I was talking to a friend yesterday....a Christian woman....actually I was just listening in as my wife asked her if she regularly visited her local library. The response was...."Why would I do that....I get all my Christian books over the Internet." Well for one thing it would help the library....and for another....the more Christian books are requested.....the more they will be ordered....and others can then read them also....so it would help the community.
My wife and I met in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library....fifty years ago. She was working her way through library science grad school....and I was on the G. I. Bill and making a little extra money to help keep the college bars in business. She was my boss. Down the road was the historic Pittsburgh Playhouse....that gave a boost to the careers of Gene Kelly and Shirley Jones. In the early 70s the heyday of the Playhouse was gone....and they had a ton of memorabilia and donated all of it to the Hillman Library Special Collections. All Pitt had to do was sort through things and pick out what it wanted. That's where I and another student came in. We spent a few weeks going through playbills and restaurant menus. Now....at the back of that famous restaurant....covering almost an entire wall....was a mural by the even more famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The mural had maybe fifteen or twenty celebrity figures drawn in Hirschfeld's trademark black and white. The Playhouse manager gave us a tour....and proudly pointed out the mural....going over all the celebrities....until he came to one who he said that no one has ever been able to figure out who it was. I said that it looked like King Edward VIII....also known as the Duke of Windsor....married Wallis Simpson and then abdicated and all that stuff. The Playhouse manager's jaw dropped. Why do I tell you this silly lengthy anecdote in what will be a very serious post? It's because it is the only academic accomplishment that I have in life....and I'm going to brag about it. I went back about a dozen or so years ago while they were gutting the building....to see that mural....and the man working there was almost in tears as he told me that they just chopped the mural in pieces and shoveled it up.
OK....now it's my turn to be in tears. That Christian woman that I mentioned at the top of this post is representative of what has happened to evangelicalism. My wife and I once owned A Christian bookstore....this about twenty-five years ago....and there were about six other Christian bookstores within about a half hour drive. Back in 1982 I walked into one of those stores simply because I had nothing else to do....never been in one before....didn't even know what they were....and walked out with a classic book that would change my life. When we had our bookstore....it did not do well locally....but because of a radio commercial we ran on Word-FM radio....faithful customers traveled from all around Pittsburgh to browse through these different types of Christian books....Reformed Theology....Reformation Theology....and Puritan literature. One man....just passing through on his way to seminary in Michigan....much later called me to tell me that the book that I gave him....(he didn't have the money to buy the book)...,changed his theology and his ministry!
I lived in all these Christian bookstores back in the 80s. I remember the day that an orange neon cover jumped out at me....Puritan William Gurnall's classic....The Christian In Complete Armour....and that changed my life again! Christian bookstores back then had a lot of books...of many different genres....bios and classics and church history and critiques of the contemporary church and men's and women's devotionals and prophesy and apologetics and every Bible imaginable....and all the best sellers of the day.
It was the same principle as a kid in a library with the whole world there for him or her to explore! Yeah there was nonsense there....plenty of it....but if one was a reader....then over time the cream would rise to the top! We were a fairly educated....(Christian discernment)....church back then. We knew what a cult was. We were skilled in apologetics....the defense of the gospel. These stores were where the authors put their books on display. All of this has changed....and we in the church have become spiritual paupers....illiterate in the history of the church and the lives of the giants that came before us.
So what do we do today....we listen to our favorite Christian podcasters....and no one else....and we order their books on the Internet....or we use the church library that will never stray from its own theology....so if you visited that church....liked it....the kids programs were great....and there was nothing there to cause any discomfort....then you are going to remain clueless as to what has happened in the church in America over the centuries!
Television is no better. Forty years ago we had four channels...and a Billy Graham crusade seemed to always be there for that traveler in a motel....or the man or woman....father or mother....who didn't have any of their favorite shows on that night. In other words....our supply lines have all been cut....just like those underwater sea cables that Putin and the Chinese are trawling over with their anchors nowadays....no information is shared....nothing to debate or defend....just pick whatever doctrine suits you best.
Note: The book that I just happened upon was Josh McDowell's....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....and the book that I gave to that young man who was off to seminary was....The Valley Of Vision....a compilation of Puritan prayers edited by Arthur Bennett....Banner of Truth books.
