When Theology Meets Culture

For many individuals, church involvement is a vital aspect of their livelihood. Attendance at church services, for example, is often a weekly routine for those who want to further their spiritual education and experience. Take a moment, and think back to previous church activities you have attended. Why did you participate? Were you simply forced to accompany your parents or guardians? Did you have the personal desire to worship God? Or, did you, perhaps, have some kind of incentive to attend? For certain individuals in Minneapolis, bribery was the key element that lured them to approach the church steps. Many have expressed their disgust and frustration with that method, but upon reading Cone’s The Social Context of Theology, it appears that he may have predicted this methodology all along.

In honor of what was the upcoming Easter holiday, The Crossing, a church based in Elk River, Minnesota, was offering the chance to win prizes to those in attendance at their Easter worship service. High-definition television sets and Nintendo 3DS gaming systems were included in the list of valuable prizes awarded to patrons. In all, the “bribery method” used by the church amassed to eight-thousand dollars. Their approach to church recruitment, although highly unconventional and seemingly almost immoral to most, did not seem to bother their church officials or congregation. In fact, Pastor Eric Dykstra had no problem with his method to attract a greater audience. In a recent interview, he stated:

"It’s awkward to say 'Hey, come to my church'. It just feels weird and you don’t want to twist somebody’s arm, so to kind of alleviate some of that weirdness, what we’ve done is said 'Hey, if you bring your friend to church, they might potentially win a 3D television, a 3DS, or a 3D movie ticket package'."

He later added that he did not mind “bribing people with crap in order to meet Christ”. Additionally, this is not the first time this practice has been used by The Crossing. Last year, the church gave away automobiles to a few lucky church patrons on their Easter service. Although many believe that bribery, especially when connected to religious services, is unethical, their offbeat tactic seems to be working. Since the initial operation, the church’s attendance has steadily increased, and they estimated five to six thousand individuals in attendance at their 2011 Easter service.

The text of Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx in James H. Cone’s The Social Context of Theology seems to support the methodology of The Crossing. Feuerbach states that “Theology is not what theologians claim it to be, i.e., a reflection upon an eternal being; ‘theology is anthropology’ (Cone 40).” That said, Feuerbach seems to imply that an analysis of human behavior can determine society’s views and actions towards religion. Members of The Crossing had the incentive to attend church services based on the behavior of the church pastor and other officials. The social context plays a major role in the religious behavior of humans. According to Marx, “although the revelation of God may be universal and eternal, theological talk…is filtered through human experience, which is limited by social realities” (Cone 43). In the situation in Minnesota, the social reality was that people who attended Easter service at The Crossing had the chance to win valuable prizes. To further illustrate this point, Marx continues by saying that “…not only the questions which theologians ask but the answers given in their discourse about the gospel are limited by their social perceptions and thus largely a reflection of the material conditions of a given society” (Cone 43). Had the social reality and material conditions been different, The Crossing may not have had as many individuals in attendance. Moreover, it seems that not only do Feuerbach and Marx’s ideologies essentially support The Crossing’s tactics, but they provide reasoning behind the madness.

To provide another example, many people attend church exclusively by self interest, due to the notion that their attendance will allow them to go to heaven. That reason is socially accepted. The bribery situation at The Crossing, however, is not always socially accepted. In both cases, the reason behind going to church was self interest, but one was obviously more accepted than the other. Additionally, many churches purchase billboards and television commercials to advertise their church, and similar to The Crossing, money was spent on recruitment practices. Once again, one practice seems to be accepted, while the other is not. The social context, as Cone describes, is what determines what methods are acceptable.

In conclusion, it is apparent that social context, and in this particular case bribery, plays a significant role on theological reflections. The text of Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach leads one to realize that social realities and material conditions impact one’s spiritual experience, and the methods used by The Crossing in Elk River, Minnesota is a real-life example of the aforementioned ideologies, and further prove their point.

Works Cited

Cone, James H. “The Social Context of Theology.” God and the Opressed. The Seabury Press.

“Church Bribes Easter Service Attendees With 3DS And Other Electronic ‘Crap’” Kotaku.com. Kotaku, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2011.