One reason the Restore Stephen Baldwin nonsense bothers me so much is that it gets to something that bothers me to the marrow about religious culture, and it’s this: that religious people have a weakness for disguising ordinary crappy human behavior with a spiritual mask, thus granting it legitimacy.
Stephen Baldwin’s bankruptcy cannot, therefore, be a matter of a spendthrift celebrity who wanted a lifestyle he couldn’t afford, and who didn’t pay his taxes. Rather, his suffering has to be seen by some as a matter of “spiritual warfare,” thus disarming people from within the Christian community from dealing with the situation as it really is. I am reminded of three incidents from my own experience, one benign, the other malicious, the third downright evil.
In the first, I once received a fundraising letter from an Evangelical couple who were living overseas conducting a mission to supermodels. I’m not kidding: they really felt called to share the Gospel with the fashion industry, and cast a net among their circle of friends, family and acquaintances to fund their European fashion-industry lifestyle. They framed this as a missionary activity, when it was plain to me that they really, really loved living like fashionista hangers-on, and were working the best angle they knew how to keep it going. Mind you, I don’t think they were being cynical. I think they really had convinced themselves that Jesus loves supermodels too (as indeed He does), and that somebody needed to be there backstage at the shows to tell them that.
In the second, I knew of a case in which a woman worked at a small religious institution where she was mistreated by the management. The circumstances around her firing were so heartless as to beggar description. After she was told she was being let go, she began to cry, and the two top executives stood up, and said, “Let’s pray together.” Without going into detail, I can tell you that this was a case in which the leadership of this organization coated its awful behavior in drippy piety, to conceal from themselves their true motive. At least that’s what I concluded.
In the third, a Catholic bishop told a married woman who had come to him complaining of a priest who had used information he gathered in the confessional to compel her to have a sexual affair with him that if she made a big deal of it, he would ruin her reputation because, as she (and her psychiatrist, who was there) told me he put it, “I have to protect the people of God.” I would bet my paycheck that he really believed that’s what he was doing, the bishop.
Understand, what I find so interesting about this is not that religious people act badly and try to conceal it from the world with a mask of piety. That happens all the time. What gets to me is how some religious folks manage to conceal their true motives and actions from themselves with the pious mask, i.e., by spiritualizing everything. This helps explain why, as a Texas friend with painful experience in this field crudely puts it, “Nobody’ll screw you like a brother in Christ.”
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posted April 27, 2010 at 11:44 am
“The perpetrator can always justify his actions.”—Robert J. Ringer.
After 46 years of being alive and 21 years of law practice, I can confidently say that that is without a doubt the most accurate basic statement about Human nature that I have ever heard.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
posted April 27, 2010 at 11:48 am
I think most people will try and deceive themselves about some behavior that is dubious.
Nobody (self included) likes to imagine or reflect deeply upon the fact that there is evil within our heart and that it can infect our motives.
In this context, our ‘spirituality’ just becomes one more shield to us to keep us from facing the fact that we’re not the person we’d like to be or even the person that we imagine we are.
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:10 pm
The ever-quotable Plaid Adder explains this (as well as many other phenomena) over here. I think that’s got it about right.
As to the more benign goofiness of the Evangelical examples you’ve cited, Rod, haven’t I been telling you that there’s a whole subculture like that? The “witnessing to supermodels” thing reminds me of some of the incidents out of Frank Schaeffer’s recent Patience with God.
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:16 pm
So where’s the line that we judge these projects. Is Barbra Nicolosi’s efforts to Evangelize the film industry in the same category? How about programs to get more conservative Christians into journalism? Why are supermodels frivolous but films not? If Nicolosi, for instance, just wants to sell a script (something she hasn’t been very successful at), isn’t her missionary zeal just as suspect?
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Peter, I’m not sure there is one “line”. That may truly be a spiritual matter, one for your own discernment. Stephen Baldwin may or may not be a great voice in Hollywood for Christianity, but I have little patience for folks who just don’t pay their taxes.
Someone may well feel that the supermodel ministry is a valuable one, and they should go ahead and support it. But for a lot of us – maybe most – that need is going to take a lot of justification!
I don’t like condemning people – especially fellow Christians – but I do agree with Rod that there is too much chicanery out there being dressed up in spiritual clothing.
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:52 pm
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
2 Timothy 3:1-5
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:54 pm
This is why I’ve always liked the sacrament of reconciliation or confession. I imagine we’re all prone to self delusion, but the sacrament provides an opportunity to overcome our usual unwillingness to face up to who and what we are.
posted April 27, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Oh, not so much justification — I can see a real need for someone to bring the presence of Christ to those very, very young girls — girls whose parents are often only too willing to pimp them out to the industry.
