“Our goal is to save souls and make money for the church”
Ira Glass’ much-acclaimed NPR radio show This American Life continues to be an unparalleled source of great sermon illustrations. Episode #213 “Devil On My Shoulder”, which was re-aired just before Halloween this year, provides a devastating look at the human heart and our attempt to deal with evil. The episode references C.S. Lewis, the Amish, the psychology of a convicted murderer, and Hell House – a film by George Ratliff documenting Trinity Assembly of God Church’s annual production. Hell House is an attempt to scare teens into the arms of Jesus by threatening the fires of Hell. Several damnable sins are demonstrated (with an eerie sense of enjoyment) by the teen actors who all tend to audition for the “sinner” roles. See the trailer below – though a word of caution, as it is a bit graphic:
Audio of the Hell House portion of the show:
And then there was this past week’s flat-out incredible episode “Bait And Switch” (ht AZ and NRP), which discusses evangelism, among other things.
COMMENTS
8 responses to “This American Christianity – "Bait and Switch"”
Leave a Reply
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
Jesus
The touble with this is it makes us feel superior to these people. Either fear of hell has its place, or Jesus sure knew how to tell a good joke.
Hey Josh, was the title of your post also referring to the latest episode of TAR which was called "Bait and Switch"? The segment on evangelism is amazing!
And Michael, the reality of hell is certainly an issue that Jesus did not skirt. But the production of "Hell House" (the event, not the documentary) is certainly worth looking at and asking some hard questions, while affirming the good intentions of it's producers (i.e., the church). I recommend listening to the whole segment, especially the "Oscars" ceremony where they award the actors. I'm all for preaching the Gospel in its fullness, but this production made me more than a little uncomfortable. I would certainly hope I am not saying this out of a sense of superiority, but from pastoral concern and desire for real Biblical proclamation.
Aaron–Good points. I should have said that when I see stuff like this I just laugh and think "What idiots!" The problem with these folks is that they lack the sophistication to get their money, status, etc. in a more refined, and more hypocritical, way. But you know what they say about stopped clocks… 🙂
Love TAL and Ira Glass. Missed a chance to get tix to a local show a while back. This morning listened to the episode on Infidelity and was extremely moved.
Great Post!
As one who attended a high school that used similar scare tactics on its students almost every Thursday in our weekly chapel services, I know first hand the psychology behind this stuff and how it plays with your head.
I was threatened by the student pastor and headmaster of the school for organizing the senior class trip to Cancun, Mexico. I was told that I could no longer be an officer in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and then was later embarrassed in front of the entire school during the chapel before spring break where the student pastor gave a fire and brimstone sermon about certain spring break plans. After "his word" he called for repentance and asked all those who had holy spring break plans to stand up and be proud for putting the Lord first. Needless to say, about 90% of the senior class remained seated….
If anything, this type of "ministry" drew many of my high school friends away from the church and has left them with a distaste for Christianity in their mouth. Many do not understand the Grace of God and are burdened with a heart full of guilt.
Scare tactics, simply put, do not work…
Aaron, the title was not, initially referring to that episode (or, at least, only subconsciously.) I probably ran across the title during my research and it just came out when I was naming the post. DZ alerted me to this new episode which sounds amazing!
Michael, I am a much superior hypocrite than those folks! As you well know, my issue is not that they have a doctrine of hell but that they seem to lack the Gospel. The Paul of Galatians 2 is also the Paul of Romans 7.
Charles, that is incredible.
Josh–I was not saying that these folks are hypocrites–far from it! They are extremely naive. This is why they are such easy targets.
The problem here is that they are the victims of their own Arminianism. They think that by ramping up the Hell drama they can manipulate or influence the "free will" of people and cause them to to follow Jesus out of fear of hell. Ironically, what they end up doing for all their efforts is causing the misery of which Charles has spoken to the equally naive, while at the same time causing the whole idea of hell to be dismissed with a smirk or self-righteous condemnation of the "Christian right" by the NPR crowd.