Jonathan has this today in his “A Week With Robert Webber” series:
The Phaith of St. Phransus: A WEEK WITH ROBERT WEBBER- day 4
I use the word “pragmatic†because they’re really shaped by the business model, the market model, the advertising model. Just as all the market and business and advertising began to emerge in the late ’70s and ’80s — and that’s observable to anybody who looks at magazines and television and notes how consumerism began to develop. It seems to me that they’ve created a consumerist church. The product is Jesus and the good life. It’s therapeutic Christianity. And they’re out to sell that. So they’ve asked themselves the question: “What’s the best way to sell Jesus and get people into the life of the church?â€
What’s going to pack em in? And just as importantly, how do we “sidestep” and obscure and even “turn around” those more “uncomfortable” items that glare brightly from the gospel? We can’t really bring those out into the open and let those words speak, can we? We got to keep the people we have. If we upset them, then what can we accomplish? So goes the “pragmatic”, ultimately “business” model.
Thanks, Daniel. It was good meeting you too. YOu are now a “Trusted Commenter”. I need to find out how to turn on my notifications for comments posted that are being held if my system doesn’t know them. When I upgraded to Movable Type 3.2, the spam filter works great but keeps out a little too much until I do something. Anyway, I will be looking more at yours and Thunder’s blogs.
Dale
was a pleasure meeting ya Dale. God bless ya.