In the mid-1980s, a friend gave me a book that, in part, I did not like. However, there are other parts I have not been able to forget. The book was Neil Postman's, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in an Age of Show Business. Postman raged against what he perceived to be the corrosive effects of television on American public life. Interestingly, in recent years, people have begun to read this short book again. Some are hailing it as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Postman wrote almost exclusively about the impact of television. Of course, now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media, Postman's thoughts take on a new significance. I view Postman's work as a look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of consumerism.

What I remember most painfully was Postman's chapter on religion in the modern era. Postman, who was not a churchgoer, wrote that the preachers and pastors he observed and who had developed a media audience were all entertainers. Postman had read some of the sermons from preachers of the past like John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards and said that there was no comparison in their preaching to the modern preachers'. He argued that the newer preacher had exchanged theological depth and calls to personal sacrifice in favor of entertainment containing no calls to sacrifice or self-denial. He said that everything that makes the practice of faith a historic, profound, and sacred human activity has been stripped away in the modern era. Postman wrote that there is no longer any ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology—and, above all, no sense of spiritual transcendence—in what he had been observing. "The preacher is tops. God comes out as a second banana."

In one particularly insightful comment, Postman wrote, "I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether..."

This week, I want us all to see just how demanding and serious following Jesus is. We will hear the message directly from the lips of Jesus when he said this to all who will follow him:

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."
Jesus, Mark 8:34–35

To His Glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor