Grace Has Never Been So Slick

Peggy Noonan was one of Ronald Reagan’s speechwriters. She is also a neo-con Republican and so isn’t to be read without that realization. However, Mrs. Noonan has the advantage of almost always presenting her views in an attractive and convincing fashion. Because of this skill at her art I enjoy reading Noonan, even though sometimes her neo-con ideology drives me batty. Recently Noonan had a piece where, in a slight rabbit trail, she had a wonderful sentence that captured the mindset of American leadership.

“You can today go to any office of any great leader in America and Britain – business leader, church leader, political leader – and you will find the great topic of conversation, the great focus of attention, the object of daily obsession, is not the mission (making money, spreading faith, leading an anxious citizenry in the right direction) but how the mission is playing in the media. It’s all they talk about.”

The cultural gatekeepers in America have gone from a preoccupation with their calling to a preoccupation with marketers and marketing. The object no longer is being faithful to what one was called to do but rather the object has become “what kind of press can we get or are we getting for whatever fecal matter we are shoveling today.” If the mission (no matter how skewed that mission is from what it should be) is getting good press and is selling well then the conclusion is that all is well with the organization. All of life has become a literal stage, and when one is on the stage one is not concerned with anything but how the performance is being received by the audience. The media has become the audience for the cultural gatekeepers and the message and calling of the cultural gatekeepers is being changed by the medium — and that quite apart from any realization that the medium has its own agenda.

As this pertains to the Church, most Churches are more concerned with image than theology and branding over truth. The goal is to present a slick product and not to give the whole counsel of God. Spokesmen like John the Baptist, who wore camel hair and ate locusts and honey, or the Apostle Paul who was short and possibly hump-backed with bad eyes need not apply for Pastor positions. Truth that is jagged and angular is replaced in the sanctuary with movie clips and praise and drama teams. It’s all a show aimed at getting rave reviews so that when the next show starts the place will be packed again.

“Welcome to the Grand illusion
Come on in and see what’s happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show
Someday soon we’ll stop to ponder
what on Earth’s this spell we’re under
We watched the show and still we wonder
who the hell we are.”

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane