R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 389

The Briefing 10-17-13

1) Debt deal another exercise in artificial politics

 At 11th Hour, G.O.P. Blinks in Standoff, New York Times (Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer)

Senate Leaders Reach Bipartisan Deal, Wall Street Journal (Kristina Peterson and Janet Hook)

Why Conservatives Should End the Debt Ceiling Debate, AlbertMohler.com

2) National march towards legalized gay marriage continues in Michigan and North Carolina

Michigan’s 2004 Gay Marriage Ban Faces Challenge, Associated Press (Ed White)

Federal judge expected to rule on Michigan’s gay marriage ban today, Detroit Free Press (Tresa Baldas)

Same-sex couples test North Carolina gay marriage ban, USA Today (Associated Press)

3) What is racial equality? Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?

On Affirmative Action, the Court Tackles A Deceptively Simple Question, The Atlantic (Garrett Epps)

4) What does Google think is evil? Whatever it’s not doing. 

What is ‘Evil’ to Google? The Atlantic (Ian Bogost)

5) Porn is a problem long before it’s revenge porn

Fighting Back Against Revenge Porn, New York Times (Editorial)

The Briefing 10-16-13

1) Why is America a magnet for Nobel Laureates? 

Economists Clash on Theory, but Will Still Share the Nobel, New York Times (Binyamin Applebaum)

Nobels and National Greatness, Wall Street Journal (Bret Stephens)

2) Among heavy gamblers, losers outnumber winners by 128 to 1

How Often Do Gamblers Really Win?, Wall Street Journal (Mark Maremont and Alexandra Berzon)

3) In New York, highly biased ballot language favoring gambling distorts the democratic process

Casino Referendum Led Gambling Industry to Spend Richly in Albany, New York Times (Thomas Kaplan)

4) If private counseling isn’t protected by 1st Amendment, nothing is

Protecting the Speech We Hate, New York Times (Paul Sherman and Robert McNamara)

The Briefing 10-15-13

1) Oldest living Nazi war criminal dies, remorseless until the end

War criminal Erich Priebke dies at 100; Nazi captain convicted in 1995, Los Angeles Times

Erich Priebke, Nazi Who Carried Out Massacre of 335 Italians, Dies at 100, New York Times (Alison Smale)

2) Dehumanization of victims essential to commit murder…and abortion

Behind Flurry of Killing, Potency of Hate, New York Times (Katrin Behold)

3) Story of Baby Hope reminder that sanctity of life cries out for justice

As Police Chased Leads About ‘Baby Hope,’ Those Who Knew Her Kept Quiet, New York Times (J. David Goodman)

4) Sin takes hold of the very young; 11-year-old guilty of conspiracy to commit murder of “annoying” girl

Wash. Boy, 11, Found Guilty of Murder Conspiracy, Associated Press

5) Inter-faith marriage primary threat to Judaism

American Jews carve out faith different than parents’ Courier Journal (Peter Smith)

6) Where you attend college has tremendous impact on who you will marry

Looking to get married? Try a Christian college, Religion News Service (Katherine Burgess)

7) Bishop Spong’s once shockingly liberal views now common

An aging maverick, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has no regrets, Religion News Services (David Gibson)

Genesis 4:17-5:4

The Briefing 10-14-13

1) Has the Nobel Peace Prize’s prestige been tarnished by politicization? 

A Wishful Peace Prize, Wall Street Journal (Editorial)

2) When you read Alice Munro, you don’t just read the story of people, but civilization

Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, New York Times (Julie Bosman)

3) Do you want to improve in understanding people? Read literary fiction

Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind, Science (David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano)

Reading literary fiction improves empathy, study finds, The Guardian (Liz Bury)

4) “Little Sisters of the Poor” not religious enough for exemption from Obamacare

What Obamacare means to Little Sisters of the Poor, Washington Times (Mario Diaz)

5) ”Marketing secrecy clause” hides abortion coverage in fine print of Obamacare

Making the taxpayer an accessory to the abortion trade, Washington Times (Christopher H. Smith)

Falling on Deaf Ears?—Why So Many Churches Hear So Little of the Bible

“It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God.

The sentence above comes from Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today in an essay entitled, “Yawning at the Word.” In just a few hundred words, he captures the tragedy of a church increasingly impatient with and resistant to the reading and preaching of the Bible. We may wince when we read him relate his recent experiences, but we also recognize the ring of truth.

Galli was told to cut down on the biblical references in his sermon. “You’ll lose people,” the staff member warned. In a Bible study session on creation, the teacher was requested to come back the next Sunday prepared to take questions at the expense of reading the relevant scriptural texts on the doctrine. Cutting down on the number of Bible verses “would save time and, it was strongly implied, would better hold people’s interest.”

As Galli reflected, “Anyone who’s been in the preaching and teaching business knows these are not isolated examples but represent the larger reality.”

Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation’s concerns, not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns.

As Mark Galli notes:

It has been said to the point of boredom that we live in a narcissistic age, where we are wont to fixate on our needs, our wants, our wishes, and our hopes—at the expense of others and certainly at the expense of God. We do not like it when a teacher uses up the whole class time presenting her material, even if it is material from the Word of God. We want to be able to ask our questions about our concerns, otherwise we feel talked down to, or we feel the class is not relevant to our lives.

And Galli continues:

It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out. Don’t spend a lot of time in the Bible, we tell our preachers, but be sure to get to personal illustrations, examples from daily life, and most importantly, an application that we can use.

The fixation on our own sense of need and interest looms as the most significant factor in this marginalization and silencing of the Word. Individually, each human being in the room is an amalgam of wants, needs, intuitions, interests, and distractions. Corporately, the congregation is a mass of expectations, desperate hopes, consuming fears, and impatient urges. All of this adds up, unless countered by the authentic reading and preaching of the Word of God, to a form of group therapy, entertainment, and wasted time—if not worse.

Galli has this situation clearly in his sights when he asserts that many congregations expect the preacher to start from some text in the Bible, but then quickly move on “to things that really interest us.” Like . . . ourselves?

One of the earliest examples of what we would call the preaching of the Bible may well be found in Nehemiah 8:1-8 (ESV):

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Ezra and his companions stood on a platform before the congregation. They read the scriptural text clearly, and then explained the meaning of the Scripture to the people. The congregation received the Word humbly, while standing. The pattern is profoundly easy to understand: the Bible was read and explained and received.

As Hughes Oliphant Old comments, “This account of the reading of the Law indicates that already at the time of the writing of this text there was a considerable amount of ceremonial framing of the public reading of Scripture. This ceremonial framing is a witness to the authority of the Bible.” The reading and exposition took place in a context of worship as the people listened to the Word of God. The point of the sermon was simple: “to make clear the reading of the Scriptures.”

In many churches, there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible. We are called to sing in worship, but the congregation cannot live only on the portions of Scripture that are woven into songs and hymns. Christians need the ministry of the Word as the Bible is read before the congregation such that God’s people—young and old, rich and poor, married and unmarried, sick and well—hear it together. The sermon is to consist of the exposition of the Word of God, powerfully and faithfully read, explained, and applied. It is not enough that the sermon take a biblical text as its starting point.

How can so many of today’s churches demonstrate what can only be described as an impatience with the Word of God? The biblical formula is clear: the neglect of the Word can only lead to disaster, disobedience, and death. God rescues his church from error, preserves his church in truth, and propels his church in witness only by his Word—not by congregational self-study.

In the end, an impatience with the Word of God can be explained only by an impatience with God. We all, both individually and congregationally, neglect God’s Word to our own ruin.

As Jesus himself declared, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Mark Galli, “Yawning at the Word,” Christianity Today [online edition], posted November 5, 2009. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2...

Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Volume 1: The Biblical Period (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2007).

This commentary was originally posted Friday, February 19, 2010.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

The Expositors Summit 2013 at Southern Seminary—October 29-31

The goal of Christian preaching is nothing less than the glory of God in the Christlikeness of his people. For this reason, The Expositors Summit 2013 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will seek to restore the primacy of expository preaching to the pulpits of local churches. Pastors, students, and all who love the Scriptures are invited to come hear Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., H.B. Charles Jr., and Alistair Begg as the keynote speakers (along with other gifted leaders in various seminars).

The Briefing 10-11-13

1) Extend crisis deadline? Politics as theatre is growing tiresome and frustrating.

GOP to Propose Temporary Debt-Ceiling Increase, Wall Street Journal (Patrick O’Connor, Siobhan Hughes, and Damian Paletta)

2) Are we witnessing a meltdown of the constitutional order?

The Shutdown Prophet, New York Magazine (Jonathan Chait)

3) New law in California permits non-physicians to perform abortions

Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill to increase access to abortions, LA Times (Patrick McGreevy and Anthony York)

California governor signs bills to tackle state’s water crisis, Reuters (Sharon Bernstein)

4) Offer a chance for women seeking abortion to see ultrasound? No, they might feel guilty.

With New Abortion Restrictions, Ohio Walks a Narrow Legal Line, New York Times (Erik Eckholm)

5) Breakthroughs in prenatal screening allow for greater detection, and abortion, of babies with Down Syndrome

Breakthroughs in Prenatal Screening, New York Times (Jane E Brody)

6) Former Detroit mayor sentenced to 28 years

Former Detroit Mayor Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison, The Washington Post (Sean Sullivan)

The Briefing 10-10-13

1) Parenting is exhausting…and highly rewarding

Survey Says: Parents Are Happy, but Tired, New York Times (KJ Dell’Antonia)

Mothers more fatigued than dads but still find jobs and child care meaningful, report finds, Washington Post (Brigid Schulte)

Parents’ Time with Kids More Rewarding Than Paid Work — and More Exhausting, Pew Research Center (Wendy Wang)

2) When governments prey on their own citizens: Casino gambling predatory on the poor

Study: Adding casinos bad bet, Times Union (James M. Odato)

Why Sponsoring Casinos Is a Regressive Policy Unworthy of a Great State, Institute for American Values

3) Dogs are people too – Researchers want human rights for dogs

Dogs Are People, Too, New York Times (Gregory Berns)

4) Depths of theological confusion: “Blessings of animal services”

Pets have their day at New Albany church, Courier-Journal (Jenna Esarey)

 

The Briefing 10-09-13

1. President Obama nominates new head of Federal Reserve

Obama to nominate Janet Yellen to lead Federal Reserve, LA Times (Jim Puzzanghera, Don Lee, and Kathleen Hennessey)

Obama to Pick Yellen as Leader of Fed, Officials Say, New York Times (Jackie Calmes)

2. Recipe for compromise at Loyola Marymount: value ethical “diversity” greater than doctrine 

Loyola Marymount drops health coverage for “elective” abortions, LA Times (Larry Gordon)

3. British law ‘does not prohibit’ sex-selection abortions

Law ‘does not prohibit’ sex selection abortions DPP warns, The Telegraph (Holly Watt and Claire Newell)

4. “Fashion for Clergywomen” reminder that theology matters – even for clothing

Make Over Clergy Fashion, New York Times (Joanna Fantozzi)

How Pornography Works: It Hijacks the Male Brain

We are fast becoming a pornographic society. Over the course of the last decade, explicitly sexual images have crept into advertising, marketing, and virtually every niche of American life. This ambient pornography is now almost everywhere, from the local shopping mall to prime-time television.

By some estimations, the production and sale of explicit pornography now represents the seventh-largest industry in America. New videos and internet pages are produced each week, with the digital revolution bringing a host of new delivery systems. Every new digital platform becomes a marketing opportunity for the pornography industry.

To no one’s surprise, the vast majority of those who consume pornography are males. It is no trade secret that males are highly stimulated by visual images, whether still or video. That is not a new development, as ancient forms of pornography attest. What is new is all about access. Today’s men and boys are not looking at line pictures drawn on cave walls. They have almost instant access to countless forms of pornography in a myriad of formats.

But, even as technology has brought new avenues for the transmission of pornography, modern research also brings a new understanding of how pornography works in the male brain. While this research does nothing to reduce the moral culpability of males who consume pornography, it does help to explain how the habit becomes so addictive.

As William M. Struthers of Wheaton College explains, “Men seem to be wired in such a way that pornography hijacks the proper functioning of their brains and has a long-lasting effect on their thoughts and lives.”

