The God That Offends

I was listening to a conversation via TED Weekends one evening during a long flight from Los Angeles a few months back. The conversation was with Malcolm Gladwell, author of Tipping Point; who was lecturing about the decisions and market research of Howard Moskowitz. Howard Moskowitz is a market researcher and psychophysicist who was a pioneer of creating variable branding on the food industry.

To give you a brief background, Gladwell explained that before Dr. Moskowitz’s research, food makers would provide one single product and call that product “Authentic.” Then they would research the market to find an alternate product, based upon what people preferred. Then, they would label it something that reflects that it’s a different product. So when you view the shelf in your grocery store to shop in the 70’s, you see the ‘Authentic’ product and the ‘Popular’ product. So if you take spaghetti sauces, you would have the ‘Authentic’ sauce and the ‘Preferred’ product.

So here’s where Dr. Moskowitz’s research came into play: Back in the 1970s, Ragu was the King of spaghetti sauces. They had the authentic Italian name for the sauce. They had the marketing advantage for their product. They had the two products that were the juggernauts of the industry. Prego, meanwhile, hired Dr. Moskowitz to gain more market-share and to compete against Ragu.

So in a nutshell, here’s what Dr. Moskowitz did: He had some focus groups; and instead of asking them which ONE sauce that they liked, he asked them which GROUPS of sauces that they liked. (That’s why you see so many different sauces when you shop today.)

He also asked the group which sauce they thought was the ‘Authentic’ spaghetti sauce. And the groups chose which sauce they thought was the authentic one and that sauce officially became Prego’s ‘Authentic’ spaghetti sauce. So the sauce that they actually chose as the authentic one was a very thick sauce with big chucks of vegetables. Their feedback was that it had that homemade feel- thicker texture with seemingly hand-chopped peppers, onions and tomatoes.

But here’s the big issue: Authentic, Italian spaghetti sauce is actually very thin and watery with no huge chunks of veggies mixed in! As a matter of fact, the word “Ragu” means “Gravy” in Italian and the sauce is actually this very thin gravy in which to pour over the noodles! But if you look on the grocery store shelves, you see all of this thick, chunky sauce labeled “Authentic.” Well, you have Dr. Moskowitz to thank for this! He took what we like and what would make us happy and labeled it as authentic to validate our choices.

So here’s why this is relevant to our culture: Many of us determine how we live and worship based upon that which validates our happiness. We choose our theology and missiology based upon what is a good comfort fit- that which doesn’t offend us or others. We choose our gods and we label them ‘Authentic’, not based upon the total truth (even the stuff that offends us); but we pick what we like, throw away what we don’t like, package and galvanize this new merged theology by gathering with others who believes in the same set of beliefs that we do and label it ‘Authentic’ and ‘Real’ in order to validate our choices. See, we want our chunky spaghetti!

Meanwhile, God offends us and we believe that the offense contributes to our unhappiness. And if any theology goes against our pursuit of happiness, we think that it goes against our way of life in modern Western culture- and to some, it’s considered “Un-American.” (See Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It’s in the Declaration of Independence.)

But what we need to understand is that in order to embrace Truth, we need to embrace it all- even those elements of truth that you don’t understand or offends you. We need to understand that even if it’s uncomfortable or even painful to adhere to that Truth, ultimately it will bring you joy.

As for those who are offended, let me tell you: The Scriptures sometimes offends me too… especially if I am determined to live comfortably only to see that I am destined to live less comfortable than those who have callings unlike my own. Or if I realize that I have aspects of my life that isn’t pleasing to God, but I want to live in this false security that I am without faults or that I know some elements of the Truth and that give me credence to take pride in my spiritual accomplishments. But Jesus gave us instructions on how to deal with those offenses in Scripture:

Matthew 21:42-44 says:

“42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

In short, if the Words of God offends you, let it break your current mindset. Allow it to break you down in order for God to build you back up! Allow God to make the choice in order for Him to cultivate what He has promised to you.

Mo Walker

www.artisticchristianity.org

www.twitter.com/mauricewalker