ShelfLife

“An impatient generation looking for instant solutions and quick answers will be a generation of shallow slogans.” (p. 110)

Pick up any popular magazine these days and I assure you, you will see titles beginning with “5 Easy Steps to . . . “ and “3 Ways to Improve Your . . . “  There is always someone out there offering the “1-2-3’s” to weight loss, the “quick and easy” steps to spiritual maturity or the “a-b-c’s” to whatever else you are in pursuit of.  We want an answer to our question, and we want it yesterday!  Consequently, advertisers are happy to oblige and thousands of magazines fly off of the newsstands every day.

Sadly, the same way of thinking holds true when it comes to the spiritual life.  On numerous occasions, I have heard people ask great questions but fail to pursue an answer due to nothing else but intellectual laziness.  Instead, they buy into what Moreland refers to as “shallow slogans.”  (You have heard them.  Think, “Let go, and let God.”)

Tragically, churches today are filled fill preachers who are unwilling to address the difficult issues of the day in favor of what will “sell” with their people.  Messages are shortened, over simplified, and put to rhyme if necessary so as to not overwhelm anyone.

But, what happens when difficult decisions need to be made regarding health care, education, economics or bio-ethics?  Or, what happens in a time of crisis and the common questions about God are asked?  What “sells” on the average Sunday morning falls short, and the Christian church loses its voice.

Just recently, I spoke on the doctrine of the Trinity.  In preparing for my message, I came across a quote by Gwen Shamblin, author and founder of the Weigh Down Diet, that stopped me in my tracks.  It read:

“As a ministry, we believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  However, the Bible does not use the word ‘trinity’ and our feeling is that the word ‘trinity’ implies equality in leadership, or shared Lordship . . . People don’t care about this [topic].  They don’t care about the Trinity.  This is going to pass.  What the women want is weight loss.  They care about their bodies being a temple and their lives turned over to the Lord.  That’s what my ministry is about.”

Among the many things she wrongly asserts, her argument speaks directly to my point.  Many people believe that if the topic at hand is not relevant to their current situation or helpful in creating a “better you”, then it is not worth the effort.  In this case, even a foundational truth such as the Trinity is seen as irrelevant to the “more important” topic of weight loss.

Incidentally, why does the doctrine of the Trinity matter?  Because it is essential to our understanding of who God is.  Because it affects our understanding of what it means to know God.  Because it informs our understanding of community, marriage and much more . . .

I am challenged once again by this book to love the Lord my God with all of my mind by rejecting shallow slogans and evaluating the logic behind the arguments made like Ms. Shamblin’s.  As Moreland argues, to do this takes work.  It will take a change in my lifestyle.

One change I will be make will be to identify the important informal fallacies he lists at the end of chapter 5 and that I hear in my everyday life:

1. Appeal to pity

2. Appeal to the people

3. Ad homenem argument

4. Genetic fallacy

5. Straw man

6. Red herring

7. Begging the question

The examples he gives for each one of these is terrific.  I have heard all of them many times.  Now, however, I can better categorize the flaw in their logic.

What change in your lifestyle do you want to make?

~Blake Holmes