The Middle Way

Book Review

Rod Parsley, Silent No More (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2005), 182 pp., $19.99
[Part 1 of 2] (Part 2 was published Sept. 22 as "Where is the grace?")

Rev. Rod Parsley is pastor of the World Harvest Church, which is the largest-membership church in Columbus, Ohio, with an average weekly attendance of 10,000. He is also a television evangelist; and more recently, a speaker in demand in pulpits and on the lecture circuit. Naturally, this reputation had given him considerable influence, which he apparently wishes to use in the political world.

Last April, Rev. Parsley gained national media attention following an eleven-city promotional tour. This tour took the form of political rallies, which he keynoted, supported by such conservative luminaries as Rev. Alan Keyes, columnist Ann Coulter, and Ohio Secretary of State/gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell. This engagement of Rev. Parsley’s ministry with political activism sounded an alarm with me. Therefore, these two postings may prove to be less of a review, and more of a detailed critique of his book. (For press articles on this tour, see the front page story in The Other Paper [a Columbus alternative weekly], April 21-27, 2005; the Columbus Dispatch for April 17, 2005, p. B3, April 25, 2005, p. A1, and August 28, 2005, p. A1).

In subsequent public appearances, Rev. Parsley has reiterated a claim that the separation of church and state is a “lie.” He believes that the church is still “a sleeping giant that has the ability and the power for God Almighty to transform our nation from the heart and from the inside out.” Rev. Parsley is thus launching a frontal attack on the doctrine of the separation of church and state (about which I commented earlier: [LINK]), or indeed on any idea that the United States of America as a government should maintain a semblance of neutrality in its relationship with people of various religions. Let the reader judge whether or not he is advocating a theocracy.

Recently, when I discussed some of my differences with Evangelicals, a friend of mine said, “You really hate Evangelicals, don’t you?” Well, no, I don’t hate Evangelicals. In most respects, mainstream Protestants and Evangelicals share the same doctrines, especially in contrast with other Christian traditions. I admire the Evangelical contributions to Bible scholarship and their zeal for saving the least and the lost; and have prayed that we mainstream Protestants would catch that bug. However, I do believe that Evangelicals are dead wrong in their views related to the separation of church and state, and I vigorously disagree with them on how the Gospel is to be applied in the political arena. (For my views stated more positively, see my review of Jim Wallis’ Who Speaks for God?).

I bought Silent No More expecting my review to be a slash-and-burn of Evangelical politics run riot. In fairness to Rev. Parsley, I found that I agreed with about half of it. In this post, I shall address the areas in which I at least partially agree with Rev. Parsley, then in the next, I shall tackle the areas of disagreement.

A refreshing view on race

White Evangelicals are accused, with some justification, of reacting to the expansion of rights to African-Americans by forming churches and Christian schools in the suburbs. With this in mind, it was refreshing to read from a white Evangelical pastor that he is “still sadly forced to report that racism is far from dead in our country … How I wish I could report that we had learned from our tragic legacy of race hatred, that we had heeded the words of [those] who have called us to a higher vision.”

He notes (and I agree) that affirmative action programs have stirred deep resentments. And most tellingly, he observes that “Sunday morning is still the most racially segregated time in America.” Our churches have an “unfulfilled mandate” to reflect in their composition the diversity of our society; especially at a time when black, Hispanic, and other populations are increasing as a percentage of our overall population. Rev. Parsley has earned the right to criticize, because World Harvest is one of the most racially diverse congregations in Columbus. He cites several Biblical passages in support of his contention, notably Acts 13:1, which lists a Cypriot, a Greek, two Asians, and an African in the leadership of the church at Antioch. In Mark 11 (the “den of thieves” story), he notes that the sellers were operating in the Court of the Gentiles, thus blocking their access to the Temple. In defense of his clearing the area, Jesus said, quoting Isaiah 56:7, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

Rev. Parsley continues this chapter by surveying the effects of persistent racism on black Americans, citing well-known health and economic statistics documenting gaps between the white and black populations. Because of this, he observes that the Nation of Islam (“Black Muslims”) appeal to many urban blacks because it preaches the goodness and nobility of the black race, something they may not hear anywhere else, but should be hearing from Christians, both black and white.

Why do we still have poverty and hunger?

“Why does poverty continue to be a plaguing problem in this, the richest nation the world has ever known?” Rev. Parsley asks. “Why are there still hungry children? Why are there families with no home? Why is there still a permanent underclass in this great land?” He refreshingly asserts that these are the kinds of questions that “should drive our national debate and inform our public policy.” So often, we hear Evangelical activists, such as Pat Robertson, blame the victim for their poverty, as they favor policies that deny the poor their hand up.

