Being a student of both God’s Word and human nature, I have noticed that the American society is continually evolving to reflect the evolution of Institutional Church. Through careful observation I have found that there is a definite “monkey see; monkey do” connection between the two seemingly different entities. The society mirrors the church to such an extent that I am able to tie the nation’s religious life to her social, political and economic life by using common expressions to describe each. The following are a few examples.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Those who cannot or will not do a particular job are nevertheless elevated to the position in spite of their ineptitude or lack of will. Their A.A. placement is normally based on racial quotas. Due to their A.A. status the deadbeats cannot be fired. However, the job must be done. In order to solve this problem organizations hire certain people whose sole responsibility is to do what an affirmative action recipient has failed to do–to clean up their mess. At one time I had a neighbor whose job was to fly to his company’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA on the weekends to do what an A.A. recipient had failed to do during the week. Religious Affirmative Action involves people who are seeking salvation, but are looking in the wrong places–the Institutional Church. These poor souls are assured by those who lure them in that salvation will be theirs as soon as they complete a prescribed ritual, say the prescribed words and are dunked in water. Once completed, the fix is in. And like their economic counterparts, they cannot be “fired.”

THE STEPHEN SYNDROME: Stephen spoke God’s Words to the religious hierarchy of his day who rejected his message because they did not want to hear what God was saying to them. Having abandoned the Holy Scriptures of their forefathers, they had adopted as their source of truth the Talmud– a collection of writings which express the thoughts of their priests on particular subjects. Today, the Talmud is the go-to tome used by those in the Jewish religion. Outside of the Koran, there is no religious book that I am aware of that is as anti-God as the Talmud. When Stephen spoke, the people stopped up their ears, gnashed on him with their teeth, then stoned him to death. Today the Stephen Syndrome is exhibited by God-rejecters when they refuse to hear His Words, choosing rather to believe church doctrine which is much more pleasing to their ears and soothing to their egos.

A PERSONAL SERVICES CONTRACT: When joining a team, a professional athletes signs a P.S.C. which guarantees him X amount of money for X number of years regardless of his production or the lack thereof. He can be totally useless on the field or court and will still receive the stated amount of money over the stated number of years. The athlete need only show up and go through the motions in order to receive what has been guaranteed. The church issues a religious personal services contract upon completion of a sect-prescribed ritual. This contract guarantees that the recipient will be raptured upon Christ’s return to supposedly “take His people home.” All the R.P.S.C. recipient needs to do is show up on Satan’s Sabbath (if it’s convenient), tithe and smile. What he/she does during the week is irrelevant. The fix is in. To be continued. L.J.