I think most of us have pretty good BS detectors in place when it comes to this stuff. We can usually figure out the scams and bogus ministries pretty quickly.
It all comes down to motivation — is it selfish or selfless? Does the ministry serve God or serve the self?
I think the danger lies in the journey. A lot of these grassroots, non-denom ministries begin from a genuine desire to share Christ with the world, but I think the more success they achieve, the more attention, the more money, the more influence, the greater the temptations and then the greater need to justify the bad behavior, perhaps especially to oneself. Power corrupts…money and influence and worldly attention corrupt.
posted April 27, 2010 at 1:10 pm
This is a well known phenomoenom. It’s even got a name;
Affinity fraud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud
Chekc the list–see how many are religious based. Obviously, the list is repersentative only. Actual affinty fraud is rampant.
Mormons in particular seem to be especuially vulnerable. We Catholics, of course, have Maciel and many others. closely knit religious groups are all juicy targets.
posted April 27, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Yes, but those scam artists are fully aware of what they’re doing and while they have to justify their actions, lifestyles, whatever to their targets, I can’t imagine they bother justifying them to themselves.
It’s the people who begin with the best of intentions but who end up succumbing to the temptations along the way who ultimately have to justify and rationalize their actions to themselves.
posted April 27, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Mind you, I don’t think they were being cynical. I think they really had convinced themselves that Jesus loves supermodels too (as indeed He does), and that somebody needed to be there backstage at the shows to tell them that.
You aren’t cynical enough, Rod.
posted April 27, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I’m starting a ministry to gourmet chocolatiers, high-end craft brewers, and Aspen ski-resort denizens. Send your pennies!
We’ve all been victims and/or perpetrators of spiritual masking to some degree. I could write a blog about it. Wait, I already did…
posted April 27, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Recently one of my friends had a client/customer deal with him very sharply and rudely at work. After what he reports was “the worst I have ever had to deal with” in terms of customer behavior, the customer in question said to him “You’re lucky I’m a Christian.”
posted April 27, 2010 at 5:08 pm
John E-Agn Stoic @ 1:18 PM writes:
“Mind you, I don’t think they were being cynical. I think they really had convinced themselves that Jesus loves supermodels too (as indeed He does), and that somebody needed to be there backstage at the shows to tell them that.
You aren’t cynical enough, Rod.”
In 21st-century America, cynicism is an essential and valuable survival skill that needs careful honing and cultivation.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
posted April 27, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I think religious people also have a habit of “excusing” crappy human behavior for many of the same reasons. Why get upset about ….after all, aren’t we “all” sinners? I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that excuse when it comes to some of the things our local priest has done and said.
Best,
Mike
posted April 27, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Oops, just noticed that my brackets were seen as HTML code….I meant to write, “Why get upset about (fill in the blank)…after all, aren’t we all sinners?”
posted April 27, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Martin, could you use some help with that ministry? I hope you won’t mind a heathen helping, but I can give you the heathen point of view on high-end craft brews which could come in handy.
posted April 27, 2010 at 11:43 pm
A couple things about the supermodel example trouble me. One is that the ‘missionaries’ are criticized for framing it as mission, when in fact they enjoy it. Another is a comment above about how we can tell whether actions are ‘selfish or selfless.’
See, I look at it from the perspective of the missioned-to. The last thing I want in my life is someone who befriends me in a spirit of selfless sacrifice. I want someone who LIKES me, who thinks I’m cool, who enjoys hanging out with me and my friends. So this implied demand that the christian missionary be acting out of selfless motives rather than enjoyment — well, that just leaves me cold. I don’t want a friend like that, or a god like that.
Christians are too scared to admit they enjoy things. I think that’s half the reason for this fake piety – because if they did admit they enjoyed what they were doing, folks would dismiss them as frivolous and insufficiently selfless.
posted April 28, 2010 at 8:35 am
Christians are too scared to admit they enjoy things. I think that’s half the reason for this fake piety – because if they did admit they enjoyed what they were doing, folks would dismiss them as frivolous and insufficiently selfless.
Well, all that and also that folks might be less likely to contribute money to finance that lifestyle if it were admitted that the missionaries-to-the-supermodels enjoyed hanging out in the European fashion scene.
posted April 28, 2010 at 9:11 am
I once had a friend who described himself as “just an old con man.” He said that the saying, “you can’t con a con man” was the opposite of the truth. He said that con men can be very easy to con, because believing in the con yourself is the best way to sell it to others. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know–one must consider the source–but it’s worth pondering. It makes sense that those who are in the business of selling unsubstantiated beliefs to others would be the first to fall prey to their own wishful thinking.