objectification (part 2)

In part 1, we see how our worldly culture has pervaded the church and led to objectification [rule and desire]. This becomes the narrative the church proclaims, through worm theology, of our relationship with God.

It's no wonder that Millennials find the church harmful and irrelevant. The church has, at least in the last 100 or so years, proclaimed an objectification gospel that has harmed the sheep. In the last article, I showed that cheerleaders get deluded into thinking that cheering for men on the sidelines is a worthy calling, and this is part-and-parcel of a culture that devalues women societally at the same time it claims to value them.

In the same way, the church devalues members at the same time they claim to be valued. This is done by turning God into the supreme objectifier. I want to be careful about this because the best lies are half truths. YES! It is our chief end to glorify God and enjoy him forever! However, that is not done by grinding ourselves to nothing. I think many verses can be twisted, especially dealing with God being our Lord, master, and we being his slaves and servants. We twist domineering into "servant leadership". But read some verses:

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees me” (Gen 16:13a)

Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ (Matt 25:40)

This is just a sampling, but the point is that God isn't a distant taskmaster who thinks nothing of us. God calls us "friends", he pours grace and love into us and desires us to overflow into others. He is compassionate, not because he wants to torch us and Jesus jumps in the way. He doesn't see us as worms. His desire is to convict of us of our guilt so that we can repent and return to his arms. He doesn't want us to be shamed repeatedly and told we are worthless. Before the prodigal son could even say a word, the father was telling the servants to throw a party!

Is that the god of the RP church? I don't think so. I remember a story told by an RP woman. She had a child when she was single. She felt convicted of her sin and went to her session. What did they do? They suspended her because she had to be punished. I wonder if she is RP today or even a Christian. What about the Christian school in the same situation. She chose life instead of abortion, but the father of the child got to walk at graduation and she was forbidden.

Ask yourself? Is the RP church a place where you come each week to be encouraged with the love of God, uplifted and proud to be his beloved child and filled with purpose as you pursue the next step in that friendship? Instead, is the RP church a place where you come each week to be challenged (i.e. reminded over and over of your sins and unworthiness in new and theologically sophisticated ways), to be told God can barely stand to be around you because you are a sinner, and being given more and more things you have to do to "prove" to him that you love him (without which he will be disappointed and offended).

Is our only value to God the things we will do for him? Was the father of the prodigal son welcoming only in anticipation of the extra hand on the farm? Was Jesus's lament over Jerusalem that they weren't working hard enough for him?

The objectification I learned in the RPCNA has continued to be a thorn in my flesh. I didn't learn to value people for who they were. I only learned to value people for what they could provide to my purposes. In the same way, I learned to internalize the objectifying voice I heard from church leaders. My lack of value, my lack of righteousness. That became what I assumed God was telling me, and I have to spend so much time rejecting that inner voice that it is still foreign to thing that he delights in me and sings over me.