Preaching the Gospel and Conditioned Passivity
Philip G. Ney, MD, FRCP (C)
August 17, 2004

Whenever Jesus preached, he would command his disciples to do something about what they had just learned. Unless they acted on what they now knew was right, how could anyone know they had learned anything. When He taught, it was usually during an intense debate after some critical experience He had just brought His followers through. He usually lectured while the crowds were on their feet and often when they were traveling somewhere. There is a good reason for this. Jesus understood conditioned passivity.

It is estimated that the average North American teenager by the age of 17 has witnessed 1800 murders on TV and movies. This has resulted in widespread conditioned passivity. A young Baptist pastor, after preaching his heart out, gave up because he found that even when the congregation well understood, they failed to act. Without knowing it, he had been inducing in his congregation conditioned passivity

Jesus quoted Isaiah who in sheer frustration wrote: “The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen, they screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face to face and let me heal them.” (Matt. 13:15, The Message)

It is so hard to get people’s attention when trying to warn and propel them into action, even when it to save their skins. In the dying days of Israel and Judah, it was especially hard to bring people to repentance and a change in their lifestyle. One prophet walked around naked for a year. Another married a prostitute. Another dug a tunnel through the city wall. Another carried the yoke of oxen on his neck. Even when they did get the people’s attention, the people of that day did not stop their hypocrisy, so God’s wrath came down and people got driven away, far away. For instead of justice there was cheating, instead of caring for children, they were burning them on the altar of the god Molech. In the rapid ride to the demise of our civilization, it is similar. Too often, people love to lift their hands in praise and worship but don’t use those hands to stop the murder of innocent preborn babies or to change the causes of the destruction of what they hold dear. History is repeating itself for what I believe are the same reasons, particularly conditioned passivity. Since God never changes the consequence will be the same, disaster. They cry out to God for help but won’t listen to what He says; repent and change your ways.

“We have fasted before you!' they say. `Why aren't you impressed? We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!' "I will tell you why! It's because you are living for yourselves even while you are fasting. You keep right on oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarrelling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.” (Isaiah 58:3-4.“Those who make the innocent guilty by their false testimony will disappear. And those who use trickery to pervert justice and tell lies to tear down the innocent will be no more.” (Isaiah 29:21) “Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor. You killed them even though they didn't break into your houses!” (Jeremiah 2:34)

After a year and a half I returned to the church that I usually attended and found that nothing had changed, except there was a hint of despair and cynicism in the pastor’s sermon. I asked myself, “Did I miss something?”. I had to answer, “No, everything is where it was when I left. Nothing has changed.” But in God’s kingdom it must change. Nothing is on this is earth is as good as it should be. We are commanded to act; to share God’s good news and to heal broken hearts and help hold together a breaking world, because otherwise we are adapting to the world’s standards of thought and behaviour.

Why doesn’t graphically displayed information and desperately worded appeals result in resolve and action? I believe these are the reasons:

1. Conditioned passivity
   Whenever a sight, e.g. someone about to be stabbed, or a sound, e.g. someone screaming for help, or even a smell, e.g. putrefying flesh, calls all that is within one to action to prevent a tragedy and rescue those who are threatened, people are sitting and will stay where they are. They do nothing except perhaps to say, “Please pass the popcorn”. Whenever this happens, you have been reinforced in your passivity; rewarded for not responding to the desperate situation, by more entertainment. Because you decide to inhibit your action and because your passivity is rewarded by the pleasure, excitement or intellectual stimulation of what you absorb, it soon becomes almost impossible to break this conditioned response. The sight on television of starving children, the eloquent description of the missionaries’ need for help at the orphanage, the physician’s horrific description of mutilation and murder of innocent preborn babies by abortion to any audience that is allowed to just sit, does more harm than good. Your passivity is reinforced[made more frequent and more probable by rewards] in 2 ways: a] your senses are titillated by entertainment while you are being passive, b] by deciding to wait, you relax. That relaxation is a powerful reward for your passivity.
   
