| Hucksters in Our Midst |
| Hucksters in Our Midst |
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Hucksters in church last Sunday?? I was there but I didn't see ANY! Well, maybe huckster is not a good word. How about 'pastor', or 'preacher', or maybe even 'priest'. At the nitty-gritty level, our friend up front in church each Sunday IS in the selling business. But before we discuss him (almost always a 'him'), let's go over what a 'huckster' is, just in case we've collectively forgotten. You need a used car; a new one is out of the question. So you pull into the dealer's used car area, and without much prompting, you soon have someone to 'help you out'. He asks you a little bit of what you're looking for, and sure enough, he has several you'll love. At this point, he's not a 'huckster'. He's simply doing his job; without him, you can't get your used car. But a used car is 'used' and you wish to know how reliable a choice might be. It's at this point, our nice saleman puts on his 'huckster' uniform and proceeds to mislead you to no end. How could he sell you a car that has problems? Does he lie? Hopefully not. But does he tell you the 'whole story' ... everything he knows. Of course not. And you don't really expect him to, since .... he's a huckster. The doorbell rings, and it's a vacume cleaner salesman. Immediately you know 'that can't be'; this is the 21st century! But let's imagine he's from Hoover, and Hoover IS the best, you know. The challenge is to convince you that the 'best' is so much better than your present cleaner, that you'll shell out mucho-dinero. Is he a 'huckster'? You'd probably say 'no'. He's just selling vacume cleaners. He doesn't mention that other competing brands do as well but are much cheaper. Should he? Ah, but we don't really expect 'honesty' from salemen, do we? But we DO expect honesty from our friends up front at church. But not so fast ... maybe not. Let's go through a quick questionaire about our up-front friends. Go ahead and write your answers right on the computer screen; just don't 'page' or it'll make no sense. (1) Our friend says that something is 'from God', but actually it's his own or maybe your denomination's opinion. Is that honesty? He certainly wouldn't say 'maybe' it's from God! Possibly it's from God? Probably it's from God? (2) You ask him about odd discrepencies in the 'Flood' account in Genesis, and he sails through an explanation, knowing full well, the problem is worse than you apparently seem to know. Is that honesty? (3) He assures you that the Bible is divinely inspired. But he's also aware the translation has some problems, so much so that quite a number of verse notes admit to not knowing what the words even say (or quite obviously conflict with other 'inspired' verses). Is that honesty, in your view? (4) He confidently tells you God loves you and you can ask God to help you out and He'll protect you. But when your child gets run over in the street outside, he explains how God 'may' be doing this, or 'may' be doing that. Where's the confidence now? Is he honest enough to admit the same bafflement as you? OK, score your answer sheet, and don't cheat. How'd your up-front friend do? My guess is that you gave him a pretty good grade. 100%!!! And sure, why not? We know he's just doing his job. Yes, he's 'selling' God's message. Yes, he's only admitting to the 'good'. When he really doesn't 'know' something, he just says he 'believes' something. That's ok too ... as long as it matches up with everyone else's opinions. Some Sunday, I'd like our friend up front to take off his 'salesman' uniform. I'd like to really hear about the 'used car' that I'm dealing with. Is it reliable? If I'm driving along and it suddenly breaks down, will I feel cheated? Is there really a major benefit to 'his' claims, versus another pastor or preacher down the street? In other words, give me the 'real deal', so that I can make an intelligent decision? Ah, but that last phrase has major problems for our Hoover vacume cleaner saleman, our used-car huckster, and our friend in church. 'Make an intelligent decision.' You mean, let you know what he knows about the Bible? Admit that a sizable portion of his assurances are just his own opinions (he calls them 'beliefs')? Tell you something that's contrary to his own views and needs? Ah ... now we're moving into 'huckster-land', because that is where honesty begins to have a cost. You might not DO what your pastor/preacher/priest wants. You might even LEAVE. He does have a motive, as 'spiritual' as he might wish himself to be. But that's not being really fair. You have a motive too. If indeed he told you everything he knows/thinks, chances are really good, he'd quickly conflict with what YOU think. And so, you and him SHARE in a quiet deal. You don't want to spend too much money on the 'used car'. And you're quite willing to accept your pastor's confident assurances of reliability. Right? So .... in church on Sunday morning, did you see the hucksters? - - - - - OK, I'll admit that I'm a huckster too (though not a pastor). Yep. Sometimes I imagine our pastor being honest, and I kind of cringe. "God loves ALL his loving children ... except maybe you, Sally. I just can't quite see it. Are you SURE you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior??" "Yes, when we all get to heaven ... well, ok, 'IF' we all get to heaven ... well, ok, assuming there is indeed a heaven. Oh, for heavens sakes." "We know NOT when the Lord shall come ... ok, we're pretty sure He's coming REAL SOON NOW ... ok, yes Jesus said He would come 2000 years ago, but He could have changed His mind." "See what happens when man sins? Jehovah became so angry, He destroyed everyone except righteous Noah and his family ... well, ok, the story's got a few problems but you can see the principle anyway ... yes, the end-time promise was supposed to be like the Noah story, but the end-time promise is DIFFERENT ... it could be true! Why, look ... there's wars and earthquakes already!!" Ah yes. Next all we need is a 'moon of blood'. You mean, like 'blood'?? That is indeed the hebrew (and greek) text. Not entirely sure what a moon of blood might look like, but you'll need that before the 'great and glorious day of the Lord'. Honestly. EXTRA CREDIT: Are you a little uncomfortable with Christianity being 'likened unto' a used car. Personally I think it's quite 'apt'. Even if we were only talking about the literal Bible text, it was still 8 or 9 generations (used) past the original (new). And most of today's Christians' beliefs are several layers (used) over top that. So, I'd say Sunday morning sermons have 'been around the block' more times than you'd like. EXTRA CREDIT II: It's lots of fun when you chat with your pastor about some sort of issue in the Bible. As you're mentioning the problem, he's coming up with the quick answer (put that little puppy back in his bed). But if you pursue the discussion with more evidence (that little puppy's a barking DOG!), your pastor is classifying your argument! Yes, he's got his mental theological dictionery open, thumbing through it. You're just one more dictionary article (same-old, same-old) in a 2,000 year tradition of arguing. But if you want to impress him, you can just toss out the theological name, reassuring him that you're both in the used car business! |
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