September/October 2001
Spiritual Junk Food
by Greg Albrecht
| We should not be deceived into thinking that the manipulation of our heart and emotions is the same as surrendering to God and giving our heart to Jesus Christ. |
Remember the not so good old days, when quick and easy instant meals that over the decades became known as fast food, were all the rage? Many children started the day with a bowl of sugar frosted chocolate bombs, followed by a Twinkie for a mid-morning pick-me-up, lunched on fries and a burger and finally, that evening, finished off their daily gastronomic disaster with an anonymous paste-like gumbo called a T.V. dinner .
Now we know that many fast foods not only do not nourish and feed our bodies with the essentials, they often leach and rob our bodies of any healthy nutrients we may have accidentally consumed. But, what goes around comes around, and it looks like we're in the midst of another love affair with junk food -- this time it's spiritual junk food.
Faced with declining membership, some North American churches and ministries have opted to succumb to the pressure of the market place becoming not only user-friendly, but user-centered and user-focused.
Christianity, by definition, is not centered in real or imagined human felt needs, but in Jesus Christ. Christianity is not about us, it's about our Lord and Savior. Jesus has been trivialized and devalued by those who market him and his teachings as if he were a commodity. Direction, instruction and correction have stopped coming from some pulpits -- replaced by smarmy-feel-good-positive-thinking-psycho babble. Bottom line -- many seem convinced that entertainment values fill the pews, not a systematic study of the Bible.
Much of American Christianity promotes feeling and esoteric experience over historic and authentic Christian faith. Sound biblical, doctrinal truth is dead in many sanctuaries (2 Timothy 4:3), replaced with hysteria, group think and/or new age thinking.
Quick and instant answers are promised, in the name of Jesus Christ -- the health and wealth gospel offered as the perfect bedfellow for American enterprise and capitalism. No suffering please -- we're
Christian. The materialism, me-first, get-rich-quick spirit of our society wars with the gospel of Jesus Christ that calls us to take up our cross and follow him.
Spiritual junk food temporarily dulls the spiritual hunger pains we feel, the yearning to fill that God-shaped void we all have, but it leaves us, as one song intones, "knee deep in a river, drowning of thirst."
North American Christianity is deluged with slick spiritual appeals that look good on the outside, and that may provide a temporary spiritual high. But many of these slick presentations are devoid of biblical truth, and in the end may do more harm than good.
The Plain Truth believes that this world needs the basic and core truths of Christianity, without compromise, without frills, without hype, glitz or hysterical emotional appeals. Those who are lost need basic, easy to understand directions to help them find God. Jesus Christ did not offer fluffy platitudes or unfeeling judgmentalism to the suffering, hurting and enslaved peoples of our world. We should not be deceived into thinking that the manipulation of our heart and emotions is the same as surrendering to God and giving our heart to Jesus Christ. Sadly, some are convinced that they have found God, when all they have found is another junk food religion.
We need a reformation in the body of Christ, so that Jesus will stop being a slogan and marketing gimmick and become a reality. Remember, Jesus cleansed the Temple, showing the door to the marketing forces that trivialized and exploited the name of God (2 Peter 2:3).
-- Greg Albrecht