I recently read Douglas Wilson’s Evangellyfish, which is the fictional account of a scandal in a mega church.
Pastor Wilson is a big fan of P.G. Wodehouse, and I tend to appreciate Wilson’s social commentary, so I was hoping for a combination of Wodehousian humor and biting social satire. It’s more of the latter than the former, in my opinion, although I will admit I was not in a very comic-friendly mood when I read the book. Others might find it funnier.
That’s not the real issue, though. My reaction to the book was similar to my reaction to the song “She’s an Easy Lover.”
Back in my Evangelical days, I knew some people who were in a rock band “ministry.” They would do some popular covers, mix in some Christian songs and say a few words about Jesus. That sort of thing. They sang the Philip Bailey / Phil Collins hit “she’s an easy lover,” and I said “what gives?”
(Philip Bailey was, at that time, a gospel singer, among other things.)
“It’s just Proverbs 9,” they told me. “It’s a warning about loose women.” (I suspect Bailey thought the same.)
I wasn’t buying it. Not everyone listens to song lyrics, and among those who do, few try to get the moral lesson. (Which is usually a good thing!) What they hear is, “she’s an easy lover,” and what they think is, “where is she?”
Evangellyfish is about a mega church that has a huge problem with fornication. The head pastor and half the “ministry team” are rampant offenders, and half the rest of them are complicit in the cover-up. It’s a sordid mess.
Pastor Wilson wants to point out the rampant sin and hypocrisy and expose mega-church-ism for what he apparently thinks it is — an excuse for almost-converted people to pretend they’re devout Christians.
I think people — or at least some people — will read it and think, “Gee, how come everyone else is getting so much? Am I missing out? I mean, obviously this sort of conduct is far more normal than I thought. It must not be such a big deal.”
Pastor Wilson would be horrified at such a result. And maybe I’m completely off base. Maybe I’m the only one wicked enough to have such thoughts.
But they say that when you sup with the devil, you need a long spoon.
You really threw me off. I was thinking that the song “Easy Lover” was objectionable because Phil Collins made it popular. And here you were objecting to the lyrics. I myself couldn’t stand him or Bruce Springsteen.
I’ll remember not to join a mega church, though. The association with Phil Collins is already a powerful incentive not to do so.
I agree with you. I haven’t read the book, but the moral hazard here is that – consistent with human nature – people won’t read the book as a warning a la Proverbs 7 or 9, but instead see it as a ‘how to’ manual. Plus there’s the risk that such satire will turn out to be disgusting rather than amusing, given that the subject of hypocrisy in the church is not a joke but a dangerous problem that requires serious attention.
“Moral hazard” is defined this way.
“Moral hazard is the idea that a party protected in some way from risk will act differently than if they didn’t have that protection. … Insurance companies worry that by offering payouts to protect against losses from accidents, they may actually encourage risk-taking, which results in them paying more in claims.”
In this case, the “protection” seems to be the old high school thing: “hey, man, everybody’s doing it.” I.e., you won’t get caught and there are few or no consequences.