Why are porn sites so popular? Well, aside from the inherent appeal to all ESPN viewers, porn sites know a few things about human psychology (and anatomy, too, I guess).
The Internet was built for speed and accessibility. Speed can be addictive and very powerful if used effectively. Porn sites give users quick hits (please insert pun here). They collapse the amount of time between encounters with the ladies. If you don’t like the blonde, then a brunette is just a click away.
Satan uses speed every day to addict men and women around the world to the darker side of sexuality. Satan also uses accessibility every day to lure people away from righteousness. Satan and his cronies give Internet users quick access to something they want.
We all know that postmoderns want spiritual stuff, so why is it that churches don’t give them quick access to God? I believe the modern church has decidedly made God inaccessible, especially to postmoderns.
What do I mean?
Well, take for instance the postmoderns’ oft-repeated phrase “I believe in God, but not in religion.” Behind that is an underlying dissatisfaction with the church’s presentation of God. It seems that the church is trying to hide God behind mediocre systems of theology and banal quips attesting that we’ve put God in a box (e.g., “God never closes a door without opening a window.” “God never gives us more than we can handle.” Gimme’ a break!). Church leaders often clothe God beneath impenetrable layers of muck.
What postmoderns really want is raw God. We want a naked God. We want an arousing God whom we can see, feel, and experience. And by the way, we want it instantly. Give a postmodern instant accessibility to God and s/he will become addicted to the One Most High. (What, you think porn is more addictive than God? Get real.)
BUT WAIT: Isn’t [faith in] God a relationship, and don’t relationships take time to develop?
That’s a good question.
I remember hearing an old James Dobson interview with Ted Bundy—you know, the serial killer from the 1970s. Bundy eventually became a follower of Jesus. But way before that dramatic conversion, he raped and murdered a bunch of people. In the interview, Bundy says his road to infamy began with a fascination with porn magazines. Luckily, casual encounters with Playboy don’t always lead to a life of mindless sex and violence—otherwise my entire 8th grade baseball team would have become serial killers.
Bundy touches on a powerful truth. In fact, Jesus mentioned this truth as well: mustard seeds eventually get big. Just as easily accessed encounters with nude women can lead to dastardly deeds, so too can brief, quick, and raw encounters with God grow into a deep and very personal relationship. But drawn out, boring, insipid encounters with a bunch of God-talk will never amount to much of anything. If pictures of nude women can transform ordinary men into monsters, then what can a raw encounter with God do? Just ask S/Paul.
A relationship with God does take time to develop, but it can start with one or more quick and powerful interactions with the Almighty. Get a postmodern addicted to God, and you will eventually have a follower of Jesus.
The key is this: addiction results from easy access to a very powerful thing.
FINE, BUT HOW then does the church make God easily accessible?
First, we quit making excuses for God. Color commentary is for baseball, not for Christianity, so let’s quit trying to explain God down. We can do this in worship by letting sermons end without easy resolution.
For instance, in Numbers 15 Moses and the rest of Jacob’s descendants are commanded to stone to death a man who gathered some wood on the Sabbath. Be honest, we don’t really like that passage. It sounds awfully harsh. So, we either ignore it or explain it away through some heavy theology. That’s because if we can somehow understand it, then it will make sense (and be safe). But postmoderns don’t really want to understand it or understand God. Can God be understood? For the most part, the answer is “no.” But God can be known.
Get this point: Moderns want to examine and reexamine things and then categorize everything into neat little boxes. Pomos believe “boxes” (i.e., categories, systems, labels) are inherently false and manipulative. Modern systems for understanding and explaining God create a distance between postmoderns and the God they seek.
Postmoderns will never become addicted to God when the good parts are blurred. The church must present a live nude God to the world.
Chad Hall is a leader on Innovative Church Team for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
He has more suggestions for making God accessible to postmoderns. The full text of his column is available at http://www.next-wave.org/apr02/livenudegod.htm.
To reply to this newsletter, write Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
