Cult-Like Devotion...

True religion, in one sense, has never really been "respectable." If twelve or thirteen men, with no visible means of subsistence, followed by thousands of hungry followers, took up residence in your community center, or in your church courtyard, or in the hills just outside of town, some people would be tempted to call code enforcement. If their leader was in the habit of calling the town's pastors and spiritual leaders, "vipers" and "hypocrites," others would conclude they were all heretics and renegades. If they all shared each others burdens and took care of each other, they would be labeled, very quickly, a "cult."

To be certain, there are dangerous cults in the history of the world, or else the accusation wouldn't have any sting. The word "extremist" is used the same way, not because it necessarily applies, but because it has a way of ending the conversation. People worship the middle. The cows like to make sure they are at the center of the herd, even if the herd is walking right into the slaughter house.



Martin Luther King, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail wrote these lines, about the modern American church:

"If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

King was lamenting the failure of the established church to be confrontational in the face of evil. After all, if a black Christian woman couldn't sit next to her white Christian sister on the same bus, wouldn't we expect the church to speak up? The Bible tells us in Amos 5:15, "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate.." Dr. King specifically applauded the evil-hating, confrontational spirit of the early church, whose followers, according to King, "brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide..." (DNC, are you listening?)

Well that same modern church--the one King lamented--has indeed become "an irrelevant social club," because "confrontational" pastors are few and far between. We don't "hate" evil anymore, because hate--no matter how well directed--is too alarming for the cud-chewing middle. If a church speaks the truth, if it takes care of its flock, if it reads scripture as honestly as it can, if it preaches against sin among the congregation and in public office, someone will be hell-bound, literally, to call it a cult, and the resulting emasculation of the church makes for a happy hour in hell. Nothing pleases evil more than a limp-wristed, consensus-seeking "man of God."

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was having some real trouble. He was literally asking friends for financial help. We both came to the same conclusion at the same time. I said, "wouldn't it be nice to be able to have nine or ten families gathered together in house churches across the land--real churches, that tithed to each other and preached the truth without bothering to build a seeker-friendly semi-fellowship of semi-Christians?"

"Amen," he said.

If you're tired of taking little dips into the pond of spiritual nothingness on Sundays, ponder this: House church, anyone?