THE ANATHEMA of ENTERTAINMENT

THE ANATHEMA of ENTERTAINMENT
by A.W. Tozer

In our day we must be dramatic about everything. We don´t want
God to work unless He can make a theatrical production of it. We
want Him to come dressed in costumes with a beard and with a
staff. We want Him to play a part according to our ideas. Some
of us even demand that He provide a colorful setting and fireworks as well!

Then there are some among us these days who have to depend
upon truckloads of gadgets to get their religion going, and I am
tempted to ask: What will they do when they don´t have the help
of the trappings and gadgets? The truck can´t come along where
they are going!

For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life
without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable;
they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional
entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics as a
dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they
could not summon courage to face existence.

We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A
generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic
machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of
reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age
methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our
short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep
inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening
to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately
returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow loves,
hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element
of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious
externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods,
the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit.
These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease,
a deep and serious malady of the soul.