here<\/a> ).<\/p>\nThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s several things I could refer to, but the part that caught my attention was when he talked about the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tendency to manipulate people. This is what he said:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whenever guilt is used as a tool to get people to do anything\u00e2\u20ac\u201dgood, bad, indifferent\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit\u2019s bullying. And then there\u2019s manipulative language\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto talk people into programs, to get them involved, usually by promising them something.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have a friend who is an expert at this sort of thing. He\u2019s always saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou\u2019ve got to identify people\u2019s felt needs. Then you construct a program to meet the felt needs.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 It\u2019s pretty easy to manipulate people. We\u2019re so used to being manipulated by the image industry, the publicity industry, and the politicians that we hardly know we\u2019re being manipulated.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This impatience to leave the methods of Jesus in order to get the work of Jesus done is what destroys spirituality, because we\u2019re using a non-biblical, non-Jesus way to do what Jesus did. That\u2019s why spirituality is in such a mess as it is today\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/em><\/p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I think relevance is a crock. I don\u2019t think people care a whole lot about what kind of music you have or how you shape the service. They want a place where God is taken seriously, where they\u2019re taken seriously, where there is no manipulation of their emotions or their consumer needs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\nThis is the kind of stuff that turns me on! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m totally convinced that as a pastor, I must resist the persistent temptation to control and manipulate people.<\/p>\n
<br \/><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click here ). There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s several things I could refer to, but the part that caught my attention was when he talked about the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tendency to manipulate people. This is what he said: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thought"],"yoast_head":"\n
our culture & the art of manipulation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"our culture & the art of manipulation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"nakedpastor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Hayward\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Hayward\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/\",\"name\":\"our culture & the art of manipulation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/b03e284877607fc17deb854c047e58d9\"},\"description\":\"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"our culture & the art of manipulation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/\",\"name\":\"nakedpastor\",\"description\":\"David Hayward: grafitti artist on the walls of religion.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/b03e284877607fc17deb854c047e58d9\",\"name\":\"David Hayward\",\"description\":\"nusagg\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/gaearealty.in\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/author\/david\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"our culture & the art of manipulation","description":"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"our culture & the art of manipulation","og_description":"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/","og_site_name":"nakedpastor","article_published_time":"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00","author":"David Hayward","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Hayward","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/","name":"our culture & the art of manipulation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00","dateModified":"2006-09-07T14:35:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/b03e284877607fc17deb854c047e58d9"},"description":"I came across an interview Christianity Today did with Eugene Peterson. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots of interesting reading there. (To read the whole interview, click","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2006\/09\/our-culture-the-art-of-manipulation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"our culture & the art of manipulation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/","name":"nakedpastor","description":"David Hayward: grafitti artist on the walls of religion.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/b03e284877607fc17deb854c047e58d9","name":"David Hayward","description":"nusagg","sameAs":["https:\/\/gaearealty.in\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/author\/david\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}