I agree with Rev. Parsley that much of the poverty in this country is the result of poor public policy, ranging from farm price supports to the handouts from the “War on Poverty.” Social welfare programs, “have more often than not rendered them impotent, dependent, and helpless,” an assertion he supports with considerable backup. He also blames social welfare programs for decreasing the benefits of work through higher taxes, reduced job creation at the lower levels, and made risk of starting businesses unacceptably high.

Rev. Parsley argues that we need a “compassion consensus.” Government help is needed to provide emergency support, but the primary responsibility for charity lay with the family, the church, and private institutions – not with the government. He quotes Franklin D. Roosevelt as telling Congress in 1935, “The federal government must, and shall, quit this business of relief. To dole out relief is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” To both statements, all I can do is to raise a loud “AMEN!” Our recent experience with the victims of Hurricane Katrina should underscore the validity of such an approach.

So what is the solution? Rev. Parsley says it is for government to get out of the way. Reduce taxation, remove industrial restraints, eliminate wage controls, and abolish subsidies and other constraints on free enterprise. As a result, “the poor would be helped in a way that AFDC, social security, and unemployment insurance could never match. Jobs would be created, investment would be stimulated, productivity would soar, and technology would advance.” While I generally agree with his approach, it will need some fine-tuning to ensure that these proposals do not have the unintended consequence of providing “welfare to the rich” while denying government sufficient funds to perform necessary services to help the poor.

Education needs reform

Rev. Parsley criticizes education on the grounds that it fails in its most basic mission of conveying true knowledge. People get information 24/7/365, but too many children go through school without the ability to read, write, or calculate. He continues for several pages with statistics and surveys that back up the point, one that should be more than familiar to any concerned citizen.

Part of the problem for Rev. Parsley is, we tend to assume that education is a process that can be finished. For all the talk of “lifelong learning,” Americans tend to assume that once the state fulfills its responsibility to graduate us from high school, our learning days can end. But the truth is, we really haven’t learned how to learn. If we do not learn wisdom, he writes, we cannot make information more than a jumble of data.

Rev. Parsley argues that we need education that helps children understand not only the what and where, but also the why. We need to teach our people how to discern truth. “Wisdom and truth are the only things that can insure that the great legacy of freedom, the inheritance of cultural greatness, and the blessings of progress will continue.” However, just as government cannot eliminate poverty by itself, neither can the public schools fully educate children on their own.

We are all familiar with instances where school principals have pressed a policy against all common sense. For example, a few months ago here in Columbus, a mentally-retarded child was raped at a local high school. The principal forbade a teacher from calling 911 to treat the child, because it was against policy to disclose such things to outsiders! Rev. Parsley blames the National Education Association (the teachers’ union) for seeking to control all aspects of education, even to the point of trying to keep parents out of the loop; for example by opposing “No Child Left Behind,” and attempting to suppress home schooling. We are all familiar with “political correctness” in schools (and universities!) and how they prevent students from discovering unpopular truths.

Rev. Parsley’s solutions fit most ideas of common sense. We need to resolve the funding problem of our schools, so that every child is adequately supported – but money is not the only solution to the problem. He strongly favors (as do I) expanding the voucher system. Let competition raise the value of education. Most private and parochial (though, too often, not charter) schools provide excellent education to their students, often at an affordable price even to families with modest incomes. Rev. Parsley closes the chapter with a touching story about his son, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, to show that even special needs can be better addressed outside the public school system. If public school educators can’t take the heat, as Harry Truman might have said, perhaps they should get out of the kitchen.

Media: The enemy in our midst

Not much really needs said here. We all know from our daily lives and conversations the power that the mass media have on the culture of our people and their understanding of the world. Rev. Parsley, as one would expect, takes a strong stand against the sexual imagery frequently present in television and music; and devoted considerable attention to Janet Jackson’s notorious “wardrobe malfunction” in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

He calls television the “electronic Valium,” noting that it can be a tool to control society by inflicting pleasure, just as Aldous Huxley envisioned in Brave New World. Hollywood films are even worse in his view. Rev. Parsley goes on for pages with facts that are well known, but which he uses to remind us that the popular media are a problem for this society, one that has sapped the nation of its vigor and its moral vision.

Thankfully, he did not advocate the solution I most feared. He stopped well short of advocating governmental censorship. Instead, he recommends that his readers file indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission and become better informed about the quality of entertainment they want to hear or view. We should write sponsors, networks, and film studios when we find something objectionable. This strikes me as not only reasonable, but necessary to achieving a balance in entertainment options that better protects our children.


In my next post, I will give my personal views on homosexuality; which will lay some groundwork for Part 2, where I shall review the areas where Rev. Parsley and I disagree.

Copyright © 2005, Harold D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use the material in this blog provided this copyright notice is shown and the use is not for profit.