Images and Idols

I know that we are a media driven world. Advertisers use images to tell us what they want us to see, feel and understand. The images themselves may not contain any reality. As an example, there is an insurance company that has a very successful ad campaign using a Gecko as its spokesperson. They even address the fact that he is a Gecko, though they never address the fact that it is a computer generated image. Instead they pretend that an interviewer asks the Gecko questions and he, err, it, makes interesting and witty responses. By this time, the viewer has gotten past the fact that you have to suspend reality to accept the truth of the message.

What happens when Christians use this or any method of image making? Recently I came across a website of a very prominent evangelical leader. This particular website presents this person in two interesting scenes. One has him kneeling in prayer with a spotlight on him. The other show him holding up the heads of several big game kills, which we are to assume he just killed. Later in the narrative found on the site, something is said about hunting dangerous big game. When I saw these images, I wondered what they were supposed to convey.

Im not against hunting. I have hunted but not such big game. I pastor a church full of hunters. Some of them will take an occasional picture of a particularly large deer they killed but rarely is it displayed so prominently. Most often, it is shown to other hunters for bragging purposes. These men hunt for several reasons. For some, it connects them to their past. It was not many years ago that their family tables were supplied with the rabbit, squirrels, quail and deer that their fathers killed. It was necessary food in the poorer regions of the south. They still eat what they kill. Wildlife is managed like domesticated animals and provide a supply of food for those who like wild game.

Many hunters enjoy being in the outdoors. They see and hear and experience things that most folk miss because they are willing to go to the woods before dawn and watch the drama that unfolds as the daytime animal world awakes. Others enjoy the comradery of fellow hunters in the camps after the hunt is over.

While many of the men here love to hunt, I am fairly certain that they do not hunt for the purpose of proving their manhood. Most men I know, know they are men, they act like men, and they take on the responsibilities of men. They do not need to hunt to prove they are men. So, why does a prominent evangelical leader pose with dead big game if it is not to prove that he is a man’s man? And why emphasize that these are dangerous big game? Maybe a century ago when one had to make the hazardous journey to the jungles of Africa to find a lion or a leopard it was a dangerous adventure. But today, you can go to a private hunt club in Texas or to a wildlife management reserve in Africa where a guide takes you to the lions. From the comfort of the Land Rover you can take a photo or shoot them with your Weatherby. What is manly, what is dangerous about such acts?

Some of the men in my church go frogging. I know that does not seem dangerous. Where I am from, folk would use a gig stick to catch frogs or shoot them with a rifle and then dress them and fry the legs. And yes, they taste a lot like chicken. But here in south Louisiana, going frogging means something different. They mount a board on the front of a small boat. A man will lay on that board while the driver will ease up to the frog and the man grabs the frog by hand. This usually happens at night in the dark rivers and bayous and they often grab the frog out of the mouth of an alligator or snake. I realize that frogs are not big game but I don’t think anyone with common sense would suggest that this was not a dangerous practice. A dead cat just cannot compete with the giggles that come from stealing a frog from the mouth of an alligator or water moccasin.

What’s my point? Men who pose with dead lions, even if they shot it, look silly to men who grab frogs from the mouths of alligators. Real men just are. They don’t have to prove themselves to others. It is one of the great secrets of life that boys learn as they cross into manhood. They don’t have to pose for pictures and display them to show others that they are a real man. Real men become known by their actions. Scripture says that real men have the humble character of Christ, they live controlled lives, they turn the other cheek, they live at peace with others and they love people with a love that strongly resembles the love of God. Paul draws a picture of a real man in I Timothy 3 when he describes the man qualified to be a Pastor and a Deacon.

For evangelicals who believe the Bible and take it as the sole authority for faith and practice, would it not be better to take our ideas of manhood from Scripture? It seems to me that the PR craze of projecting images of our selves and our churches to try to attract a lost world is fruitless and silly. If we portray a false image it will become obvious very quickly. And if we present a worldly image that is real of ourselves or our church, then we have a problem with worldly compromise and we are leading people away from God. You can’t lead people away from God so that you can lead them to Him.

It is a sad world where we have to show pictures of ourselves with dead wildlife to prove to others we are men. And it is equally sad that we have to show pictures of ourselves under a spotlight in prayer. It certainly flies against the words of Jesus who said that we should go into our prayer closet and that private, hidden prayer would be rewarded in public. Christian men should be known by the sweetness of their disposition, their humble demeanor, quickness to offer a helping hand and swift feet that flee worldly temptation. Such men are becoming rare in our Christian world. So, I guess the solution is to create them with PR snapshots. Holiness no longer requires us to spend time in prayer, Bible study and disciplined living.

No, I think images can easily become idols. We believe our own manufactured images about ourselves. We expect to be honored by others for our images. We even want men to flock to us because they see a projection of a real man. I can’t think of a better picture of idol worship. I imagine that there is a great deal of weeping in heaven for the men who are lead astray by idols. Now, there is an image for you: heavenly tears shed for the men lead astray by “real” men. God help us to regain real Christian manhood.