More and more, regardless of which area of the U.S. that I visit and shop or eat, when I ask for a favor, or after a store employee tells me which aisle of the market a product is in, I try to always be polite and say thank you. Increasingly I get the response back of “No problem,” instead of “You’re welcome.” Intellectually and thinking as free of common emotion as I can, I find the “no problem” response to be inferior to “you’re welcome.” Nevertheless, the “no problem” response often comes out of my own mouth. Why do I do that, especially when my reasoning mind thinks the much better answer is “you’re welcome”? I think it is called conditioning. Sometimes cultural changes are knowingly adopted, while other times they are accepted in sort of a creeping, chipping away manner. That can be good or bad and it applies both to the world of television advertising and to the world of faith.
How is that done? Sometimes very subtly with the extent of influence depending on our mood or psychological make-up and whether we take the time to ask ourselves, “What’s in this for the advertiser?” and “What’s in it for me?” It might be good or it might hook us in to something not to our benefit. All of us have times where we are vulnerable; sometimes that human condition may lead us to rushing into a new or used automobile contract without attention to the fine print, or to upgrade our computer when the current one is still doing everything we need it to do.
Let’s consider a couple of ads. The first TV ad is from J.G. Wentworth a purchaser of annuities or structured settlements, where they provide the beneficiaries with a lump sum amount, pocketing a good chunk for themselves, of course. Although I won’t be utilizing their services, the commercials have been ingrained in my head to the point that I have found myself singing parts of the ad while I shower in the morning. And I don’t watch a lot of television! The Wentworth ad may be viewed here.
The second ad, in various settings and put out by freecreditreport.com features Canadian actor Eric Violette who in real life speaks fluent French as well as English and appears to have serious tastes in music. The ads may be viewed here It should be noted that the free report cannot be obtained without signing up for future consumer reports, FICO scores, etc. And signing up requires giving them your credit card info. You may, however, call them back on the phone and cancel your “order” but that will likely take more time than signing up. As defined by U.S. Law the advertiser has the legal right to advertise the reports as free, but for consumers the ads don’t come without some type of initial commitment. Examine the offer behind the ads offer very seriously if you find yourself getting drawn in.
Regardless of what people write or say about biblical texts, and that includes more than a fair number of preachers, to do justice to a text it must both be examined in the context of current culture and looked at with generations of culture peeled away as much as possible. For the sermon to connect intellectually, emotion and feeling, as well as years of conditioning, must take a lesser role. Sermons sometimes, and ideally always, lead listeners to to explore the text on their own or in a small group, trying as much as possible to put themselves back in the day the Biblical text was written, and, if they have studied biblical (ancient) Hebrew and/or Greek, all the better. To suspend that “ingrained” within us by layer upon layer of culture, can be uncomfortable at the least and may lead to different conclusions about the sermon text and/or the sermon itself. After unpeeling and examining as much as we can, we eventually must return to modern culture and today’s thinking and apply what we have learned. At times (or maybe often, I would hope) this will leave us outright opposing or partially at odds with prevailing cultural norms. That’s fine if the exploration is both sincere and well thought out. Stanley Hauerwas says, “I’m often quoted as suggesting that ‘I don’t want students to think for themselves but to think like me.’ But to think like me means that you’ve got to enter into an investigative mode that I think the gospel requires.”
Want to thank me for this post? No problem!
