Is the Church Feeding on Noxious Weeds?

Utah is arguably one of the most beautiful venues in the planet with her five breath-taking National Parks and with her amazing array of wildlife and other-worldly landscapes.  Yet, embedded in all of this amazing beauty there grows a pernicious enemy known as Noxious Weeds!  As I type, I am looking down at a book published by Utah State University called, "Noxious Weed Field Guide for Utah".  This handy little book catalogs all of the noxious weeds that have infiltrated our beautiful state with a "secret agenda" of replacing the good vegetation with the bad.  The introduction of this book explains how these harmful, alien plants devastate crop yields, damage watersheds, increase erosion, harm wildland plants and wildlife as well as outdoor recreation.  The bottom line:  Noxious weeds are harmful to people, the land and animals.  Many of them taste, "oh-so-sweet" to the mouths of our wildlife...but they are bitter to the stomach...harmful to the creature that consumes them!

Fellow Christian, is the church developing an unhealthy appetite for Noxious Literature? Personally, I believe that the answer to this question is an emphatic, yet sad, "YES!".  How have I come to this conclusion?  Well, let's open the "Noxious Literature Field Guide for Believing Consumers" and take a peek at the Noxious Books that the modern church is consuming these days:

• Noxious Book Series #1:  The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling:  A wildly popular book series in the church that is obsessed with Sorcery, and Witchcraft (with no redeeming worldview like the C.S. Lewis series). 
• Noxious Book Series #2:  The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyers:  A series of books written by a Mormon author that focuses on Vampires and overtones of double-meaning seduction.
• Noxious Book #3:  "The Shack" by William P. Young:  An intriguing book that seeks to encourage the downcast by using undiluted heresy in its overt twisting of the Trinity of our blessed Triune God.
• Noxious Book #4:  "Love Wins" by Rev. Rob Bell.  A book written by a popular Pastor that seeks to repackage "Universalism" to biblically illiterate church members.
• Noxious Book Series #5:  "The Hunger Games Series" by Suzanne Collins.  A book focusing on the brutal, violence of kids killing kids in a dystopian, futuristic society as a type of challenge and entertainment.

One fact that is undeniable is that all of these books have been embraced by a very large following within the evangelical church circle.  In this blog, I would like to focus on mainly one Noxious Book Series that is now raging out of control with the church.  The book series is:  "The Hunger Games".  The movie is just being released and the saints are sitting around the table with the world gobbling up the violent themes of this Noxious Book Series like cotton-candy! 

Beloved Ones, it is hard to fathom a believer finding any joy or entertainment in such violent literature.  Why do I say this?  Because even some of my unbelieving friends and acquaintances are appalled by the depth of blatant, evil violence in which this book series revels.  This book is much like watching an NHL Hockey Team erupt into brutal violence once the puck is dropped (as just happened a couple of days ago between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils hockey game.  I was horrified to watch the referees let the three sets of fights continue on as the crowd enjoyed the bloody violence of grown men punching each other in the faces like common thugs in a brutal street fight.)  See the connections?

Rise up, O Women of God!  Since quoting Phil.4:8 several weeks ago on Facebook with a reference to it's applicability to "The Hunger Games", I have been inundated with lot of differing views on the questions of "Does God like the Hunger Games?" or "Can a Christian feed on this book and still please God?"  We have debated about these important questions now for several weeks.  What saddens me is that most of the debates in favor of "The Hunger Games" have been female voices.  The very ones to whom our society has historically looked to for the embodiment of tenderness, compassion, kindness, love and TLC, seem to have the largest appetite for the violence of the Hunger Games?   As men, we are typically the guilty ones for indulging in a morbid preoccupation with brutality.  What has happened here??  Well, I believe that one reason that so many sweet, precious, and maternal ladies have been sucked into the vortex of this violent book series is because of the genius of Suzanne Collins to write a book on violence that captivates the female heart and mind.  The heroine in her book is a female named: Katniss Everdeen and she has won their hearts.  At the Internet cafe in Barnes and Noble here in Utah, I have overheard young girls on several occasions haling Katniss as a really cool role model.  They love her and want to be like her.  "She stepped up to save her sister from entering the violence!"  they say, but they fail to realize that Katniss is brutally killing someone else's brothers and sisters!

It is time to be separate.  To take a stand for Christ. I would love to see a modern generation of young women who have the resolve of Daniel to boycott "The Hunger Games" and a whole generation of older women who commit themselves, in the everyday realities of life, to teach the younger women "to love what is good and hate what is evil". 

Listen to these verses that "pull back the curtains" to reveal to us the things that make God furious: "There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers." Proverbs 6:16-19

May our united prayer be from Psalm 120:6: "Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace." and 1Thess. 5:21  "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good"