I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of you to go out and get a copy and read it for yourself. Postman looks at this further in Ch. 11: “The Huxleyan Warning.” He starts with these words: “There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first — the Orwellian — culture becomes a prison. In the second — the Huxleyan — culture becomes a burlesque.” (p. 155)

As we all should know by now, the best way a tyrant can keep the masses in control and prevent them from challenging their overlords is to keep them distracted – usually with endless, brainless entertainment. It is the old ‘bread and circuses’ routine to keep people enslaved without them really even knowing it.
Such is the all-powerful impact of entertainment that most Western churches have also fell under its spell. So many seem to think the only way to compete with the world is to become just like the world. Just consider the recent “strip show-like” entertainment offered at a men’s conference and all the bruhaha which followed from that with Mark Driscoll and John Lindell.
Thankfully some Christian leaders have been calling out this obsession with entertainment. One voice in the wilderness in this regard was A. W. Tozer. He often spoke out against this. For example, he said that the church
appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theatres where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.
And again:
It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God’s professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to attend a meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.
One last remark by Tozer: “Jesus Christ never offered amusement or entertainment for His disciples, but in our day we have to offer both if we are going to get the people – because they are common Christians.”
But here I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of you to go out and get a copy and read it for yourself.
His opening thoughts as found in the Foreword of the book I have quoted before, but they are germane to his whole argument and thus worth sharing again:
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
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Reading (and rereading) the Bible is not an end in itself. There is no heavenly trophy for most times reading the Bible. We are getting to know a person—God—not a textbook. And we must hold tight to the gospel truths that fuel our love of our neighbors. We read because we are loved by God. And because God loves us, we read so that we might love him and love our neighbors.

The Bible is not like other books. When we finish a novel or biography, we put it down and pick up something new. But many Christians complete a Bible reading and start right in again. For those new to the faith, this may seem strange.
Because frequent rereading of the Bible is not an obvious activity, I thought it might be helpful to highlight some of the reasons Christians never really finish reading the Scriptures.
The Bible is a Singular Book
Christians believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that God himself inspired what we read on those pages. This gives the Bible an authority and status unequal to any other book.
While this by itself does not imply we should reread the Bible, it does mean it’s no surprise if we treat it differently than other volumes on our shelves.
We Need to Keep Learning
The Bible gives us instruction, correction, comfort, and hope. This is the infinite, eternal God’s primary revelation of himself, and we finite, fallen humans don’t understand everything about God the first or second or tenth time we read it. Given our limitations and our nature, we will never have perfect knowledge of God in these imperfect bodies.
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Despite Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God still met their needs and will meet our needs now. When God sends them out of the Garden, He gives them superior clothing made of leather. He clothes them so they can have a sense of honor and dignity in the newly fallen world they must live in (Genesis 3:21). Honor is comparable to shame and is conferred on us by others. Like in the Garden, Jesus fulfills our needs and addresses our guilt and shame. He sees us for who we really are and loves us anyway. This is how you heal from shame and stand up for yourself – understand and believe what Christ says about you, not what others say about you.

Golf is not a game of good shots. It’s a game of bad shots.  – Ben Hogan

The 17th hole at Old Course St Andrews is considered one of the most challenging holes in the world. This is a long Par 4 at 456 yards, and the fairway is very tight. The most challenging part of the hole is the green doglegs right around a hotel, making the tee shot blind. It gets even more complex. The wind on the 17th is infamous for making every shot tricky. You have to adjust your strategy and hit toward the rough. If you aim directly toward the green in a straight line, you will land in the rough. Like in golf, your strategy for reaching a goal will impact how sustainable the victory is.
When you exclusively focus on the end outcome, you will miss the strategy needed to get you there sustainably. It will be a flash in the pan. Shooting naively directly for the goal, hoping to get there as quickly as possible, you will only land in the deep rough. Then, prepare yourself to chop and chop through the thick brush of pain and suffering to get back on track. Myopically focusing on the goal will build your pyrrhic victory on a weak foundation and will fail to achieve your dreams.
Standing up for yourself and having courage can’t be achieved by staring aggressively at the end goal. This creates the worst versions of inauthentic masculinity. How you achieve your end goal of self-respect and confidence is less than sheer grit and more about what foundations you are building toward victory. How you play each shot leading up to the green will determine if you authentically stand up for yourself and have the courage for lasting change. To attain permanent courage, each shot must be well placed and measured to address your toxic shame by placing your identity in Christ and remembering who you are in light of the Cross. Establishing your identity in Christ is the enduring strategy to stop bowing to what the world and others say about you. It is the eternal and unshakable foundation which you can stand up for yourself from. Don’t run head first directly for the goal, or you will end up in a rougher spot than when you started.

You have to give careful thought to every shot. Every shot sets up what you are going to do next. Every shot has to be placed correctly. Don’t ever just hit a shot without thinking it through. – Ben Hogan

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