The 5 Stooges of Truth

A frequent commentator here at Prophecy Podcast, Eddie H. Nessul, commenting on the blog post Three Stages of Truth on Friday said this:

I remember the THREE STAGES vividly from my youth. They were a big influence on my thinking and development. 

Watched them every day. Yep,... Larry, Moe and Curly were hilarious! Hats off to the THREE STAGES!

Eddie's analogy fails at several levels, the most important being that there were 5 stages err, Stooges. (Yes I know there were 7 all together.)

First there is Moe—the typical leader. He thinks he knows the truth and has convinced everyone else in his group that he does. 

Larry is typical of many followers, especially in political parties and churches. Larry knows he does not know, but thinks Moe does. 

Curly has no concern himself with truth…soitenly! He just wants to have fun. 

Shemp is another kind of leader. He knows he does not know the truth, but pretends he does to keep his hierarchical place in the group.

Finally we have Curly Joe. He knows the truth, but does not say anything because the truth is not palatable. But when the crisis comes he says what he must to keep Moe from leading the Stooges to an even worse disaster than normal. 

My goal here at Prophecy Podcast is to be Curley Joe. I will try to quietly point out the evils of Babylon and how to avoid them. I will point out that Moe and Shemp are leading you down the wrong path. 

In the words of Jesus:

Matthew 15:13-14

The Message (MSG)

 ^13-14Jesus shrugged it off. "Every tree that wasn't planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch."

Stay out of the ditches, do not follow Moe. 

On the Verge of a Paradigm Shift of Missional Christocentric Networked Exponential Mega Churches

I wanted to like the book on the verge by Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson, I really did. (My first clue should have been the cutesy capitalization of their book, they are not e.e. cummings.)  The ideas in the book, whatever they are, might transform churches. But until the authors learn to abandon jargon, no one will be able to figure out what they are saying. Is it really that bad you might ask? Here is an example from page 43:

So when exponential/viral/networked thinking informs church growth savvy, which in turn is being reframed around missional-incarnational theology, then history is in the making. 

This may be true, whatever it means. The Venn diagram that followed this jargon fest was somewhat helpful, but if the terms remain undefined, communication is lacking. If I really wanted a church like this, I would just join Amway. 

The authors reference a lot of interesting books. I am reading one right now that they praise—Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  If they had understood the book they praise they would have written a book without jargon. Stick's main point that I have gotten so far is to NOT “bury your lead.”

In journalism, the failure to mention the most interesting or attention grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph is sometimes called "burying the lead." 

In other words, make what you are saying crystal clear right from the start. on the verge miserably fails this standard. If they do not understand one of the books they praise, I have to wonder if they also do not understand the other books they talk about. 

Mega Churches have a big problem trying to form a community. Most of the attendees do not become active in the congregation. They attend for the required one hour and then they go home. Most Mega Churches understand this is a problem and try to alleviate it though small groups. Some succeed, but based on the constant restating of this problem in Mega Church books, my guess is that many fail in this attempt to form a community.

Hirsch and Ferguson decide that they do not have enough jargon, so they invent more jargon on this issue. The new word is communitas, which the authors tell us is different from community. How is it different? I am not sure, but the authors assure us it is. But of course the authors will never abandon some "good" jargon, especially jargon that makes things foggy so they can appear deep. 

New ideas are not necessarily good ideas. I remember the introduction of Edible underwear. No doubt it sells in some shops. But I doubt it will ever achieve mass market appeal. on the verge is the publishing equivalent of edible underwear. Maybe there is a new wave of churches like the ones this book promotes. But this book will not help these churches, in fact it stands in the way. on the verge is destined for those book stores that periodically show up in abandoned K Marts-selling books no one wants at bargain prices.

Update on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 6:10PM by [Positive Dennis]

Bill Watterson, cartoonist of Calin and Hobbes had Calvin say this:

The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!

3 Stages of Truth

There are three stages to new truth. 

First, it is ridiculed. 

Second it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evidently true. 

You may have seen this formulation before. But let me add one very important point. False ideas pass through these same three stages. 

We need to be humble about our belief system. We may be wrong. The template we are using might be faulty. 

This is Jack Elam

The character actor Jack Elam had a funny version of this saying. He said his career had gone through stages: 

Stage 1: "Who is Jack Elam?"

Stage 2: "Get me Jack Elam."

Stage 3: "I want a Jack Elam type."

Stage 4: "I want a younger Jack Elam."

Stage 5: "Who is Jack Elam?"

Who is Jack Elam? 

What idea do I have in mind for us to consider? The idea that America cannot continue down the path it has been on is the new idea for us to consider. Personally I have been in the third stage for decades when I realized that I might not get Social Security. As much as possible, I reduced my payments to the system because I understood that it was not sustainable. It is self-evidently true that things can not continue as they are.

Will our great-great grandchildren ask our grandchildren, "Grandpa, what was America?" All empires fall.

A Different Approach To Riot Control

Don't Be Stereotypical

The Audio is not the best, but this clip highlights why the filters of the media often do not correspond to reality. 

Here is an interesting perspective from the far left in Britain. They are comparing this riot with another riot in the 80's:

Back then the police acted as the frontline of a state at war with sections of its own population, determined to hold the line at all costs in an all-out battle for control. By contrast, this week the police have more often looked as if they don’t even know where the line might be and are fearful of crossing it. They have allowed people to run riot. Even when they confronted looters, the abiding images were of officers waving their sticks around in the air like boys trying to appear tough without risking a real confrontation. As the man said, they looked ‘impotent’

The whole article is an interesting read.