Posted: 06/17/08

Hearing from Horton or the Word of God?

Wingclips.com reports that the top movie clip download by pastors for use in their sermons is from Horton Hears a Who-that has been the top clip every week for the last three months. Dr. Seuss is apparently growing in popularity as sermon fodder. The thrilling true stories from Holy Scripture are no longer enough to hold even adult attention in church, but Dr. Seuss evidently meets the need.

Our family attended a Thanksgiving eve service at a local church one year. We were visitors, and we appreciated the readings, the Thanksgiving hymns and the prayer. The church was heavily attended by faculty from the denomination's local college and seminary, and the place was full that night. The pastor finally ascended the very large pulpit, looked out into the audience with the intense glare of someone with a serious message to proclaim. A hush fell over the congregation. He gripped the sides of the pulpit. His opening words were:

"I do not like
green eggs
and ham!

I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.

You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.

Sam!
If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.

Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat.
And I would eat them with a goat…"

The theme of the ten-minute crowd-pleaser message was  "taste and see that the Lord is good. If you avoid God like green eggs and ham, you'll never know what you're missing. Give God a taste."

An exit sign never looked as good as it did that night.

Are there moral lessons in many fairy tales and stories? Of course. But when did church become a place for "moral lessons?" We have the whole counsel of God in our hands, the inerrant, powerful, authoritative Word of God, preserved down through the ages by God's sovereign hand and the faithfulness of those who paid many times with their own blood. Why is that precious book not sufficient?

Why? Because nobody wants rich meat any longer. They want to be entertained and regaled with childish cartoons. They want to see movie clips of Spiderman, The Hulk, Sex in the City, and whatever other garbage the world is doling out. They want cute moral lessons from dancing vegetables on Sunday morning, not the true meat of the Word for grown-ups in Christ. With the persecution of believers that is coming to the West, Horton Hears a Who is not going to cut it. Interviewing Richard Wurmbrand and Christo Kulichev, two pastors who suffered incredible torture and imprisonment in Romania and Bulgaria, it was clear to me that their knowledge of the Word was what got them through their suffering. The promises of God provide the only key to escaping the dungeon of despair in our own lives.

Let those who want silly elephants teaching them on Sunday morning carry on with their cartoons. But let those who desire a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ feed deeply from the true meat of the Word. It alone can sustain us in the one true faith.

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles