Posted on 10/07/2003 12:00:07 PM PDT by Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS
A Southern Baptist preacher says America has developed an addiction to entertainment -- and that addiction has even found its way into churches.
Kelly Boggs says there is little in American society that has not been tainted by what he calls "the insatiable desire to be amused." Besides television and the Internet, the demand to be entertained has also found its way into political campaigns, the presentation of professional sports -- and now the church.
Boggs, a pastor in Oregon, tells Baptist Press there was a time when a church was evaluated by its commitment to biblical truth, but not anymore. Now, he contends, the audience demands services with flawless musical presentations and sermons "peppered with humor." Conviction, Boggs says, is forced to compete with amusement.
According to Pastor Boggs, the danger in all this is a lost desire to think critically -- where emotion rather than fact becomes the supreme barometer, and where the "sensational trumps the substantive."
The preacher concludes with an ominous warning, stating that a society addicted to entertainment is made up of people who are obsessed with their own pleasure.
Well get out and find a Indepentent Fundemental Baptist Church. There are some weak ones, but if you look you can find a solid Bible preaching one that does not follow the new ways.
BigMack
Hear that, Phil Hendrie? Leave our sports heros alone, it's all we have left as role models, they are not mere humans. Heck, even Zeus wasn't what you would call perfect.
Yeah, that's the new in thing on Sunday nights. Instead of church on Sunday nights, we meet in small groups in someone's home. That actually is a good thing because it allows people to connect, however, the amount of teaching is gradually disappearing. This is based on Rick Warren's Purpose Driven model.
All addiction has consequences. America's obsession with entertainment has produced a society that has become increasingly more passive toward life. It seems we would rather watch reality on television than experience it first-hand.
Entertainment is designed to appeal to an audience's emotions. Those addicted to amusement lose their desire to think critically. The entertainment addict reacts to information, and even life, based on how it makes him or her feel. Emotion, rather than fact, is the supreme barometer for those enslaved to entertainment.
Addiction is also, by its very nature, an escalating condition. That is, an addict's appetite never plateaus. Hence those obsessed with entertainment desire more and more amusement that is increasingly more spectacular. The end result is that the sensational trumps the substantive.
The attention span is the casualty of all addiction. The entertainment addict is not only easily bored and distracted, but also has difficulty retaining relevant information for a very long period of time. Those obsessed with amusement are unable to juxtapose contemporary happenings with history. Thus, current events become nothing more than passing bits of trivia.
A society addicted to entertainment comprises individuals whose obsession is their own pleasure. Once a people lose the desire to pursue life and to think critically, once a society fails to recognize the substantive and cultivate a historical perspective, once these realities become the rule rather than the exception, a society is in danger. There are many things in life that taken in moderation are not necessarily negative. Entertainment is one of them. However, America has crossed the line of moderation and is plunging headlong into addiction. It seems we are, in the words of New York University's Neil Postman, "Amusing ourselves to death."
Boggs' column appears each Friday in Baptist Press. He is pastor of Valley Baptist Church in McMinnville, Ore
last remnants of our human spirit- Rapper Music????
This is not a new thing. I was at some churches in California that were doing this 20 years ago. Except that they did it during the week. Sunday night was for fire and brimstone.
You have to remember, Southern Baptists sometimes run 20 years behind things lol It's not a bad thing, actually it's needed. The bad thing is the watering down of scripture to appeal to the unchurched.
It was also defiantly a "milk not meat" sort of format. Which since they kept Sunday as fire and brimstone worked fine. It also gave people who thought they might be interested in the ministry a safe place to begin.
Agreed
Sportsianity starts early with the Cult of the Soccer Mom. If a kid doesn't want to play sports, his parents won't know how to bond with him.
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