Emotional manipulation: it’s what advertising does best. Using color, shape, sound, music, words, lighting, and motion to pump up our feelings, advertisers can make us believe we want, or deserve, or even NEED whatever it is we are being offered - shampoo, beer, scented candles, a new car, microwave dinners, a Caribbean cruise. That is, if we are not discerning. We are surrounded by advertising on the Internet, on TV, in magazines, on billboards, and in stores, such that we hardly notice its studied power any more.
Much contemporary political rhetoric falls into this category, too - inflaming our feelings to make us side with the speaker, whether or not we’ve thought through his or her argument.
Hollywood manipulates our emotions - we pay big bucks to watch action flicks so we can feel the thrill of danger or chick flicks so we can feel all warm and gushy, and we swallow whatever else comes in the movie along with it. Advertisers, political advisors, and Hollywood producers aren’t dumb. They’ve studied the human mind carefully, and they know how to get their point across.
One of the most notorious manipulators was Adolf Hitler. He studied the art of hypnotizing people with his eyes (Angela Lambert’s The Lost Life of Eva Braun, p. 79). The carefully plotted pageantry of his rallies and his emotional speaking style captivated his audiences, and afterward, many wouldn’t even remember what the speech was about exactly, just that it was very moving. Whatever it was Hitler was up to, it must have been something grand which they wanted to be a part of.
During the Protestant Reformation, one of the many abuses which Reformers looked to correct was the manipulative power of the Roman church services. To be fair, I have attended several Catholic services in the last twenty years, and I will say that these have not been manipulative at all. With that in mind, read what nineteenth-century church reformer Ellen White wrote, “Many Protestants suppose that the Catholic religion is unattractive and that its worship is a dull, meaningless round of ceremony. Here they mistake.... The religious service of the Roman Church is a most impressive ceremonial. Its gorgeous display and solemn rites fascinate the senses of the people and silence the voice of reason and of conscience. The eye is charmed. Magnificent churches, imposing processions, golden altars, jeweled shrines, choice paintings, and exquisite sculpture appeal to the love of beauty. The ear also is captivated. The music in unsurpassed. The rich notes of the deep-toned organ, blending with the melody of many voices as it swells though the lofty domes and pillared aisles of her grand cathedrals, cannot fail to impress the mind with awe and reverence [for the Church].” (The Great Controversy, p. 566)
This past week, I attended all of the evening services of a week-long pastor's conference. I also provided music for two of them. Based on the five services I attended, I would have to say, sadly, that emotional manipulation is alive and well in the Evangelical movement in America today. The Protestant chapel where these services were held is everything described in Ellen Whites’ paragraph about the Roman Church. The music was, at least on certain nights, designed to create an emotional groundswell before the featured speaker. The congregation of pastors and their families was stoked up on mindless, but emotional, repetitions of a few short choruses, and the participants felt emotionally ready to accept the speakers’ teachings. The speakers were of varying types, but several of them were what is referred to as “dynamic,” which seems to mean that they use the full range of vocal dynamics (especially the loud ones) to get their point across. In several instances, the delivery method seemed much more studied than the Biblical content of the sermons, and the responses from the charmed audience ranged from shouted “Amen!”s to standing ovations. I overheard comments afterward to the effect of “Wasn’t that a powerful message!” It was powerful - powerfully delivered, that is. But what about the content? We’ll get to that in a moment... These Protestants, while talking about the heroism of the Reformers seem to have forgotten some of the abuses those Reformers gave their lives to correct.
In 1st Corinthians 14, Paul gives some instructions on what should happen in a worship service: “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation....Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.” (verses 26b, 29) It seems here that many people should participate in the service, and that when a message is given, it should be evaluated. There are many ways of structuring a service so that these things happen, but it seems clear that many people contribute to the service, and that thought should be given to what has been spoken (as opposed to blind allegiance).
Matthew reports the last words of Jesus to his followers: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you....” (Matt. 28: 18b-19a) Jesus seems to be saying that making disciples involves baptism and teaching his commands. Imperfect though it may be, the only reliable place we have today to find out what Jesus’ commands are is to read the Bible, and most specifically the Gospels, where we have his words recorded in translation. The rest of the Bible has value too, of course, and we can learn about God’s work in history in all of its pages. My point is, if we are going to take Jesus’ final words seriously, we need to start from the Bible.
Three of the five “sermons” I heard (that includes the rest of the worship service, too) included ZERO Biblical texts. So what were these preachers sermonizing on? Their own ideas. (Thankfully, two of the sermons were based on Biblical passages and trying to learn what those passages really say.) How is giving a rousing talk on one’s own ideas in a church service different from giving a rousing talk on one’s own ideas in a political rally? It’s not. If Christians are not looking for God but are looking only to human wisdom, regardless of how smart, intelligent, or well-educated we are, we are going to get off track. Way off track. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul confesses, “[Christ] himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.” (Col. 1: 17-18) If Christ isn’t the center of any message to the church, why do we even bother delivering it? Worship services don’t actually require a sermon, we can fully worship God with singing, praying, reading of Scripture, and giving of offerings.
I wonder if preachers who emotionally manipulate their parishioners, and inure their parishioners to hearing human ideas from the pulpit without any injunction to think (“Don’t take my word for it - go home and check this out for yourself!”) are setting them up to blindly follow someone/s with less than honorable intentions in the future.... That is ominous. Especially if someone/s has a mixture of truth and lies on the serving platter. (Hitler, for example, a fiery conservative, promoted good health, exercise, and strong families.)
In Nazi Germany, Hitler co-opted the churches to become part of his propaganda arm. Many churches began preaching that Hitler was Germany’s political saviour. In retrospect, we see how utterly disgusting this is. Or do we?? Karl Barth and the confessing church wrote a document in response called the Barmen Declaration. You can read it for yourself http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm, but in short, the Declaration stated a Biblical case for the lordship of Christ alone and God’s abhorrence of idolatry. From the perspective of history, we know that the declaration made no difference in the government and got its adherents in serious trouble. However, it seems that publicly affirming Christ as the only Lord likely helped its signers stick to that truth no matter the cost.
Incidentally, the first three Bible-free “sermons” of the week all made reference to the Barmen Declaration - sort of. One of the Bible-free speakers was one of the authors of a 2009 document called the Manhattan Declaration, which you can read here: http://manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx . The Manhattan Declaration was apparently inspired by the Barmen Declaration, and its authors believe we are living in perilous moral times.
Agreed.
But are not all times perilous moral times? The world and the church will always disagree on some things - which specific things those are shift from time to time. What is central to Christianity that the world will never understand is the love and lordship of Christ, as expressed in the earlier quote from Colossians 1. This is the message the church must take to the world. Without this message, any other sub-messages will miss their target.
In his excellent book Inspiration: Hard Questions, Honest Answers, Alden Thompson explains what he sees as the Bible’s “law pyramid: the one, the two, the ten, the many.” The one, is love - as the author of 1st John says, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) The two are explained by Jesus in answer to a question about which commandment is the greatest: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22: 37b-40) If we have trouble understanding the one law, the two explain it for us in more detail. If we have trouble knowing what to do with the two, we can look to the ten, recorded in Exodus 20: 1-17. And because even those ten haven’t always been enough for us to know how to behave, we have recorded for us innumerable other laws and commands throughout the Bible, some of which were meant to be time- or place-specific, others of which are more universal. But the center of the whole thing is GOD. God is love. Without God, the laws all fall apart.
The first three Bible-free “sermons” I heard this week amounted in the end to rallies asking people to sign and uphold the Manhattan Declaration. And as such, I’m guessing they were successful - many people who were in attendance probably went home, looked up the site, and signed it. What Christians wouldn’t want to stand up for life, marriage, and liberty? The only problem is that it leaves out the Gospel. If we realize, really realize, what God has done for us and accept that gift, we will overflow with love for him, and we will begin to see him transform our lives. The way the Manhattan Declaration was spoken about in these speeches was along the lines of, “We need to declare to the government and the American people that we as a country need to be more moral, and these are three areas where we need to be more moral.” But the American people - both ordinary citizens, and lawmakers, will never see things God’s way without seeing God’s love in Christ first. We need to start with Christ, not our own morality. As Paul so succinctly puts it in Romans 5:8, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Italics mine.)
Additionally, these three speeches all said we need to create a revival. What I’m wondering is, have any of us asked God about his plans? In Henry Blackaby and Claude King’s book Knowing and Doing the Will of God, they write: “Understanding what God is about to do where you are is more important than telling God what you want to do for Him. What good would Abraham have done by telling God how he was planning to take a survey of Sodom and Gomorrah and go door-to-door witnessing the day before God was going to destroy the cities?” I don’t pretend to know exactly what God’s plans are for our future, but have an inkling that these are more perilous times than these preachers know. As one of these men rightly pointed out we have become a completely narcissistic, self-seeking society. I add that furthermore our culture, and even a large part of our church is being conditioned to accept advertising without thought. In the event of a major crisis (like the Depression experienced in Germany after WW I?), we are preparing ourselves to blindly follow fallible men and women. And maybe even manipulative or evil ones. To keep our own comfort. We are playing with fire. The church is playing with fire.
