Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Not So Out Of It
Todd Rhoades replays an old 1970's era Pat Robertson video. He describes it this way:
When Robertson says "We don't care" he was attempting to prompt people to political action. To some extent we responded in the Reagan 80's. But did we care? We evangelized when we should have discipled. We worried about what was attractive when we should have worried about what was effective. We acted as if church attendance was the same thing as spiritual formation. IN some cases we shuffled deck chairs instead of lowering life boats. We cared about our institution more than we carted about people.
Rhoades declaring a video with this kind of content as "out of it" is part of the problem. Rhoades looks more at the style of communication than he does the message in making such a declaration. MAybe the Bible is out of it - after all, it was not even written in English.
caring church prophecy style
But the portrait it paints is this:He then asks:
1. Sin is somehow either new, or more rampant or more decadent than ever.
2. It’s all because we just don’t care.
And what type of mindset or video being produced in 2013 will look this ‘out of it’ in 2050?Frankly, I am shocked at how prophetic the video actually is. Oh, it's dated stylistically to be sure, but the problems it identities, increasing influence of pornography, growing militancy on the part of the homosexual community and general cultural corruption strikes me as absolutely correct. I am no fan of Robertson, mostly because of how he tries to solve the problems he so rightly identifies, but he has nailed the problems right to the wall. And I think it is right in saying the problem is because we do not care.
When Robertson says "We don't care" he was attempting to prompt people to political action. To some extent we responded in the Reagan 80's. But did we care? We evangelized when we should have discipled. We worried about what was attractive when we should have worried about what was effective. We acted as if church attendance was the same thing as spiritual formation. IN some cases we shuffled deck chairs instead of lowering life boats. We cared about our institution more than we carted about people.
Rhoades declaring a video with this kind of content as "out of it" is part of the problem. Rhoades looks more at the style of communication than he does the message in making such a declaration. MAybe the Bible is out of it - after all, it was not even written in English.
caring church prophecy style