   The fact that there is no action at a critical moment means that your passivity is growing, influenced by factors over which you have little control, and of which you are not aware. The more often people do not respond to the plight of preborn babies, the less able they are to act not matter how urgent the plea. By not responding to an appeal from a speaker or the quiet promptings from God or from your own conscience, you are being thoroughly conditioned to be passive. Your tension rises when you feel you should act, and your tensions diminish when you decide not to. Repeatedly tensing yourself by saying or thinking, “I should do something,” then rewarding yourself with relaxation that comes with giving yourself a good excuse not to “I’ve got to think about this some more”, produces an operantly conditioned passivity. Since this happens thousands of times, sometimes in words and behaviour but far more frequently in your mind, that passivity is deeply ingrained. Subsequent excuses mainly serve to cover what you suspect; you couldn’t act even if you really wanted to. There is an inverse relationship between the amount of entertainment, including sermons, anyone sits through and their ability to react to urgent appeals.
   
   
2. Inadvertently reinforcing maladaptive behaviour
   Speaker and audience are engaged in mutually reinforcing each other’s maladaptive passive behaviour. As speaker you give an inspiring lecture then bask in the applause and praise, “thank you for such a wonderful talk”. The audience is rewarding you for not insisting they act. You become conditioned to give wonderful lectures and are reinforced in your behaviour, stimulating thought but not demanding action. You did not indicate you expected action, because you knew there would be less adulation and you probably would not be invited back. Quite quickly you become conditioned to give wonderfully convincing lectures and are rewarded for not demanding action. At the same time you reward your audience’s inactivity with fascinating stories, jokes and startling statistics. On leaving, they say to each other, “Wasn’t he a remarkable speaker. I really should buy his tapes and listen to them again”. All the while thinking, “Am I glad he didn’t ask for volunteers or ask me to sign some crazy petition.” Even the lovely closing music by the worship team helps dispel any determination and rewards the congregation for passivity by making them feel so good as they leave without a commitment to action.

   Last weekend I lectured to some very sincere people about ‘Hope for Depression’, including for those who are struggling following an abortion. I shocked those kind folks who complimented me when I replied, “Please don’t say you enjoyed it. Say I really upset you; made you mad enough to get out there and make things different, beginning now! And by the way, everything I know comes from God. Praise Him.” Now I tell the chairperson that I will insist that everyone in the audience write a letter, sign a petition, give some money or put their name to paper they will be part of a protest or poor neighbourhood clean up, before they are allowed to go home. No longer will I be party to the problem I am here writing about.
   
   "I hate all your show and pretence--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.” (Amos 5:21-24)

3. Social inhibition of Action
   Too often, those few people who begin to respond right away, encounter the inhibiting influence of disapproval from people important to them. They are literally pulled back to their seats by their neighbours. “What do you think you are doing? Are you some kind of nut? You are going to embarrass us all, and probably get yourself killed in the process. Sit back and let someone better qualified take care of it.” It is so hard to ignore their disapproval and so easy to feel, “Yes, well, maybe they’re right.” Thus there are aversive social stimuli to action while there are powerful reinforcing stimuli to inaction. Just when you are about to put into action something you are convinced you want to do, your friends say, “Come to dinner and we will talk about it some more (maybe).”

4. Rationalizing Passivity
   You may be so moved by the pastor’s eloquent sermon or the remarkable rhetoric of the guest speaker that you decide, “I really must do something as soon as possible.” After the sermon is over, you walk down the aisle, saying to yourself, “Surely, I am going to do something about this tomorrow.” While shaking the pastor’s hand you are thinking, “Indeed, by next week I will start.” By the time you get home for Sunday dinner, you are vowing to your guests, saying, “When and if the Lord calls me, I promise to do something about this problem.” Having not done anything, you soon begin rationalizing why you did not. The arguments are thin on fact and logic, but to yourself these rationalizations sound quite plausible. Suspecting someone or Jesus will ask why you didn’t act when you should have and could have, you rehearse, embellish and well justify your excuse. Whereas if you act, even something simple like signing a petition against pornography in your neighborhood, you will begin to justify to yourself for doing so. Later you will tell your friends why you did something they consider quite strange rather than justify to them and to yourself why you did not. Having convinced yourself, you may also convince them.

5. Broken promises
   Any child of God, having said they will do something, must do it. Saying yes is a vow and that vow is always made in the presence of God, for He is always present and always hears. God holds us accountable for all our promises. It doesn’t matter whether a vow, promise or commitment, or just saying ‘Your will is done’ is inside or outside the church, whether our hands are on a bible or in the air, God hears us and expects us to abide by what we say we will do. When we break our promises, something awful happens inside us. We become more capable of rationalizing what we don’t do and less able to do it. We become so adept at concocting reasons for our passivity in order to convince ourselves, we become eloquent in convincing others so that they can use our arguments to rationalize their inactivity. When we undermine our own and our brother’s good intention with sophistry, God is not there to support us. Truly the way to hell is paved with good intentions and broken promises.
   

6. Broken restraint to aggression
   After a soldier has shot one man, he is much more capable of killing others. Once a man and woman have contributed to the death by abortion of their preborn baby, they are much less capable of restraining their own or other people’s aggression, even if they later decide to be pro-life and protect preborn babies. The marvelous miracle that changes a rudely awakened parent in the middle of the night from murderously mad to softly nurturing is no longer in place or as effective. In spite of what they believe, that God-given instinctual restraint to aggression is badly weakened post-abortion. To the helpless cry of distress, post abortion people are more likely to respond with aggression and less likely to respond with nurture. Since we will all probably become dependant and needy at some point in our lives, the prospect to people responding to our helpless cries with aggression is very frightening. It is frightening enough for old people to drive them to seek doctor assisted suicide.
   
   

7. Procrastination
   For good reasons, procrastination is a habit hard to overcome. As you literally or mentally approach a difficult task, your tension rises. The closer you come to doing it, the more painful your tension becomes. Before you do it, you allow some competing action or thought to make the action unnecessary at this time. As soon as you decide not to do it now, you relax. “I must write to my mother-in-law, senator, etc. Now how should I start? This is giving me a headache. I better take a nap and tackle it later. My, that feels better. I didn’t realize I was so tired. I remember the pastor saying we should look after ourselves.” That pleasant experience of relaxing rewards you. Approaching or starting a difficult task punishes you with tension. Together the aversive stimuli for trying and the reinforcing stimulus of relaxing, conditions you to procrastinate. Since with any one difficult task this may happen hundreds of times, putting it off is thoroughly operant conditioned. The best way to beat this is to divide the difficult task into ‘baby steps’ you are sure to complete, and reward yourself with relaxing only if you finish those individual steps.
   
   
8. Confusion
   A good excuse not to act is to confuse yourself with too many opinions and too many alternatives. “Who should I believe? There are so many totally divergent ideas about abortion. Maybe I should read some more and watch the latest video.” That’s a good move but not if you are using it as an excuse not to act on what your God-given conscience tells you. You know in your heart it isn’t that complicated. What you do about the murder of millions of innocent children shouldn’t require a great amount of information.
   
   “If any prophet, priest, or anyone else says, `I have a prophecy from the LORD,' I will punish that person along with his entire family. V. 35You should keep asking each other, `What is the Lord’s answer?' or `What is the Lord saying?' But stop using this phrase, `prophecy from the Lord.' For people are using it to give authority to their own ideas, turning upside down the words of our God, the living God, the Lord Almighty.” (Jeremiah 23:34-36)

You are watching a movie of some one about to be strangled; you take a swig of Coke. You listen to a sermon urging people to spread the best news in the universe by helping fund a bigger radio transmitter, and you can’t help but yawn. You listen to scientific data that shows how women and men and children are irreparably damaged by abortion, and you say, “I don’t approve of abortion but I am not called to do anything right now.”

So often I have urged people with information and appeal to respond to a God-given opportunity to intervene, and I met passivity and rationalizations. The seven standard excuses I encounter are:

1. Not Yet. “Yes, of course you are right. But I can’t do anything yet, I am just an undergraduate, employee, housewife, family doctor, lower court judge, or backbencher, etc.” “Just give me a little time, when I am a graduate I am sure I will…..etc.” By the time you feel you have arrived at the state where you can safely speak your heart and mind, and act on your convictions, you will have forgotten what you should say and be almost impossibly passive.
   
   
2. Too Big and Too Many. “This is way too big for me. Now maybe if I could get a group together…Besides, there are so many problems in the world. You can’t expect me to tackle them all!” No, I don’t actually. I do suggest for your own good that you take on one aspect of evil and really challenge it to the extent of putting your reputation, job, limb or life at risk.
   
   
3. Family First. “I can’t do this. My family comes first. They are still small.” Well, I have found that you can do many things with your family, e.g. stand shoulder to shoulder on a pro-life Life Chain. They will learn from your example much more than they do from your instruction. They need to see you taking risks in standing up for God and His little ones, and then counting on Jesus to guide and guard you.
   
   
4. Not My Passion. ‘This is your passion, but it’s not mine.” It is true God gave us individual blueprints designed before the world was made in order to serve Him. But do not forget that the second most important commandment and the overriding social principle, is love your neighbour as you love yourself. Give him clean water as you would like for yourself. Give him enough food so he grows properly. Give every child the right to be and to become all that God intended for him/her. You are called to join God’s army but once in you are commanded to serve, often where it is dangerous.
   
   "How terrible it will be for you who get rich by unjust means! You believe your wealth will buy security, putting your families beyond the reach of danger. But by the murders you committed, (and allowed to be committed) you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives.” (Habakkuk 2:9-10)
   
   
5. Not Called. “God hasn’t called me. He might have called you.” In scripture, there are very few calls. There are many, many more commands. After all, you don’t expect the general to whisper quietly in the ear of each soldier. Yes, you are called to join the army, but once in Christ’s service, you do as you are commanded.
   
   
6. Everything in moderation. “I’m not one of those pro-life extremists who picket abortion clinics. They do more harm than good.” I would like you to meet one of those extremists. She is a recent university grad, smart, sensitive, good-looking and shy. She has been imprisoned repeatedly for counseling would be aborting men and women, inside the “bubble zone” of an abortion clinic. “How awful, you say. “What drives her to be so reckless?” In a secure jail, she finds many opportunities to witness to Christ. She has also saved the lives of children. And don’t forget, the more you are like Jesus, the more you will be treated like Jesus, loved by a few and called an extremist by many.
   
   
7. Information overload. “The more I hear and see, the more confused I become. Maybe I should throw away my TV and stop the paper.” Not a bad idea. Without that constant din in your head you would more easily hear God’s Spirit talking to you.
   
   
8. Fear. At least admitting you are afraid is honest. But of what are you afraid? - mainly losing your comfort, convenience and friends. You should discover how enjoyable life is when you are not afraid to die for Christ. If you can endure the fingers and jeers while manning a pro-life chain, if nothing else you have shown to yourself that it isn’t fear that holds you back.
   “What can we bring to the Lord to make up for what we've done? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves?.... No, O people, the Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:6, 8)

Gender and Action

Jesus taught most frequently while people, mostly men, were on their feet, not in their seats. There is good evidence that men comprehend better while standing or walking through the environment. Anthropologically, men have learned moving in the jungle. To quickly respond (impulsivity) to peripheral stimuli (distractibility) was a great asset. Women, on the other hand, have learned focusing with central vision, sitting or squatting. Distractibility, which benefits men who are at war or hunting, is a major disadvantage to women while cooking or caring for babies. Besides which, men have less to sit on.

The pastor at the front of the congregation is there to lead. However, to lead them while facing them, you have to walk backwards, and will unquestionably fall on your rump all too soon. Pastors should lead by example; marching in front of the congregation, moving into the battlefield that God indicates is the most urgent.

The Antidote to Conditioned Passivity: Advice to Leaders and Speakers

1. Teach people while they are moving through the environment, dealing with some issue while they are on their feet. You will find there’ll be far more men in your congregation.
   
   
2. Teach usually in a new place, a new setting, producing a new crisis with which your congregation must deal.
   
   
3. Lead by walking ahead. To be a leader, you must walk in front and be the first to die.
   
   
4. Don’t let the meeting break up without people doing something right then and there. Make sure they hear, understand and act. This may be as small as signing a petition, or writing a letter to the president. Don’t rely on people’s promises, resolves, or oath. When they break their resolves and promises, you have inadvertently reinforced their passivity. When you give them the opportunity to use their favourite rationalizations, people in your congregation are in a worse state that when you first entreated them.
   
   
5. Promote real reconciliation. Brother must reconcile with brother, before they go to the temple. They should leave their gift on the altar. They should not go to church until they have made things right with those who hurt them and those they hurt. Stop their clapping mid-air. Reconciliation must occur before the church service, otherwise, people should stay at home. After all, God isn’t going to forgive them until they forgive each other.
   
   
6. Provide more information only after people have acted on what they have.
   
   
7. Don’t allow immaturity. Don’t let people to excuse themselves by “waiting for the doors to open”, “a call”, etc. You stopped opening and closing doors for your children when they were 2 or 3. Christians who are guided by circumstances tend to be immature.
   
   
8. Don’t count the size of your congregation or your budget. Leave that to the Lord. It’s too easy to be tempted into thinking you have a lot of people when in fact most of them couldn’t do anything about a situation even if they want to.
   
   
9. Like Gideon, move out or on with the few who indicate they are ready to act by staying alert.

“Go home, my people, and lock your doors! Hide until the Lord’s anger against your enemies has passed. Look! The LORD is coming from heaven to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will no longer hide those who have been murdered. They will be brought out for all to see.” (Isaiah 26:20-21)

Health and Consistency

Your mind and body are in muscle and mind fatigue-inducing tension whenever there is a discrepancy between what you believe and how you behave. The larger the discrepancy, the greater the tension, and the harder it is on the body. It is literally like having your foot pressed on the gas and the brake pedal at the same time. You ruin your engine and tear apart the transmission. You will live longer and die happier if there is consistency between what you believe and how you behave. In addition, when you love your neighbour as yourself, your blood pressure lowers and your pulse rate slows. God’s command to love is as much for your benefit as it is for your neighbours.

Reconciliation Leads to Health

God’s word indicates that these four health making actions run in sequence:

1. You must rebuke those who hurt you.
   
   
2. They must repent, say sorry, promise not to do it again and do their best to make it right.
   
   
3. You must forgive them from your heart. [not in your heart as many Christians claim].
   
   
4. Then the Lord will heal you all.

God’s Promise of Blessing, Good News and Difficult News

Psalm 41:1-3 clearly indicates four wonderful blessings that flow to those who look after the poor. None are more poor or weak than the preborn babies. In II Timothy 3:12 Paul writes that when you serve the Lord, don’t expect that people will love you. You will be persecuted. And finally, remember that in this very short portion of our existence, what we need most is a good (bad) enemy to sharpen us, and a powerful, loving friend to sustain us. We have the 2 best, what more do we need?

Conclusion

Dear pastor, brave pro-life leader, God’s good people, please understand these mechanisms that lead to passivity and inactivity. Note how you are too often, inadvertently contributing more to the problem than the solution by your eloquence. Don’t invite famous authors and entertaining speakers to your banquets. Welcome battle-scarred veterans. By your example, lead people to act on what they already know they should do. May the Lord be honored in all you think, say and do.