spiritual porn

If you take a trip for that over-priced coffee to hang with the trendy and hip at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders, you will find the Christian porn section. It is the "spiritual porn" section, known by another name: Christian Inspiration. It is the most depressing section at the store. Why?

Porn exists for one purpose, to build sexual desire in order to release it only through the consumption of porn. It is a caricature of what has become of the modern Northern Hemisphere and the market economy. It is also what has become of Christian literature since 1970"s which fused with the genre of self-help that emerged at the same time. Thanks to the widely popular books by Bach & Munson in 1973 and Norman Vincent Peale who arguably kicked it all off in the 1950"s, the fusion of self-help and religion is alive and well and developed right alongside the increase of affluence.

Titles such as: Your Best Life Now, Managing Emotions: Instead of Emotions Managing You,  He-Motions: Even Strong Men Struggle, Searching for God Knows What, Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in  Broken World give us a few depressing themes. 1) People are pretty much "lost", 2) People want quick solutions to serious problems, 3) People think God is a spiritual Lexapro or Paxil, or that 4) People are generally let down by the institutions of the church Sadly, the last themes tend toward what I would consider the "good" books that might be in that section! It is ALL, nevertheless, geared towards psychically protecting one"s individuality or finding one"s individuality in a time of pluralism, increased choice, and the cenrality of material comforts and affluence to live a better life.

Wade Clark Roof (1999) continues to be right in the idea of "New Voluntarism", and Christian Smith, et. al. (2005) corroborate:

(A) situation in which people are bound less than ever before to inherited faiths, are deeply subjective in their religious choices, and are looking for a range of experts and resources for help in cultivating their spiritual lives (p. 110).

It is an ethos reinforced by the consumer marketplace which has placed all its chips on the free and irrational choices of individual consumers to consume products they are deluded into thinking will give them a happier and more existentially satisfying life. Consumption of goods that others produce is the source of happiness.

The true self without all the layers of human limits and social structures is found by looking more and more inward rather than by reaching outward to love your neighbor and love God. Some have found that by self-selecting their religion like a combo meal at the mall Chinese restaurant where you can choose your own entrees and sides for one low price. Others have found it by removing the anxiety of choice and freedom by choosing to limit that freedom in terms of easy to digest fundamentalist answers that simplify lifes biggest questions into four or five steps or points.

Jesus said to give it all up to follow him. The most repugnant message to our consumer culture, is this one: "take up your cross and follow me." Yet no one really wants to, do they? I think people say they want to or that they should, but I believe now more than ever that this is simply out of a sense of guilt or loss; they know they have consciously abandoned their traditional community roots and feel bad about it so they are anxious about the idea of not having a traditional home. Faced with the guilt of anxiety, spirituality and religion take on the form of self-help, therapy, and indulgence. And that"s depressing.

Related posts:

1. calling and spiritual death
2. books i have read in 2009
3. go where god is, not where you believe god ought to be.