take much Bible reading to realize the state of humanity is pretty grim. There’s the verse that says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Then there’s the one that says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” And to top it all off, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness…” So, not only are all of us guilty of sin or rebellion against God, we’ve rejected the true and glorious God and deluded ourselves into worshiping idols, something which God must and will judge. Not a rosy picture.

Fortunately, that’s not where the story ends, though it easily could have. Instead, God in his amazing love sent the second person of the Trinity, God the Son to become a man and endure the penalty that all of humanity deserved for their rebellion. Now, God invites us all to put our trust in Jesus Christ, be forgiven, become adopted sons and daughters of God, and help change the world for the sake of Christ. That’s pretty amazing news, without which we would all be doomed to a punishment we more than deserved. But instead of seeing our own evil and desperate state as lucidly as Sufjan Stevens does in his song, we delude ourselves into thinking we are good enough on our own. We make our morality into an idol.

In reality, God’s grace is the only thing that keeps us from the judgement we all deserved. It is that grace upon which we are all so utterly dependent. However, Christians and non-Christians alike so often fall into believing that we aren’t really that bad. For non-Christians, morality is the thing that makes them believe they have been justified before God. Talk to anyone who says they kinda sorta believe in God, and they’ll tell you that just trying to live a good life is the best you can do to make God like you. So many will say, “I mean, look at that other guy. Compared to him, I’m pretty good. God will probably let me into heaven. I don’t do anything that bad.” The problem is that comparing yourself to “the other guy” is meaningless. The measure of good is another human being, but God. When you compare yourself to holy and perfect God, you look pretty bad to say the least. The fact is we have all rebelled against God. We all want to overthrow God, take His place, and say we know better. That’s what sin is. That’s a pretty serious crime.

For many Christians, even though we understand that they have been forgiven only through God’s grace, we fall into legalism. We begin to judge ourselves by the good things we do. We start to believe that we are doing just fine now and God must really like us now. We begin to compare ourselves to those around us and being to swell with pride.  A lot of us, if we are honest, start to believe that God owes us something. However, God doesn’t owe us a thing. It’s all grace. That’s something we can never outgrow or ever avoid needing, Christian or non-Christian. Every single one of us deserved hell. It is a gift from God that any of us have been saved.

Don’t get me wrong. Just because our good works do not somehow earn God’s favor or make him like us more doesn’t mean we should not strive to be holy and righteous. Christ gave up everything so that we could begin to become more like Him and help change the world for His sake. But we are never going to be free from sin in this life, and even when we have our best day, we still don’t measure up. Our moral performance so often becomes an idol we serve that we believe will save us. It won’t. Without Christ, all of us would have suffered the punishment of hell. We all would have been like that serial killer in the Sufjan Stevens song. Thankfully, we are not. That’s something we should never ever forget.

The Idolatry of Facebook

I can still remember the first time I logged on to Facebook. It was the summer before going to college for the first time (circa 2006), and Facebook was still an exclusive club for college students. There was something cool about it that made you feel like you were in the “in crowd.” If you can still remember back then, there was this thing called Myspace. Everyone had one. It’s dominance seemed invincible. In retrospect, there were so many annoying things that went along with it, which ceded its social networking power. Take for instance the huge ads and pop ups that were everywhere, people’s profile songs blaring every time you logged on to their page, or spam messages galore. Everything about Facebook was clean. There were no ads. The template for user’s profiles were all the same. You couldn’t be stalked (well, only your friends or people at your college could stalk you). Yeah, Facebook was cool, and I was on the inside with all the cool kids.

As college progressed, Facebook’s arrival as the social network leader became more and more apparent. People began deleting their Myspace pages. Facebook was expanded to allow anyone to join. Inevitably, your mom got one (love you mom!). Soon the “cool” factor was gone, but Facebook’s usefulness as a tool to connect with people had become so ingrained in people that it didn’t matter anymore. Sure, people were mad (but deep down secretly happy) when the “news feed” came around making stalking even easier, and Facebook constantly changed your profile. But let’s face it. We were all hooked.

I can remember talking to numerous girls in college who spent 8-10+ hours on Facebook. Guys too were no stranger to spending endless amounts of time starring at people’s profiles (probably stalking the girl you had a crush on who sat next to you in Psychology… I never did this). Relationships weren’t “official” until declared on Facebook. People couldn’t go anywhere without taking pictures to put on Facebook. Facebook statuses became contests of wit that showed how you cool you were. Safe to say, life has become consumed by this imaginary social networking world.

