Christianity’s March Madness Insanity!
The brackets are coming!
There have been a lot of “Worst” videos here at Scotteriology… Worst Worship Ever, Worst Rap Ever, Worst Kids Show Ever, Worst Christian Song Ever, and unfortunately, the list goes on and on and on. Every time we hit a new low and think that possibly, there is no way on Earth that something could be “worse” than what we just watched, somehow a new group finds it within their capacity to take the bar lower:
At the end of the day, however, there can only be one worst. It’s time to wade through the silliness, depravity and stupidity of the theologically insane, inept, and depraved and decide finally: what moment from the last couple of years is the “worst” in Christendom.
I am going to be putting together the list and brackets over the next few days but if there is a particular video or moment that horrifies you let me know in the comments; and yes, Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey will be on the list!
NOTE: This is different than the “Worst Preacher Ever Championship” so nominations should tend more towards worship pastors, church staff, and laypersons, but pastors acting outside of their office, e.g., the “creative” pastor rapping are certainly up for nomination.
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The “I need…your heart…” bit vaguely reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Seriously. Is there anyone standing against this out there in mainstream Christianity? Any big names who can stop selling books that say the same thing long enough to write against this?
During the 80s/90s it was fashionable in charismatic circles to condemn rock music by making a comparison between the beats used and those used in various tribal musics around the world.
I presume no one in the audience sees the irony.
Not only is his doctrine wrong, but that shirt… God help us all!
On a more serious note, a friend of mine told me the other day of someone she knew who had been healed at a charismatic meeting. When her healing happened she literally had an orgasm. Yep. An orgasm. And watching these videos, there’s definitely some orgasmic overtones. “My deep calls out to his deep”? Very sexual. I wonder if any research has been done in this area to see how these trance-like spiritual experiences interact with the sexual and orgasmic. Does anyone know?
I’m not sure how much of a correlation has been examined between the hyper religious ceremony and the sexual psyche but there certainly has been strong links likening the biological/neurological responses at these types of gatherings and the same types of neurochemical activity during hallucinogenic drug use.
That would be a really fascinating study though! If anyone is at all familiar with the work of Masters & Johnson on the nature of human sexual response, it’s pretty easy, even from a lay perspective, to draw some pretty concrete parallels between their four stage model of the sexual response and everything that transpires in the video. They categorized the response as:
* Excitement phase (initial arousal)
* Plateau phase (at full arousal, but not yet at orgasm)
* Orgasm
* Resolution phase (after orgasm)
I’d be shocked if Rick Joyner didn’t have every single phase of his events planned out to a tee and the thing that makes me the most curious (knowing relatively nothing about their organization) is how they resolve their “shows”. You’ve gotta figure that after creating a heightened sense of stimulation like what we saw there, it would leave people far more open and vulnerable to giving money.
Kinda like a hooker…
(I swear Scott, if you make a “your mom” joke here I will email bomb you with so many viagra and penis enlargement ads that you’ll break the internet by logging into your mail.)
Somewhat related: I know a guy at my church who does addiction counseling, and has said that big Christian rallies that have these emotional high points actually do create a literal high. The brain chemicals that are released are the same as those released when addicts get their high (like you said Jake), whether the addiction is narcotics, sex, or alcohol. The irony is that after these events (and the associated highs) are over, there’s a crash that causes a low point where addicts start physically craving another fix. I’ve heard more charismatic evangelicals use the phrase “high on Jesus,” but really, that’s quite literally true.
it’s very similar to AfroBrazilian candomble, including the drums and the rhythm… we’ve seen these ‘movements’ among evangelicals here in Brazil too, but I’m just scared to know that it has already hit North America…. Open their eyes, dear Lord!
Christian love from Brazil to our brothers and sisters in the USA!
See that? “Christian love from Brazil to our brothers and sisters in the USA!” We ROCK! USA! USA! USA!
Y’all Canucks’re on yer own!
😉