Struthers is a psychologist with a background in neuroscience and a teaching concentration in the biological bases of human behavior. In Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain, Struthers presents key insights from neuroscience that go a long way toward explaining why pornography is such a temptation for the male mind.

“The simplest explanation for why men view pornography (or solicit prostitutes) is that they are driven to seek out sexual intimacy,” he explains. The urge for sexual intimacy is God-given and essential to the male, he acknowledges, but it is easily misdirected. Men are tempted to seek “a shortcut to sexual pleasure via pornography,” and now find this shortcut easily accessed.

In a fallen world, pornography becomes more than a distraction and a distortion of God’s intention for human sexuality. It comes as an addictive poison.

Struthers explains:

Viewing pornography is not an emotionally or physiologically neutral experience. It is fundamentally different from looking at black and white photos of the Lincoln Memorial or taking in a color map of the provinces of Canada. Men are reflexively drawn to the content of pornographic material. As such, pornography has wide-reaching effects to energize a man toward intimacy. It is not a neutral stimulus. It draws us in. Porn is vicarious and voyeuristic at its core, but it is also something more. Porn is a whispered promise. It promises more sex, better sex, endless sex, sex on demand, more intense orgasms, experiences of transcendence.

Pornography “acts as a polydrug,” Struthers explains. As Dr. Patrick Carnes asserts, pornography is “a pathological relationship with a mood-altering experience.” Boredom and curiosity lead many boys and men into experiences that become more like drug addiction than is often admitted.

Why men rather than women? As Struthers explains, the male and female brains are wired differently. “A man’s brain is a sexual mosaic influenced by hormone levels in the womb and in puberty and molded by his psychological experience.” Over time, exposure to pornography takes a man or boy deeper along “a one-way neurological superhighway where a man’s mental life is over-sexualized and narrowed. This superhighway has countless on-ramps but very few off-ramps.

Pornography is “visually magnetic” to the male brain. Struthers presents a fascinating review of the neurobiology involved, with pleasure hormones becoming linked to and released by the experience of a male viewing pornographic images. These experiences with pornography and pleasure hormones create new patterns in the brain’s wiring, and repeated experiences formalize the rewiring.

And then, enough is never enough. “If I take the same dose of a drug over and over and my body begins to tolerate it, I will need to take a higher dose of the drug in order for it to have the same effect that it did with a lower dose the first time,” Struthers reminds us. So, the experience of viewing pornography and acting out on it creates a demand in the brain for more and more, just to achieve the same level of pleasure in the brain.

While men are stimulated by the ambient sexual images around them, explicit pornography increases the effect. Struthers compares this to the difference between traditional television and the new high definition technologies. Everything is more clear, more explicit, and more stimulating.

Struthers explains this with compelling force:

Something about pornography pulls and pushes at the male soul. The pull is easy to identify. The naked female form can be hypnotizing. A woman’s willingness to participate in a sexual act or expose her nakedness is alluring to men. The awareness of one’s own sexuality, the longing to know, to experience something as good wells up from deep within. An image begins to pick up steam the longer we look upon it. It gains momentum and can reach a point where it feels like a tractor-trailer rolling downhill with no brakes.

Wired for Intimacy is a timely and important book. Struthers offers keen and strategic insights from neurobiology and psychology. But what makes this book truly helpful is the fact that Struthers neither leaves his argument to neuroscience, nor does he use the category of addiction to mitigate the sinfulness of viewing pornography.

Sinners naturally look for fig leaves to hide sin, and biological causation is often cited as a means of avoiding moral responsibility. Struthers does not allow this, and his view of pornography is both biblical and theologically grounded. He lays responsibility for the sin of viewing pornography at the feet of those who willingly consume explicit images. He knows his audience—after all, his classrooms are filled with young male college students. The addict is responsible for his addiction.

At the same time, any understanding of how sin works its deceitful evil is a help to us, and understanding how pornography works in the male mind is a powerful knowledge. Pornography is a sin that robs God of his glory in the gift of sex and sexuality. We have long known that sin takes hostages. We now know another dimension of how this particular sin hijacks the male brain. Knowledge, as they say, is power.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

This article was originally published on February 1, 2010. I interviewed Dr. Struthers on the January 11, 2010 edition of The Albert Mohler Program. Listen here.