Straw man arguments, inconsistency and gross generalizations all to support very simple conclusions: Truth is good, post-modern is bad, Conservative is good, Liberal is bad, philosophy is misleading, etc.
Come on Molly, Mark, Corey and Alison - I know you have something to say about this!
Well, "gave up" is stronger language than I'd use. More like "put on indefinite hiatus" -- at least for me. In terms of the decision to stop watching (for now), I still like drawing the application of "opportunity cost" from economics. The opportunity cost was just /way/ too high. Our time together is too valuable to be spent on such a low-reward activity as watching the Truth Project.
ReplyDeleteNow, why was the Truth Project (TP) so low-reward? Simply put, it was shoddy work. Just from the standpoint of the presentation of the teaching (ie, the style and craft), it was easily the most boring, hamfisted, and inept teaching I've ever seen mass-distributed.
Worse still, it was inauthentically bad teaching. Pretty much all other Christian video-teachings that I'm familiar with that choose to use a live audience actually use a /real/ live audience. The TP's audience was clearly scripted actors -- which is made even more bizarre by the fact that there is apparently a real niche for this teaching in today's evangelical culture -- they could have gotten compliant (but real) audiance members if they had been willing to.
And then beyond the style and production of the TP, there's the actual content, the shoddiness of which you already mentioned, Mike. Vapid, inconsistent, repetitive, poorly constructed, frequently misleading or inaccurate when not just outright false... it had literally no redeeming value.
If we need to record specific examples for posterity, I could go on, but for now, that's enough.
I agree with Corey. "Gave up" is just too strong of a phrase. We are merely coming up for air.
ReplyDeleteMy strongest problem with the first two videos was the insincerity of it. The way he quotes scriptures, the faux Socratic teaching, and the way he "went after" people like Carl Sagan......from the 80's. It seemed like he was less interested in defending/unpacking Christ and God, and more interested in defending/unpacking his particular worldview of Christianity. Just by the mere fact that we watched the first two videos and he talked more about "Truth" and "Ethics and Philosphy" than he did about any relationship with Jesus himself makes me think that something us is slightly off.
I also didn't like his seemingly gross misuse of the word "Post-Modern". It struck me that Post-Modernism may be less of a philosophy for the TP and more of a catch all buzz word that acts as an umbrella in which they can fit all the things they don't like underneath.
The best metaphor I could come up with for the Truth Project is this. The Truth Project is like a 4 year old with a Nerf bat. At first the kid doesn't know what to do with the bat, but eventually he figures out he can swing it and swing it at you. At first you take it in good nature. It is, after all, just a 4 year old swinging a Nerf bat. At its worst its going to be pretty annoying, and at its best it might be pretty cute and endearing. However, there comes the point where the kid eventually swings the bat a little to close to a "sensitive area". Guys, you know what I am talking about. At this point you are stuck at an impasse. The kid isn't yours and if you try to take the bat away it is just going to escalate the fight, the kid is going to get upset and loads of unneeded commotion ensues. So, what do you do? The answer is simple, you walk away. Just go the other way and stop engaging the kid in his little game.
Truth Project, you may keep your Nerf Bat and swing it at whomever you choose. However, we don't want to participate in your little game anymore. Let us know when you have learned to use that bat responsibly.