“Hot Tub Religion”

I was reading a book by J.I. Packer called “Hot Tub Religion”, in the book, Packer is dealing with crucial questions that Christians may not be clear on. The title of the book is from a chapter that deals with a theology of pleasure. His choice for the most fitting symbol of contemporary western culture is a hot tub.

When I hear the words “hot tub” it reminds me of the Eddie Murphy skit on an old Saturday Night Live show called “Celebrity Hot Tub”. Murphy enters playing James Brown dancing to James Brown music saying “Hot Tub”. If you were a James Brown fan you can hear his voice in your head saying the words “Hot Tub”. Packer retells his first experience in a hot tub with some of his student advisers from Regent College. Packer said, “As I sat there savoring hot-tubness, cracking small jokes and adjusting to the feel of being bubbled over from all angles it struck me that the hot tub is the perfect symbol of the modern route in religion. The hot tub experience is sensuous, relaxing, floppy, and laid-back: not in any way demanding whether intellectually or otherwise, but very, very nice, even to the point of being great fun.”

“Many today want Christianity to be like that, and labor to make it so. The ultimate step of course would be to clear church auditoriums of seats and install hot tubs in their place; then there would never be any attendance problems" This was written 30 years ago and you could add a lot of descriptions to the current Christian hot tub experience. But sometimes I wonder if what the Church is doing is caving in to the low level of biblical intelligence in the people attending the services. Instead of building people up in their most holy faith, we spoon feed them self-help Pablum and some “How to” messages— how to prosper, how to feel better about yourself, how to have a great marriage, how to raise swell kids, how to have it all, and it remind's me of the sleazy salesman Art Fern from