Why Non-Christians See Christians as Phony: #1

My son likes to listen to the music on the Worship Channel. There is very little actual programming there. Most of the time it's classical music played over landscapes and such. He likes listening to it because it's peaceful.

The other day I turned on the television and it was tuned to the Worship Channel, only instead of music and serene landscapes it was a television preacher talking about something. I was only able to stomach a little of him before I had to turn the station. Why is it that when Christians get in front of a television camera they feel some compulsive need to pretend to be "up" all the time. Even when they are up they have to add to it.

To me, this is about as phony as it gets. They look phony. They sound phony. They are phony.

Why is it that television preachers, interviewers, and even guests, feel they have to pretend? Don't they understand that the reason we Christians have the reputation for dishonesty and phoniness is because we're dishonest and phony? It isn't our faith that others say is phony; it's our happiness. NOBODY is that happy ALL THE TIME. NOBODY.

I bet Jesus had days when his body felt run down and he just couldn't find it in himself to laugh and be "up". That doesn't mean he was crabby and irritable, but I bet when he was tired he wasn't all bubbles and joy. What's wrong with admitting that? It's the truth, and isn't God truth?

The only time these people aren't bubbly and "up" is when they're talking about something unfortunate. Then they go way overboard the other way. Real people don't talk that way, or sound like that when they are concerned.

I don't believe ARP (Any Reasonable Person) wants that kind of a preacher. We don't want our preachers and whatnots pretending to care, to be happy, to be anything. We want them to be real. We want to see them be silly when they're in a good mood. Laugh. Joke. Friendly insults to show they are truly getting along. And when things aren't funny, be serious, but not dramatic.

Too many preachers rely on emotion. They believe if they can get a congregation, or audience, to feel spiritual they've accomplished something. They have. They causes people to feel something. What they have failed to do, however, is inspire spirituality.

I remember how the paster at a church I attended back in the 1970s began a sermon. He looked down at his bible and began to (apparently) read.

"For God so loved the world that he felt very gushy towards everybody. That's not what it says, is it? It says God 'gave'."

Those of us who have been raised in Western culture are particularly guilty of relying on our emotions to decide things. It's a horrible practice, because emotions are the biggest liar of all. They are the devil's tool against us.

2 Timothy (chapter 3) New King James Version

[1] But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

[2] For men will be lovers of themselges, 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! (emphasis mine)

I don't mean to say that those people I see on television are not real Christians. I have no way of knowing if their faith is real or not, so I will assume it is real. But their acting is just that: acting. And it's bad acting at that. I wish they would knock it off and just be real. Be themselves. I refuse to believe they really are that shallow.