Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for the 3 rd Sunday after Easter: May 2, 2004
How do you Sell Hell?
“I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. ”
How do you sell hell? By that I mean, if I look at the relative benefits of heaven and hell, of living forever in Paradise without pain, guilt, shame or needs, always in harmony with God and all creation —compared with an eternity of suffering in exile from God in a lake of fire: where is the difficulty in choosing? Why would anyone go to hell?
And yet, the scriptures and our very observation gives rise to an awful conclusion that most of us are going to hell in a hand basket. Jesus said it Himself: “ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-15
A priest once told me that when people complained to him about the weather, he would tell them: “That's a production problem. I'm in sales.” As a priest he saw his job in the kingdom as a salesman— one who promotes, as it were , a product . This analogy may be overdrawn, and too often we approach religion as consumers , rather than fleeing to an Almighty God for salvation we desperately need. But a priest is one who declares the goodness of God, the truth of Jesus Christ, and the wonder of heaven so that people will know where to turn in their moment of truth. He's in sales.
In the other corner, who is the salesman for eternal punishment? And why is he doing so well convincing multitudes to go that way? How do you sell hell? Calvinist thinking would say we are all going to hell, and that we deserve it—in a word, it's our default setting from birth. This thinking has its merits, but I believe Jesus was saying otherwise when He asked His belligerent audience: “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:43-44 The devil has lied to us, and many of us have believed him. He lied to Eve in the garden and beguiled her into committing the first human sin. How does he do that, and what are the lies we are coming under daily? It would be good to know what the enemy is up to in order to guard ourselves and our families and friends against it, wouldn't that be so?
There are many voices in society that are manipulating people into rebellion against God and taking them to hell. Of course, this is not how they put it. You obviously don't sell hell by calling it hell —not right up front. You don't convince anyone that everlasting fire, worms that eat your flesh and don't die, weeping and gnashing of teeth are really a lot of fun. You just offer fun , and then ever so gradually, imperceptibly, slowly turn the fun into hell.
No one will argue that certain sins aren't fun . There is a certain pay off to sin that makes it hard to resist. God understands that. H e has better pay offs and offers us a more difficult path to pleasure, but our pleasure will be infinitely better than the sinner's fun, and will last far longer . But the purveyors of sin, death, hedonistic fun and human degradation are doing a better job of winning people over than we are. Let's face it: more people are turning to crack cocaine than are coming to Christ . There are more people in prison than in the Episcopal Church. More people went to see the Texas Chain Saw Massacre than went to church last Sunday, at least in Chico. How does the enemy develop a taste for evil in his vassals? How does he do such a good job at selling hell?
One answer is the entertainment industry . I read with some amusement Friday's paper where the porno actors of Northridge, want to unionize in order to get better health plans and fringe benefits. You've got to look after yourself when your vocation takes its toll on you like that. I look at movie listings at present and see that we are being led like sheep to cooperate with sinful and degrading entertainment. The crowds in the Roman coliseum never had this kind of thrills. In movie theatres from February through April of this year, there were 15 new R-rated movies, and 18 PG-13, a few PG-rated; and for General viewing audiences, children invited? One : Clifford's Really Big Movie . You all saw that. The PG-13 and R-rated films included these titles: Envy, Laws of Attraction, Mean Girls, Man on Fire, Kill Bill vol. 2, The Punisher, The Girl next door (a porn star in the window for an adolescent boy to watch), Hellboy (PG-13), Never Die Alone, Dawn of the Dead, Taking Lives, Club Dread, Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, Twisted, and Welcome to Mooseport . That last one might not be too bad. Read the descriptions of these films: r ape, murder, serial killers, adultery, Satanism, and revenge —and you have a world view being portrayed for our generation that exceeds the times on earth prior to the Flood, where “The earth… was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Genesis 6:11
Excellent studies have shown time and again that violent media leads to violent behavior in its viewers, especially the young. Every society that has introduced TV has had a 5-fold increase in felonious assault rates after 15 years. If TV can't affect behavior, then explain to me please why an advertiser would spend $1 million for one minute of Superbowl time. Good will?
But the most insidious inducement to evil in our youth today is sold and plugged into your children's Segas, Nintendos, Playstations and PCs. Interactive roll-playing violent video games are training our kids to kill. Surveys indicate that the majority of teenagers in our nation have played a game called Grand Theft Auto . “Okay, stealing cars is bad, but it might be a driving game,” adults may reason as Johnnie pleads with you to purchase this game for him. “It'll keep him occupied, and it seems to make him happy.” You lay down the bucks and he takes it home. Hours later, you can see him engrossed in front of a video screen. Seems okay.
Grand Theft Auto pushes video violence to new extremes. The player becomes a convict who steals cars, drives around and avoids police. Along the way, he can kill pedestrians at will by running them over or getting out of the vehicle to shoot or beat them. He can do virtually whatever he wants. Never has a game glorified and rewarded violence to this extreme, being rewarded for each kill. This game has been banned in several countries. Not here . The player is shown graphic realism of his violence. In proportion to the depth of depravity with which he tortures and murders, a pile of money is laid beside his victim, with which he purchases realistic sex. If he is willing to kill the hooker afterward, he gets his money back.
I am sorry for the horror I have just described. I'm sorry it's available to your kids too, but it is. And the game, as described to me, is far worse than what I have just said. How do you sell hell? You make it a video game. There are any number of such games that depict demons and put the player in a supernatural world of fighting, killing, stealing, and illicit sex . Have you really gone through your teenager's video game collection and found out what is there? I can give you a website where all such games are rated and described for you, so you don't have to view them yourself.
Hell is selling very well. Grand Theft Auto has made a $1 billion. Every school massacre shooter first learned to kill on video games, spending hundreds of hours watching victims die on screen. The cycle of violence is spiraling. If we comfort ourselves that the murder rate per capita in America has gone down to 1963 levels again, we ignore the fact that the aggravated assault level has skyrocketed . We are attacking each other 7x more often than in 1963 . It is the medical response and treatment advances, a 9-1-1 system that have saved victims from dying, and thus from murder. We live in the most violent times in recorded history, even without war . Were the shootout at the O-K corral to have taken place in Oakland today, it wouldn't even make the newspapers.
How do you sell hell? We're so used to it, we don't notice, but it's being sold every day in the media— porno, violence, adultery, serial murder —sounds like the line up on TV tonight, doesn't it? “SC, N, V, and L” are letters that entice , not codes warn us from watching, isn't that true? What do we do? Satan is a liar. Tell the truth . God has already spoken it: tell others what He has said: “ These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Proverbs 6:16-19
A study at Stanford University gives us hope, and one approach. At 2 San Jose elementary schools, 3 rd & 4 th graders were given 2 curricula: at one school , simply training in good values; at the other, they were encouraged to cut back on video games and watch less TV. For 10 days the kids turned off the TV. After that, more than half kept their TV viewing down to 7 hours a week for 20 weeks. After that time, there was, in the second school, a 40% reduction in fighting, and a 50% reduction in verbal aggression over the school where only good values were instructed. You can talk it, but you have to change behavior, and the tourniquet belongs on the screens at home.
We've been losing the war against hell for a long time. Our kids live in it, and now seek it because their tastes have been perverted. Responsible adults— parents, doctors and nurses, teachers, priests, police, and all of us —are charged with turning our culture around. We have to stop selling hell to our kids and to each other. We have to walk the talk. It's time to stop the bloodshed.
PFH+