This is a good piece and I share your concerns. However, there is a fine line between critiquing the corruption of a thing and the essence of a thing. For example, at what point are the business aspects of a church, simply a reflection of how people function together? At what point is the emotional experience of worship, simply an intrinsic reality of worshiping God? At what point are slogans and catchphrases simply a reality of having a meaningful culture?
that's a great question -- i did try to give a cursory answer to it, by saying yes, there are human things going on, because we are humans.
take your example, however, of the church as business - - i do not, in one sense, disagree. But what is our PRIMARY metaphor for the church in the NT ? Body and Bride. And i do not, primarily, treat my body, nor my bride, as a business.
If I understand correctly, you are suggesting that the problem occurs when we reduce things from their fuller picture down to one isolated component of that picture -- much like a married couple who treats their marriage as a license for sex -- The problem is not the substance but the incompleteness of it. Is that a fair summary?
Worship can be enjoyable but worship designed with enjoyment as the goal is a simulacrum. It’s serving the wrong master because it’s no longer a sacrifice of self, but instead becomes a generated emotional high that’s then aimed at God. Unintentionally, He’s the secondary focus.
Fascinating. It reminds me of something I heard John Mark Comer say years ago. He was citing some book, which I can’t remember the name of nor can I remember the sermon/interview I heard JMC say it in (HaHA!) BUT - he said that the thesis of this book is that everyone’s been freaking out about an Orwellian, hard-totalitarian future, and their focus on that has allowed for a soft-totalitarian, Huxleyan (?) future instead.
It terrifies me to think of how our churches might be complicit in such a way of thinking and living, offering a mindless, soulless, instant gratification social club that demands nothing of you - at least nothing in the way of character, sacrifice, and love, and instead is happy with your attendance, hype, and money. How do we build churches today that prophetically reveal this and point to a deeper, more faithful, more transformative way? That keeps me up at night a lot.
Some rambling thoughts but only in response to a great article!!
Basically, Room for Good Things to Run Wild needs a companion novel, and it’ll be a huxleyan dystopia in which a cigar smoking hero recovers his humanity
Dude. My husband and i are 100% tracking with you, reading your book has been a huge part of my journey lately. I think we could actually write you book length things back, all in agreement and similar experiences and so on. We are both artists and have recently finally begun to embrace that part of ourselves as God given for his kingdom and not just distractions. (I've been caught up in bondage to fear of many things for a long time and recently the Lord has been setting me free from those chains so in all sincerity praise Him!) Anyways, i know i'm a bit late to the conversation here. But yeah, we are really lacking in the area of mentors, much less creative writer artist mentors, so your work is so inspiring and encouraging to us.
I know that you are several years ahead of us in being well read and educated but some of the things you have been writing have no joke been what we have been talking about and writing in our journals. Obviously you're writing them in a much more understandable way haha. Its just a bit of a bummer because besides my parents and siblings we don't really have anyone to talk about these things with.
Anyways, i really am starting to believe that i need to write things, maybe even not just for myself and my own working out of faith (although if that is my purpose in writing then so be it you know?) but i wrote this thing kind of about the machine and church and the way we've outsourced so much of God's way for the world's way and its kind of like satire i guess. i'm not trying to be someone i'm not but, like your recent post, these things just can't stay inside me.
If you have time to read it that'd be awesome and if not, that's fine too but you know i just thought i'd shoot my shot haha!
Are we too proud to need His hands and His feet? And do we think we've outgrown a need for a Father in heaven? Those developing countries where Christianity is being spread- they need the Christian run businesses and the education built on Truth and Love and a holistic, realistic understanding of what a human is, an understanding that includes mind, body, and soul formation and the importance of community and all that. But we? We've outgrown that, set in our new ways and they're all we need. What they do in those other countries, it's child's play. One day they'll grow up and realize that the machine will teach them all they need to know and do; and then the machine will do all the hard work for them. They won't have to strive anymore. They'll learn to cut corners and call it normal, good, even. They'll learn to cut corners and blame their fallen nature and then cover up with t-shirts that tell of Grace because their hearts will have bled out. Just like we have done; just like ours have.
