The Big Answer

Why is it that we so seldom hear solid philosophical wisdom in sermons?
That was the question.
I think that I can answer it by employing only one word, found in Volume M of any 26-volume dictionary.
Money.
Sounds simplistic or over-stated? It is a bit of both perhaps, and yet, not. Depends on how long you think it through.
Religious homiletical discourse, [in a word, sermonizing], for such activity to be subsidized by the hearer's wallet opening up at the end of things, it has to involve moral obligation. Commands and stuff like that. Even guilt. A toss of guilt has to be in there. Preferably a “god” watching over the proceedings, etc. Were it not for this perception [which must be perpetuated by the beneficiaries] the church’s funds would dry up in a few weeks time.

And all of the above-stated presuppositions rely upon a devotion to irrationality, for their existence!
I am convinced that if preachers really and TRULY annunciated what they know to be true in experience and intellectual honesty, church doors would close with a resounding boom across all of North America and, indeed, the world over.
Religious leaders, pastors, etc., are not nearly as dumb as we happily believe them to be.
Of all people, these on the front lines KNOW that prayer does not at all "work". They are the very ones present at the most bedsides where people are invariably croaking, with not a single one healed.
You would have to be an absolute moron or technically brain dead I think, to keep seeing such a plethora of unanswered prayer and to sit in your office listening to the mountains of personal problems that Christian people have in their relationships to not conclude that there is really no difference between believers and non-believers when it comes to practically lived “life and death” issues.
In other words, no discernible “god” out there working on behalf [or not] of either side of the “faith” spectrum.
Robert Schuller knows this.
They all know it – but they must keep shoving the pablum into the dribbling baby faces. Why? Well, because babies need to be fed, and even more importantly, the ministers need to be remunerated.
If they said on Sunday what they really know to be true, ministers would be out of a job. No different than I myself would be immediately fired if I told my General Manager that I harbor thoughts of burning our main warehouse down to the ground first thing Tuesday.
So – let us recap – [Wow! Maybe I am Anthony Trollope…..!]….

To bring it home…. to make it even more real to myself, I had to think of a corollary scenario. I had to think of a situation in which I think I would be in the presence of real honest, even disinteresed, philosophical discourse.
I thought of Christopher Hitchens.
SCENE: A group of people are listening to Hitchens for one hour. There’s me [faded jeans, hair disheveled] in the midst. All of us mesmerized by the philosophical wisdom and just the overall SENSE of what he is saying. Reveling in the glorious debunction!
Then, at the end, when the applause subsides -- a bit or organ music comes up and Mr. Hitchens says he is going to pass around an empty KFC bucket and he would like it if everyone put 10% of their gross earnings into the thing, thank you very much. As a sort of fee for what they just heard.
[P.S. There is an ATM machine in the foyer!]
THE ENTIRE PLACE WOULD RISE UP AND TELL HIM TO GO HAMMER HIS FRIGGING HAT!
Am I right?
Well, if so, I am rightfully right!
Go write a book, buddy. [He did].
Make a DVD. [Done].
But don’t tell me to give you serious amounts of money just because you can stand there and talk for a few minutes!
And yet -- this is exactly the process in church....... with the added insult of the upshot that what we’ve all just heard is utter rubbish!
From any rational, intelligent perspective, this is the case.
How do they get away with it?
Well, friends, there is only ONE way.
By REMAINING in the absurd. By dumbing down. By providing NOT wisdom -- but "emotional therapy sessions" [to quote Schuller].
By playing the game of belief in what is essentially unbelievable...... namely, that there is a GOD that deperately needs our money, and that our particular religious institution is the executor of that transaction.
Think about it.
No other place on earth would get away with this. Admittedly, the government comes close with their fiscal idea of “give us your money and we’ll distribute it wisely”, but they do not hold a candle to the church.
Money is the reason that Schuller was able to interupt my breakfast today with his absurdities. His presence in my apartment has absolutely nothing to do with the “blessings of God” on his ministry. It has everything to do with the myriads of fools writing cheques, while I scrape away at a grapefruit.

I’ll let Emily say the rest:

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.

God preaches, -- a noted clergyman --
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I’m going all along.

*******