Mob Mentality

Acts 17:11 And the people of Berea were more open minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth.

I recently attended a Christian rock concert.  Unexpectedly I enjoyed it very much. The music was loud, yet it was good and the stage show was spectacular.  

Yet as I stood there looking at the crowd I was taken aback at the mob mentality. All the lead singer had to do was mention the name, Jesus, and the crowd would scream it’s approval. It occured to me the power that these people on the stage have. To use for good or for evil.  

C.S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters, a fictional account of letters written between two of Satan’s demons.  Screwtape, a senior Demon and his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape gives Wormwood advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in the life of a British man Wormwood is assigned to. In one of the letters Screwtape says this, “Every dictator or even demagogue--almost every film star or crooner-- can now draw tens of thousands of the human sheep with him. They give themselves (what there is of them) to him; in him, to us. There may come a time we shall have no need to bother about individual temptation at all, except for the few. Catch the bellwether, and his whole flock come after him. But do you realize how we have succeeded in reducing so many of the human race to the level of ciphers?” (cipher defined as: A person or thing of no importance, esp. a person who does the bidding of others and seems to have no will of their own.

C.S. Lewis published The Screwtape letters in 1942, Hitler was attempting to rule the world, he had captivated a nation with his personality, swaying the masses through his speeches. “Hitler stated many times that the only way to use propaganda effectively was to aim it at the stupidity of the masses rather than the intellectuals. He used short slogans repeated again and again to drive ideas home into the minds of his followers.” 

Unless we study God’s word, unless we know what the Bible says, unless we know the truth, we will be taken in by the world’s lies. We, like sheep, will follow whomever has the loudest or sweetest sounding bell. Search the Scriptures day after day, check up on those you are listening to, and see if they are really teaching the truth.