It is Time to Give Up on the “HOPE Porn”

On Episode 4 of Two Average Joes, our guest, Ken Beyer, used the term, “Hope Porn,” and I will admit I loved the phrase. And no, I have not abandoned hope or my faith, but I will admit “Hope Porn” is a good expression. “Hope Porn” is fake.  It is a sad replacement for the real thing and in the case of all false hope, it is dangerous.

False hope creates a belief that everything is going to be okay, regardless of what you see right in your face. It makes you roll over when you should stand and fight. It makes you believe that everything is acceptable while you lick the boot of decadence. You must have faith and hope to stand firm, but you also must have action. Faith and hope are verbs.  They should be actions, not just beliefs.

Today’s citizens should have the hope and faith to know that God is on our side. We should believe in a higher power to guide us. But there is no guidance without action. There is no success without acts.  There is no victory without a movement in that direction.

“Hope Porn” makes people stagnant and depressed, looking to others for solutions. It turns faith-believing people into spiritual zombies. These zombies look out their windows and hope for miracles but never do anything to ensure that their faith is protected. Faith is not enough when you see everything you worked for and everything you believe in destroyed in front of your eyes.

It is not enough to have faith when the world around you crumbles. It is not enough to have hope when you see the faith of millions mocked and spit on.  There is a time to stand up for yourself, your family, and your country. And, that time is now.

This may sound harsh, but it is a fact. In America, it has been too easy to be a Patriot or a Christian. You can be a PATRIOT, by just buying an American Flag or complaining about how bizarre and insane the NFL has become are not enough. These are important things to do, but have you served your community? Do you attend school meetings that effect how your children learn? Are you at civic meetings that impact your daily lives? Do your find, support, and work for candidates worth voting for?

Yes, this takes time and effort. Yes, you will have to make sacrifices. Yes, you may have to turn off the TV and turn on the real world. Why should you care about some physically gifted individual disrespecting the flag, if you are not willing to be where you need be to ensure you, your family, and your community don’t fall into the abyss? Maybe, just maybe, we should not have been so in love with sports in the first place. My article, ”Stop Living Vicariously Through Others”, discusses this is in detail.

As much as I take the risk of being offensive, I have to say this, it is also way too easy to be a Christian in America. I am now going to be honest. My own relationship with God is often confusing and messy, to say the least. I am not even now the model of spiritual consistency I would like to be. I am not a theologian, but I know this: Christianity in America is on the ropes. It is attacked every day, mocked, and kicked, and spit on. If you don’t see it, you are evidently hooked on the “Hope Porn.” The Gospel is facing carnage.

If good, solid Christians do not stand up for themselves, it will be only a matter of time before the B.I.B.L.E will be considered “hate speech.”  This is no exaggeration. This is not hyperbole. This is fact.

And since I am already all in, let’s go to the deep end of the pool. Modern church leaders who have placed social justice above the Gospel are partially to blame. These so-called men and women of God who choose to preach the “Good News,” but bow to the spirit of the world while worshipping at the altar of Political Correctness carry much of the burden of the “dying” church. The failure of the American Church is their legacy.

But, what about us?  What do we do?  We, the laypeople, need to find Bible-believing churches that don’t water down the Gospel. We need to stand firm about our beliefs, and we do not sell out, and if we can’t find the proper church?  Well, we might need to start our own. It is better to be burdened than to be lost. There is power with the layperson.

“Hope Porn” is fake. It is dangerous and it is time to move on from it. It is time to live. It is time for believers to be real about the world. It is time for Faith, Hope, and Action.

Joseph St John

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