Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday July 10, 2007

The other day I heard again the phrase, "The more things change the more they remain the same."

With the above in mind I was amazed as I read an assessment of the state of the church during the 1960's by historian Will Herberg in his eye opening book, "Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology" published by University of Chicago Press 1983. In this tome on page 269 Mr. Herberg states concerning the church of the 60's:

"Was so empty and contentless, so conformist, so utilitarian, so sentimental, so individualistic and so self righteous."

This was written in 1983, and I'm certain the same could have been said about the church as a whole in 1983 and it rings a troubling, yet true bell in the year of our Lord, 2007.

I could rant for the rest of the day on the subject of "self righteousness" literally flooding our churches, be they "liberal" or "fundamental" as this old pharisaic plague simply is wearing new clothes. But this phase of the indictment is not what struck me. Can you guess which word jumped off the page?

CONTENTLESS.

Void of anything of value, nice package but nothing on the inside. I listen to a endless parade of sermons, read baskets of books on a regular basis and the articles from the religious press would fill my reasonably large office if I failed to throw most away, due to the lack of meaningful content. For the post part the articles flowing from the pens of the "giants" of our faith have little or no content, but are mere black ink on white paper, witnessed by the super human, well publicized insistence on avoiding anything of a controversial nature. How on earth can the cross of Jesus Christ be presented sans controversy? Without offense? Forty million innocent babies have been murdered in our lifetime and we are more concerned about not presenting a message clothed in controversy?

A few years ago I wrote a little booklet titled, "Hell: Don't Make The Trip." Many use it as a tract, yet I have received bags of mail and Gigabytes of email condemning such a "controversial" and "offensive" title. Keep in mind that the bulk of my audience consists of Christian folks who sit in some church on the weekend.

Mr. Herberg noted the barrenness of the so called Christian message in the 1960's, I wonder what he would write of the churches which now as then are flourishing, but lack content? If there be no opposite of heaven, there can be no meaning to the preaching of Cross, I doubt that there is any meaning to any preaching, if in the end nothing matters. Do clergy persons secretly harbor the nihilism of humanism and thus offer an empty message designed to tickle the ear and sing happy songs as their soul is imperceptibly slipping into even more emptiness, a life with no real meaning other than to feel good?

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with Credit

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