The dumbing down of Churchgoers

by Van Robison http://www.batteredsheep.com/pastorization.html

In her quite revealing book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, Charlotte reveals an astonishing documented trail, proving that “education” in America is a tool of deliberate dysfunction. She worked in the U.S. Department of Education during the Regan Administration. Educational abuse is massive and while many see through it, many others do not.

Among the world of Christians, there is a “Christian Dumbing Down” because millions have been “pastorized” by professional clergy. Pastorization causes church goers to be unable to think for themselves, and they are told what to believe by the clergy. Virtually, every day of the week, “Christian” television stations broadcast programs in which men and women are standing on platforms, often with their fingers pointed in your face, telling you what to believe. There is a great difference in taking the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the unconverted and those who are not yet born-again, and the “professional clergy” system of the church world.

Although the name of Jesus Christ is advanced by most pastors to validate their positions, pastors have become the idols of millions, whose lives revolve around pastors. Anyone who reads the teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded in the four Gospels cannot help but see a grand canyon of difference in the teachings of Christ, and the world of churchianity. It is nothing short of utterly dumbfounding to watch countless Christians sitting in megachurches, on television like little children in school, being pastorized by “infallible and inerrant” clergy. Any outside observer has to marvel at the seeming robotization of the pastorized members sitting in pews. Christ said HE ALONE IS SHEPHERD–the GOOD SHEPHERD. Jesus Christ never established “churchianity”, nor the control system of pastors over the flock of God. When Christ appointed His original disciples, they in turn went out and pointed others to Jesus Christ, not to themselves as lifetime “pastors”, ruling over the flock (1 Peter 5:3), nor did Peter and the others preach for filthy lucre (money) (1 Peter 5:2). Peter and the disciples of Christ were EXAMPLES, not authoritarian CEOs of church corporations.

The pastorization of church goers and television preacher watchers is the reason that millions of believers are dumbed down. When human beings let others do their thinking, they in turn cannot reason, discern or think through issues, because it is always the “teachers” who do the thinking. The same is true with those millions who think “truth” in “news” from television comes through the boobtube. A great deal of so called news reporting is nothing more than the opinion of someone, or some think tank that uses television “news” as the means of indoctrination and subtle deceptions (a little truth now and then). Television is probably the single greatest tool the world has ever known, in which the world is brainwashed with endless propaganda, lies, deceptions, godlessness and some truth, all in the name of “news”, “entertainment” and “Christianity.” In the world of churches, the number of so-called pastors, priests, bishops and “professional clergymen” must be in the many thousands. In that world of clergymen, the divisions and differences in beliefs, teachings and practices varies greatly. Do they all represent Jesus Christ and the truth of the Kingdom of God? Something is surely amiss. Any Christian who believes that pastors know and understand truth in Christ just because they graduated from some “Bible” college, and can read Hebrew and Greek, and are persuasive public speakers, is a deluded Christian. The things of God are only understood by the Spirit of God, and not because some man or woman is called “Doctor Pastor” or “Senior Pastor”.

How does anyone know if they have been “pastorized?” Christians are pastorized if:

• They believe everything a pastor says or preaches from their pulpits.
• They think their “pastor” is a man or woman instead of Jesus Christ.
• They think they have to tithe to the local “church” and the pastor.
• They think church pastors have authority over their lives, in contradiction to what Christ taught (Matthew 23:8-10).
• They let the pastors tell them what the scriptures say, instead of proving ALL THINGS for themselves.
• They let the pastors interpret the Bible for them, without studying on their own what the truth is.
• They think the church pastors have a right to a life-time of free money (welfare existence).
• They think they cannot have a personal relationship with the Father/Jesus Christ, without going to church.
• They think that Sunday or (Saturday) church attendance is the definition of being a Christian.
• They think that following Jesus Christ means going to church every week and hearing another sermon.
• They believe pastors are infallible and inerrant and must be obeyed.
• Their lives revolve around church, church activities, camp meetings, revivals, conferences, seminars and endless meetings, even when Jesus Christ lives in them 24/7 through the Holy Spirit, and it is NEVER NECESSARY to go here or there looking for Christ, when He lives within them all the time.
• The focus of their lives revolves around listening to pastors preach, rather than hearing the voice of the true Shepherd.
• Their vocabulary is about “church” and “my pastor” this and that, rather than about Jesus Christ.
• Their lives revolve around churchianity, rather than around Jesus Christ.
• They believe it is rebellion to question the teachings and practices of the pastors and churches.
• They think the “Word” of God is the “Bible”, when the Word is really Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3).
• They never research issues for themselves, but leave all the research and thinking to the pastors.

The twin means by which all human beings are controlled, ruled over, regulated to death and made to live in fear is through secular governments and religions, including churchianity. Churchianity is a man-made religion, and has nothing to do with following Jesus Christ. Pastorization has to do with being dumbed down to the level of not being able to think, reason or discern for oneself, but in which the lords of the church world rule over the pastorized.