Definitely prosperity places, and probably NAR - but i do think how it's defined matters.
I'd say any church that puts the humanity aside for the sake of : success, control, etc falls pray to the same issues of the New London, the World State, or Mind Control Church
Easily one of your best! Every bit—YES! And this English professor is loving your deep dive into my favorite genre from a Biblical-Psychological-Embodied perspective: the dystopian. Can we make a new lit theory?
And, also, how you write all the things banging around in my mind and heart. Have written many poems on these very topics and taught units on Huxley, Bradbury, Orwell, Rand, and others for many years. What we are seeing now in society at large is deeply troubling—and even more so troubling to see it happening in the (mega) church. The sacred has often been devoured by this brave new world, and many parishioners are too asleep to see.
Thank you Josh - well written and thought provoking to say the least. All of this makes me think of CS Lewis' "That Hideous Strength". The times we live in are eerily similar, much like Huxley's world.
Jeremiah 6:15 is ever relevant: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."
Regardless of what crossroads of the cultural moment we live in, I am grateful that joining Jesus on the Way will always lead us down the path of living "outside the system".
I finally got to sit down and read through this, so excellent and thorough. Especially exploring the way the church has succumbed to these ideas. I’ve felt like a “bad Christian” lately for being so disillusioned with every Christian-y social post, bland worship song, and new line of evangelical merch. So it felt refreshing to be reminded that, hey, this isn’t the church we’re supposed to be rapturously in love with! And thank goodness!
This is the best thing I have read in….maybe ever. Thank you for this. Truly words could not do justice the impact this essay has had on me. You articulated everything I have known and did not know I knew.
I was happy to listen to this perspective today. As the leaders of America seem to be making more and more arbitrary decisions as to what is “allowed” - rejecting science, rejecting progress, rejecting OBJECTIVITY… it feels as though the manipulation is getting out of hand.
I don’t watch much TV these days, but I do get caught up in the social media cycle. It all feels so out of touch with the reality that I was a child in: one where I got my pleasure from playing in creeks, showing up at neighbors doors to see if they could play with no need to call first, etc. The thought experiment you suggest in the addendum makes my mind go to a very Atwell-ian dystopia…
Although the Orwellian and Huxlean dystopias often feel like they aren’t that far off from reality sometimes too, I feel that, as a young woman, the Atwellian one feels most real right now. Most of my female friends from college are married and have kids, and there is this feeling sometimes of the wife vs the handmaid as a young single woman. I am abstaining from the dating world because I don’t understand how to navigate it right now.
Societal rules as to what is allowed feel so arbitrary. Women have only had the rights to financial freedom in the US since the 1970s, but whether we choose career or love (which I believe to be a false dichotomy), we are shamed for it. For only about 50 years of the entire existence of this world have women had a way to be “on their own” and able to support themselves… Yet if we act like we have worth for our ability to reproduce and build in this world in a non-capitalistic way, we are often shamed for being “behind-the-times.”
I really don’t get how modern society, especially Christian evangelistic society, chooses what is okay and what isn’t. The Christianity I grew up with says that God is the authority, who are we to judge? But there is absolutely no doubt that the “Church” - the BODY of believers... They DO judge, making it harder to get involved in a physical church in the digital age.
Looping back around to the hallucinogenics that the CIA wanted to play with once upon a time? Strictly prohibited. Why? What did they find out? Medical care pushes numbing agents on is in so many different ways. There is a push against the “psychoactive” drugs, and yet the mental health meds get handed out like candy. Tobacco remains somewhat more socially acceptable and much more legal than marijuana, both just plants, one proven to cause cancer and the other not. Drinking to the point of drunkenness is a social norm, especially in young adults, yet alcoholism itself is a taboo conversational topic…
Society has lost me. I really feel like people were trying to make me adhere to the conventions so hard that it made me question everything. Now, it all feels so pointless sometimes, like I have no worth to society unless I fit into that little worker bee role that the education system has shaped me for.
Why does feeling empowered by just being as I am and happy with that feel like the ultimate rebellion?
Intriguing article. My first response was to look up and see if Huxley was a follower of Christ. What I found was he was not which to me explains his worldview. Yes there is evil that would like to rid Jesus from mankind. But I believe it is impossible for God at the end of it all is in control. My part is to read the Bible, pray and watch sunsets. Thank you as I didn't see this book that was on my High School reading list in this light.
Interesting write up. I first encountered the work of Huxley back in middle school. Fascinating stuff that got my mind going. My major takeaway was about hedonism and if it is better to live in the truth yet suffer or just live like a nerve needing sensation. I think the former is a more fulsum way of being human. I guess I interpreted the story like an extended "Experience Machine" thought experiment.
Later on it reminded me of Plato's Republic where society is placed into castes based on inate characteristics. In Huxley's world its programmed into you for Plato they'd just discern things in an almost magical way.
On another note this piece reminded me of a passage from an essay 'My Early Beliefs' by John Maynard Keynes.
"It can be no part of thid memoir for me to try to explain why it Was such a big advantage for us to have escaped from the Benthamite tradition (capital U utiliatarianism). But I do now regard that (Benthamite tradition) as the worm which has been gnawing at the insights of modern civilization , and it's responsible for its present moral decay. We?
Used to regard the Christians as the enemy, Because they appeared as the representatives of tradition, convention and hocus-pocus. In truth it was the Benthamite calculus, based on an over-valuation of the economic criterion, which was destroying the quality of the popular Ideal."
Ideal refering to the focus of the group he associated with at a younger age called the Bloomsbury group.
This is a good piece and I share your concerns. However, there is a fine line between critiquing the corruption of a thing and the essence of a thing. For example, at what point are the business aspects of a church, simply a reflection of how people function together? At what point is the emotional experience of worship, simply an intrinsic reality of worshiping God? At what point are slogans and catchphrases simply a reality of having a meaningful culture?
I lack good answers to these questions.
that's a great question -- i did try to give a cursory answer to it, by saying yes, there are human things going on, because we are humans.
take your example, however, of the church as business - - i do not, in one sense, disagree. But what is our PRIMARY metaphor for the church in the NT ? Body and Bride. And i do not, primarily, treat my body, nor my bride, as a business.
does that help ?
If I understand correctly, you are suggesting that the problem occurs when we reduce things from their fuller picture down to one isolated component of that picture -- much like a married couple who treats their marriage as a license for sex -- The problem is not the substance but the incompleteness of it. Is that a fair summary?
that's definitely part of it
Huxley's world, and all of the substance of the Brave New World, and even the modern versions of control, come by treating man as a machine.
i could have written more, but lots of this is rooted upon a naturalistic marterialism
Sweet!
Worship can be enjoyable but worship designed with enjoyment as the goal is a simulacrum. It’s serving the wrong master because it’s no longer a sacrifice of self, but instead becomes a generated emotional high that’s then aimed at God. Unintentionally, He’s the secondary focus.
exactly - - priority always matters.
just added an addendum to the essay that helps flush this out more
Fascinating. It reminds me of something I heard John Mark Comer say years ago. He was citing some book, which I can’t remember the name of nor can I remember the sermon/interview I heard JMC say it in (HaHA!) BUT - he said that the thesis of this book is that everyone’s been freaking out about an Orwellian, hard-totalitarian future, and their focus on that has allowed for a soft-totalitarian, Huxleyan (?) future instead.
It terrifies me to think of how our churches might be complicit in such a way of thinking and living, offering a mindless, soulless, instant gratification social club that demands nothing of you - at least nothing in the way of character, sacrifice, and love, and instead is happy with your attendance, hype, and money. How do we build churches today that prophetically reveal this and point to a deeper, more faithful, more transformative way? That keeps me up at night a lot.
Some rambling thoughts but only in response to a great article!!
love the rambles - - that's how we get to the heart of most things.
what's crazy is because the huxleyan dystopia comes with ease, even the red carpet rolled out, we embrace it.
and you know, you have read the book, the things we do, and the things we participate in, are a liturgy that shapes us.
passive complicity still has consequences.
Basically, Room for Good Things to Run Wild needs a companion novel, and it’ll be a huxleyan dystopia in which a cigar smoking hero recovers his humanity
Would that book be Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman?
Dude. My husband and i are 100% tracking with you, reading your book has been a huge part of my journey lately. I think we could actually write you book length things back, all in agreement and similar experiences and so on. We are both artists and have recently finally begun to embrace that part of ourselves as God given for his kingdom and not just distractions. (I've been caught up in bondage to fear of many things for a long time and recently the Lord has been setting me free from those chains so in all sincerity praise Him!) Anyways, i know i'm a bit late to the conversation here. But yeah, we are really lacking in the area of mentors, much less creative writer artist mentors, so your work is so inspiring and encouraging to us.
I know that you are several years ahead of us in being well read and educated but some of the things you have been writing have no joke been what we have been talking about and writing in our journals. Obviously you're writing them in a much more understandable way haha. Its just a bit of a bummer because besides my parents and siblings we don't really have anyone to talk about these things with.
Anyways, i really am starting to believe that i need to write things, maybe even not just for myself and my own working out of faith (although if that is my purpose in writing then so be it you know?) but i wrote this thing kind of about the machine and church and the way we've outsourced so much of God's way for the world's way and its kind of like satire i guess. i'm not trying to be someone i'm not but, like your recent post, these things just can't stay inside me.
If you have time to read it that'd be awesome and if not, that's fine too but you know i just thought i'd shoot my shot haha!
Are we too proud to need His hands and His feet? And do we think we've outgrown a need for a Father in heaven? Those developing countries where Christianity is being spread- they need the Christian run businesses and the education built on Truth and Love and a holistic, realistic understanding of what a human is, an understanding that includes mind, body, and soul formation and the importance of community and all that. But we? We've outgrown that, set in our new ways and they're all we need. What they do in those other countries, it's child's play. One day they'll grow up and realize that the machine will teach them all they need to know and do; and then the machine will do all the hard work for them. They won't have to strive anymore. They'll learn to cut corners and call it normal, good, even. They'll learn to cut corners and blame their fallen nature and then cover up with t-shirts that tell of Grace because their hearts will have bled out. Just like we have done; just like ours have.
I love what you wrote - especially the “sophistication of growing up”
Have you read Wendell Berry on all this ?
No i have not, but will definitely look into that author. Thanks!
You’ll love it / very up your alley here / the machine. Paul Kingsnorth ( he writes here as well ) has things to say too
Sweet, i'll have to check that out too! love getting recommendations!
Would you say The NAR and other prosperity gospels offshoots are the biggest offenders and biggest example of evangelical machine you describe?
Definitely prosperity places, and probably NAR - but i do think how it's defined matters.
I'd say any church that puts the humanity aside for the sake of : success, control, etc falls pray to the same issues of the New London, the World State, or Mind Control Church
Easily one of your best! Every bit—YES! And this English professor is loving your deep dive into my favorite genre from a Biblical-Psychological-Embodied perspective: the dystopian. Can we make a new lit theory?
And, also, how you write all the things banging around in my mind and heart. Have written many poems on these very topics and taught units on Huxley, Bradbury, Orwell, Rand, and others for many years. What we are seeing now in society at large is deeply troubling—and even more so troubling to see it happening in the (mega) church. The sacred has often been devoured by this brave new world, and many parishioners are too asleep to see.
Stay savage, my friend.
Thank you Josh - well written and thought provoking to say the least. All of this makes me think of CS Lewis' "That Hideous Strength". The times we live in are eerily similar, much like Huxley's world.
Jeremiah 6:15 is ever relevant: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."
Regardless of what crossroads of the cultural moment we live in, I am grateful that joining Jesus on the Way will always lead us down the path of living "outside the system".
I finally got to sit down and read through this, so excellent and thorough. Especially exploring the way the church has succumbed to these ideas. I’ve felt like a “bad Christian” lately for being so disillusioned with every Christian-y social post, bland worship song, and new line of evangelical merch. So it felt refreshing to be reminded that, hey, this isn’t the church we’re supposed to be rapturously in love with! And thank goodness!
This is the best thing I have read in….maybe ever. Thank you for this. Truly words could not do justice the impact this essay has had on me. You articulated everything I have known and did not know I knew.
I was happy to listen to this perspective today. As the leaders of America seem to be making more and more arbitrary decisions as to what is “allowed” - rejecting science, rejecting progress, rejecting OBJECTIVITY… it feels as though the manipulation is getting out of hand.
I don’t watch much TV these days, but I do get caught up in the social media cycle. It all feels so out of touch with the reality that I was a child in: one where I got my pleasure from playing in creeks, showing up at neighbors doors to see if they could play with no need to call first, etc. The thought experiment you suggest in the addendum makes my mind go to a very Atwell-ian dystopia…
Although the Orwellian and Huxlean dystopias often feel like they aren’t that far off from reality sometimes too, I feel that, as a young woman, the Atwellian one feels most real right now. Most of my female friends from college are married and have kids, and there is this feeling sometimes of the wife vs the handmaid as a young single woman. I am abstaining from the dating world because I don’t understand how to navigate it right now.
Societal rules as to what is allowed feel so arbitrary. Women have only had the rights to financial freedom in the US since the 1970s, but whether we choose career or love (which I believe to be a false dichotomy), we are shamed for it. For only about 50 years of the entire existence of this world have women had a way to be “on their own” and able to support themselves… Yet if we act like we have worth for our ability to reproduce and build in this world in a non-capitalistic way, we are often shamed for being “behind-the-times.”
I really don’t get how modern society, especially Christian evangelistic society, chooses what is okay and what isn’t. The Christianity I grew up with says that God is the authority, who are we to judge? But there is absolutely no doubt that the “Church” - the BODY of believers... They DO judge, making it harder to get involved in a physical church in the digital age.
Looping back around to the hallucinogenics that the CIA wanted to play with once upon a time? Strictly prohibited. Why? What did they find out? Medical care pushes numbing agents on is in so many different ways. There is a push against the “psychoactive” drugs, and yet the mental health meds get handed out like candy. Tobacco remains somewhat more socially acceptable and much more legal than marijuana, both just plants, one proven to cause cancer and the other not. Drinking to the point of drunkenness is a social norm, especially in young adults, yet alcoholism itself is a taboo conversational topic…
Society has lost me. I really feel like people were trying to make me adhere to the conventions so hard that it made me question everything. Now, it all feels so pointless sometimes, like I have no worth to society unless I fit into that little worker bee role that the education system has shaped me for.
Why does feeling empowered by just being as I am and happy with that feel like the ultimate rebellion?
i will respond shortly - there's lots here -
sorry my brain went brrr. too many thoughts 😅😂
Intriguing article. My first response was to look up and see if Huxley was a follower of Christ. What I found was he was not which to me explains his worldview. Yes there is evil that would like to rid Jesus from mankind. But I believe it is impossible for God at the end of it all is in control. My part is to read the Bible, pray and watch sunsets. Thank you as I didn't see this book that was on my High School reading list in this light.
Interesting write up. I first encountered the work of Huxley back in middle school. Fascinating stuff that got my mind going. My major takeaway was about hedonism and if it is better to live in the truth yet suffer or just live like a nerve needing sensation. I think the former is a more fulsum way of being human. I guess I interpreted the story like an extended "Experience Machine" thought experiment.
Later on it reminded me of Plato's Republic where society is placed into castes based on inate characteristics. In Huxley's world its programmed into you for Plato they'd just discern things in an almost magical way.
On another note this piece reminded me of a passage from an essay 'My Early Beliefs' by John Maynard Keynes.
"It can be no part of thid memoir for me to try to explain why it Was such a big advantage for us to have escaped from the Benthamite tradition (capital U utiliatarianism). But I do now regard that (Benthamite tradition) as the worm which has been gnawing at the insights of modern civilization , and it's responsible for its present moral decay. We?
Used to regard the Christians as the enemy, Because they appeared as the representatives of tradition, convention and hocus-pocus. In truth it was the Benthamite calculus, based on an over-valuation of the economic criterion, which was destroying the quality of the popular Ideal."
Ideal refering to the focus of the group he associated with at a younger age called the Bloomsbury group.