Let’s be upfront. Facebook has some incredible things to offer. For me, it’s been an invaluable tool to stay in touch with friends and see what they are up to, something that would have been far more difficult in the past. However, for many (including myself at times), Facebook has become something that wastes hours of time. It become so easy to “get lost” clicking on page after page of profiles and pictures. But there are even far more damaging issues to worry about.

A new study, conducted by psychologists at Stony Brook University, found that excessive chatting on Facebook caused depression in teenage girls. The study discovered that Facebook actually contributes to people participating in something called co-rumination, an unhealthy form of obsessive conversation regarding personal problems like romantic disappointments or issues with friends or peers. In the study, the teenage girls were found to become depressed after spending hours obsessing over their problems on Facebook with their friends. Just think about it. How many times do you go on Facebook and see someone else’s status regarding a break-up or some kind of traumatic or depressing experience for all the world to see? A lot. Not that you’d ever do that.

What the Stony Brook Study touches on in my humble opinion goes even deeper. Another study out of Stanford University found that people can become depressed from Facebook as a result of seeing other people’s happiness. The study discovered that people using Facebook often perceived that others’ lives were filled with happiness while their own lives were miserable in comparison, resulting in depression and anxiety. As the article detailing the study reminds us, this problem isn’t new. Human beings have always felt a need to put on a show for others, tricking them into believing we are living the perfect life. It is a social norm and a destructive one at that. However, Facebook has taken this problem and magnified it. Now, instead of just being able to control how you present yourself in public, you can create a profile in the social network of Facebook that controls every aspect of how you are perceived. You can create funny statuses that will show people how funny and sophisticated you are. You get hundreds of “friends” to show how popular you are. You can take hundreds of pictures of yourself doing cool or funny things to “prove” how perfect your life is. What could only be done before with makeup or lying in conversations can now be done on Facebook in too many ways to count.

Facebook has become for so many of us an idol or at least something that leads us to idolatry. It has become something that allows us to control how we are perceived, hiding our own brokenness and sinfulness, and something that causes jealousy over our friends’ “perfect lives,” resulting in depression. In the end, if we give it the power, Facebook can lead you and I to chase after making ourselves into something to be worshiped. The crafting and shaping of our online image becomes an endless desire to be praised by our peers when 99% of the time it’s a lie. At the other end of the spectrum, Facebook can cause us to become discontented with our own lives because of the jealousy of seeing the real or, more likely, fake happiness of others. Both are sin. Both are idols that consume us.

Facebook can be a wonderful thing. It can be an incredible tool that keep us connected to people we care about. It can also be something that can cause an incredible amount of destruction. Even worse, it is a destruction that can be so subtle and secretive. We need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. Has Facebook become a means to lie about who you really are? Do you use it to hide your own brokenness? Do you use it get the praise and worship of your friends by portraying a false image of yourself? Or, has Facebook gained such a hold over you that it is making you depressed? Is it causing you to covet the lives of your friends? Is it making you believe you are alone in your own brokenness? If it is, it may be time to do a little reflection and remind ourselves that we are all broken. Only through Christ are we restored. Only through an honest admission of who we are can we change and grow in our reliance on the grace of God for our joy.

The Idolatry of Self

Red vs. Blue: The Idolatry of Politics

I was a strange child. When I was three, I became obsessed with tornadoes. To help appease my bizarre fascination with catastrophic weather events, my dad recorded a severe weather television special produced by a local meteorologist off of one of our local TV channels. I would go on to repeatedly watch that VHS recording just about every other day of my life until I turned six (slight exaggeration). The images of that tape are still ingrained in my mind to this very day: tornado chasers speeding down a Kansas interstate trying to find shelter from a huge twister spiraling straight towards them, the camera crew sprinting out of their cars and crawling under the steel girders of an overpass for safety, and the fade out of an old Entertainment Tonight episode anchored by John Tesh to the sounds of Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis” as my beloved tornado TV special came on immediately following. I talked to my mom about my obsession a few years ago, and she admitted she had been worried about me. I mean, what kind of three year old can tell you the difference between an F1 and a F3 tornado? I even knew the difference between conventional and Doppler radar (yes, there is a difference). I was a really strange child.

My obsession with tornadoes soon gave way to more normal things like sports. I think mom was relieved about that. But as I slowly began to realize my NBA career track probably wasn’t going to pan out, somewhere around the 6th grade my nerdy side came back and made up for lost time. This go around the inner nerd had picked politics.

Growing up, my dad had always been a sort of news and politics junkie. He listened to talk radio, watched Fox News, and read those books you see in Barnes & Noble by people who make a living screaming at other people on talk radio or Fox News (not a knock on my dad or those people, just an observation). In this environment, osmosis set in and I began to slowly become enthralled with the idea of being in politics at some level as a career. I’ll never forget the time I told my friend’s dad I wanted to grow up and be a politician, which (as you can imagine) was followed by about three minutes straight of laughter. At the time, my naive self couldn’t understand why. I knew people thought politicians as a general rule were, shall we say, less than forthright, but I wasn’t in it for the back room deals and gifts from lobbyists. I was going to change the world for the better. I was going to make a difference.

Now as I write these words, let me be clear. I do think Christians should be involved in politics. I think God wants godly men and women involved in helping govern our nation. If we are called to be salt and light, wouldn’t God want us to be involved in bringing light into one of culture’s darkest rooms? That being said, I think Christians have bought into a lie when it comes to politics, especially here in America. Let me illustrate with my own foray into politics.

As my interest in politics continued to grow, it reached a fever pitch around the 2000 Presidential election. It may come as no surprise to you that when it comes to political ideology I lean more than just a little to the right. When George W. Bush became the Republican nominee for President, I was 100% on the bandwagon. As I listened to all the political rhetoric thrown around as the election neared, I thought the prospects for our nation’s success in the future couldn’t be any clearer. George W. Bush would bring about a new era in America that would right every wrong and bring prosperity and safety to all. Al Gore would lead us all to inevitable doom. To my young mind, the choice was clear and the stakes were infinitely high.

I’ll never forget my delight when George W. Bush was finally declared the winner following the Florida recount debacle. To my young thirteen year-old mind, the night Al Gore conceded victory to Bush had to be the greatest night ever for our beloved country. The Republicans had won the Presidency and had Congress too. Things were really going to change now. Look out, liberals! But, to my chagrin, things really didn’t change. Sure, some things did, but in reality, America wasn’t transformed into some glorious conservative utopia as I had hoped and imagined. Soon, I began to realize that my hope in politics as some sort of panacea to the ailments of our society was more than just a naive. It had become an idol. Sadly, as I look around, I am not alone.

When it comes to the idol of politics, Christians across the political spectrum are guilty idolaters. Conservatives have bought into the idea that politics can be the main vehicle to bringing morality to America. If we could just pass the right laws, the thinking goes, we can “restore” America to its former glory where life resembled a Leave It To Beaver or Andy Griffith Show rerun. Many believe we can make America back into the “Christian nation” it once was. The problem is America never was the picture perfect place we imagined it once. It may come as a shock but 1950′s sitcoms are a poor depiction of reality. The same goes for the idea that America was ever a Christian nation. That’s not to say America was not founded with ideas very much influenced by Christianity. It was. But America is not and never was a Christian nation. Few of our leaders were ever saints. Many who professed Christian faith did so only because it was the socially expected thing to do until somewhere around the early 20th century. America is not the Promised Land or the New Jerusalem. Nothing we are going to do politically is going to change that reality. We can never legislate America into being the Kingdom of God.

On the flip side, Christians holding to liberalism are just as guilty. Especially in the last few years, it has become increasingly popular in evangelicalism to shun political conservatism in favor of a liberal ideology focused on helping the poor and impoverished. These Christians have fallen into the same trap as conservatives. They too have bought into the idea that government and politics is the primary means to bring about social justice and help to the poor. The reality is no set of laws, government aid packages, or social programs are ever going to eliminate poverty or right every wrong perpetrated on the suffering. The trillions of dollars given to Africa over the last few decades in the name of eliminating poverty is proof enough of that. Sadly, the continent is still mired in horrific conditions of poverty and disease. Government and politics won’t bring about the Kingdom of God for the liberal either.

What Christians have so quickly forgotten is that the church is God’s means in bringing about true change to a physically and spiritually impoverished world. Somewhere along the line, Christians in America decided to give up on using the church to change the world and use politics instead. It’s the Gospel that changes hearts and the gratitude and love of Christ stemming from the Gospel that leads us to love our neighbors and feed and clothe the poor, not the coercion of government. Again, don’t get me wrong, government has a place and role in society. God has graciously established the government and it’s leaders to maintain order and to do many other tasks, and Christians should be actively involved in making sure our government does what is right and good. But government and politics were never meant to be our hope. Jesus is our hope. While this world will never be perfect until Christ establishes His Kingdom in its fullness, we are still called to establish His kingdom in the here and now. This is a great honor and privilege to do the work of Christ. But it is not going to be done through politics. Only through Christ’s church and the message of the gospel will any sort of true redemption come to this earth.

Healthy and Wealthy: The Idolatry of the Prosperity Gospel

(Warning: This one made me cry writing it. I am a twenty-three year-old American male who watches football and occasionally UFC fighting (Bold and italics is for all the haters out there) Make sure you correctly read that last statement (Not the one in parentheses) Ok. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you )

This video always gives me chills…

What John Piper talks about in that video hits so close to home for me. It’s one that gets me angry. I pray to God it’s a righteous anger. I hope it is. For those of you who know me pretty well, you know I lost my father to cancer just a few years ago. I can safely say it has been one of the most defining moments of my life. My father was one of the most godly men I have ever known. Not without his faults mind you (maybe a little stubborn… so unlike his son ), but a man who dearly loved the Lord and dearly loved his family. My dad was a servant, humble and so selfless. He was an incredible model of what a man of God should be (I am so thankful for it everyday). What an unspeakable blessing, especially in our day of dead beat fathers who have never learned what it means to grow up… a topic for another time, perhaps?

My dad was diagnosed with cancer in his leg when I was about eight. At the time, this form of cancer was considered highly curable. He had surgery and radiation on the cancer and went into remission. We thought the battle had been won, and life returned to normal.

When I was thirteen, I can remember coming home from a soccer game at school and seeing cars all over parked in front of our house. It was bizarre. I kept trying to think if I was forgetting it was someone’s brithday (not that I’ve done that before). When I walked in the house, there were all of our friends from church and family members sitting around the house with this look of dread on their faces. It was apparent to me that nobody in the room wanted to tell me what was going on. The next thing I remember was walking into my parents bedroom and seeing my dad lying on the bed talking with some of the elders from church. The moment my dad saw me he started to cry his eyes out. I don’t think I had ever seen my dad cry before. Pretty traumatic to say the least (thirteen year old boys don’t really know how to handle emotions… just putting it out there).

I soon found out that my dad’s cancer had come back. However, this time it had been caused by the radiation used to cure him the first time, and this cancer was far more serious and aggressive. Even worse, I found out my dad would have to have his leg amputated in order to save his life. My dad was an incredibly active man. Losing his leg was like tearing out his heart. He was devastated. I was terrified.

Thankfully, his surgery was successful. Over the next eight years, my dad was on and off chemotherapy in order to try to fight the cancer. Before I say anything else, although my dad was never fully healthy from that point on until he died from the chemo, he was still there and still my dad. I thank God for every basketball game he got to see me play, for every choir concert he got to see, and for every time he told me how proud he was of me and how much he loved me. So many others are not so fortunate. God is so truly good and gracious. However, my dad suffered so greatly over the next eight years. There were times when the pain was so bad from the tumor in his back, that he would be in screaming agony begging God to let him die. Those are hard words to write. But it’s the truth.

Friends, there are people out there today in the Church telling us it is God’s plan for us to be healthy and wealthy. That if we just have enough faith and do all the right things (like send a check to their ministry), God will heal us of our diseases and put money in our bank accounts. Sadly, I think this comes from the result of a culture that doesn’t suffer much making pleasure a god. My dad was not a man lacking faith. Neither were our friends, family, or church. Countless people prayed countless prayers for my dad to be healed. And God could have healed him. He heals people all the time. But He didn’t heal my dad. This was difficult to accept. I am not going to lie. But it was God’s plan.

Let’s be frank. God is not a vending machine or a genie in a lamp. We cannot somehow appease God or do enough “good things” to get him do our bidding. We are all creatures who have rebelled against God and deserve nothing. The very fact that we breathe air is a miracle and evidence of God’s grace and goodness. The fact that God sent his Son to die for us and take upon Himself the punishment we deserve is so incredible words cannot describe it. Please, ponder God’s love! It should leave you breathless. It should leave you in tears. I know I don’t ponder it enough. That God would endure unspeakable pain for you and me while we were his enemies? What a Savior!

God is a God who heals. God is a God who blesses. But they are simply a bonus upon the ultimate grace of His Son. They are not ultimate. When we focus on these things, they become idols. Blessings cannot and should not overtake the Blesser. God is at work not only in the good but in the bad. In fact, in my reading of Scripture, it seems God mostly uses the bad (makes a lot of sense… we humans screw things up pretty much all the time). The examples are endless (Joseph, Job, Paul, Peter, and Jesus Himself to name a few). But this is not reason to despair but rejoice! If God can take the ultimate evil, the killing of his Son on the cross to bring you and me into relationship with Him, let us not look on trials as punishment or God being capricious towards us! These are things God is using, as the writer of Hebrews says, to bring many sons to glory! The pain of this world will be but a faint memory in eternity. So too will be the blessings of this world. Enjoying God will be forever. Grab a hold of that truth and never let go.

When my dad passed away, I can safely say it was the most horrible day I have ever had. But yet, I knew he was finally home. I knew he had been restored. I knew I would see him again either when I died or Christ returned in glory. There wasn’t despair but endless hope. Soon it came time for my dad’s funeral. In all my life, I have been to only one funeral with more people at it then my dad’s. I would guess that at least half the people there were not Christians. They were either people my dad had known at work or people he had met and befriended throughout his life. I knew the moment I sat down in that church why God had allowed my dad to suffer for so long and die. At that funeral, so many people heard the gospel and heard the testimony of how faithful my dad had been as a Christian. I think my dad would count all the pain he suffered, not seeing my sister and I finish growing up, and not being with his wife whom he so dearly loved worth it. That the gospel would be preached and God would be glorified. May I be so lucky and so used by God to suffer as my Savior… and my dad.

Gonna Make a Big Star Out of Me: The Idolatry of Celebrity

Is there anything more American than the celebrity? Ever since the invention of the silent film around the turn of the 20th century, we’ve been obsessed with celebrities. Go to a bookstore and look at the magazine racks. I guarantee you over half of the magazines will be centered around some form of celebrity. Turn on a TV and you can find entire networks devoted to following celebrities. Listen to Top 40 radio. How many of these wonderfully crafted songs are centered around the lifestyle of celebrity? From going to “da club” and pouring bottles of champaign on the ground like it’s water to buying expensive cars and gigantic houses to simply making sure everybody notices us, we are obsessed with celebrity.

The allure of the celebrity is more than just gushing over the rich and famous, though that has plenty to do with it. For many of us, we love celebrities because we are obsessed with the idea of becoming one ourselves. What better example than Reality TV? On a nightly basis, we watch people throw away any sense of privacy or self-respect simply to become a celebrity. Many of us watch because deep down that’s what we want too.

From afar, celebrity promises a sense of self-fulfillment and confirmation that we have value. After all, if people are willing to follow every single little thing we do and paparazzi are going to catch every moment of our lives on film, we must be really something special. It also gives many of us a promise of control over our lives. We think that if we can just get enough money and fame, we’ll never have to worry about anything again! Celebrity fails us on both counts.

So many people believe that if they could just become famous, then they would be happy and fulfilled. Yet, how many examples do we see of celebrities literally going crazy or even dying over the constant pressure of being a celebrity? Michael Jackson will sadly go down in history as the worst cautionary tale of celebrity. They can never live up to the expectations we put on them, and when they fail us, it so often destroys them.

Others believe that celebrity will give them some kind of ultimate control over their lives. They will have the money and attention that will give them the security human beings desperately want. But this again is simply just not true. Along with the fame and money, celebrities lose any sort of privacy, and their lives become controlled by the need to stay famous. Life turns into a vicious cycle of staying on top. But just like anybody else, it will all end someday.

The sad reality is that whenever we make people idols, in any respect, we destroy them. Why? Simply because they cannot provide what we seek of them. People cannot give you a reason for living in any ultimate sense. Even those we love and hold most dear can abandon us or die and leave us alone. Celebrities are imperfect human beings just like you and me (Despite all the photoshopping and pitch correction… Oh you didn’t know? Yeah Miley Cyrus can’t actually sing… sorry).  They are not God.

In the end, only God can give us the self-worth and security that we seek. We as human beings can do nothing to give ourselves value. The Bible (and personal experience) tells us that we are hopeless beings apart from God. We are utterly sinful in need of a Savior who can save us from ourselves. Security too is utterly unreachable in this life. Even as Christians, we know we will suffer and experience persecution. But when we give our lives to Christ and accept his perfect sacrifice for our sins, we know that we are completely secure in his hands for eternity. That is so much more valuable than the allure of temporary security on this earth, which will evaporate away so quickly. As Christians, we need to remind ourselves, as the old hymn says, to build our hope on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. As those who have not given our lives to Christ, you must search your heart and realize the deception that anything in this world could ever fulfill you. Put your hope in Him and give your life to Christ. Only in Him will you find the rest you seek.

(P.S. I kinda fibbed. That Miley Cyrus video was fake… but let’s all be honest, it wasn’t too hard to believe was it? Yeah, you know you believed it…)