ah, tis the reason I no longer go to church; after watching the watered down gospel message change into formulaic life lessons … I gave up.
the institutional church, to me, ceased to speak of the life I have centered in God/Christ/Holy Spirit … seeking refuge I left, and am slowly recovering the freedom I have in Him. As a result, I’m now a better representative of a believer.
Someone in my community group sent round an email asking everyone to pray for her to get a mortgage because she’d viewed a property she liked and she ‘KNEW God wanted her to have that house!’ Pity He didn’t arrange for her to get a mortgage then.
Another guy at my church KNEW God wanted him to have a BMW.
I must say most Christians in the UK don’t have that attitude, but my church has been influenced by American theology. Seeing as I was £100 short for my rent money and after someone insisted on praying for this £100, someone present gave it to me, I can’t really say too much. I don’t know if God wanted me to have the £100; I just know my landlord did, but who am I to quibble? I guess it was kind of odd that there were only three of us there and one person happened to have that amount in cash on them, which is hardly normal and she wasn’t a rich person. Well at least I was genuinely in need.
Call me an eighth-grade nerd, but I’m just rubbing my hands together in excitement waiting for the thunderous explosion that blows somebody’s eyebrows off!
Benny, Kenny, and BAM BAM (Todd) in a nutshell. I know of all kinds of people who are spoon-fed this crap and love it. There is so much of it in North America it is embarrassing to be lumped into the same pot; as mant pagans I know have that image as the face of Christianity..
Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit warn Christians that the pastor or whoever up there asking for their money just wants it to enrich himself? Aren’t Christians supposed to have discernment?
Why are these hucksters so able to decieve the congregation if the congregation has God living within them? Wouldn’t having God make you pretty smart?
For the “new math” you should have used set-theoretic intersection rather than arithmetic addition!
In the UK we might not be focused on money and possessions, but this theology manifests itself in other ways; I got my dream job, so this is what God wanted me to be, etc. Usually this is backed up by the dubious idea of divinely given “gifts”. Being a working-class snob and existentialist, this really gets my goat.
I think gratitude is a great place to be emotionally, but the idea that I got something because a god gave it to me sets in motion so much paradoxial lunacy.
Plus the whole mental gymnastics around why some god plays favorites.
I remember hearing singers in church, when complimented on the beauty of their performance, saying, “It’s all God.” I told them they must of had something to do with it. They would come back with some tangent like, “If I didn’t sing, then god would have the rocks cry out.”
I thought to myself, “It might be kind of interesting to see if the rocks cry out if all the Christians decided to be silent.”
David Hayward is an artist trapped in a pastor's body, stripping to the essential.
very alchemistic
ah, tis the reason I no longer go to church; after watching the watered down gospel message change into formulaic life lessons … I gave up.
the institutional church, to me, ceased to speak of the life I have centered in God/Christ/Holy Spirit … seeking refuge I left, and am slowly recovering the freedom I have in Him. As a result, I’m now a better representative of a believer.
Someone in my community group sent round an email asking everyone to pray for her to get a mortgage because she’d viewed a property she liked and she ‘KNEW God wanted her to have that house!’ Pity He didn’t arrange for her to get a mortgage then.
Another guy at my church KNEW God wanted him to have a BMW.
I must say most Christians in the UK don’t have that attitude, but my church has been influenced by American theology. Seeing as I was £100 short for my rent money and after someone insisted on praying for this £100, someone present gave it to me, I can’t really say too much. I don’t know if God wanted me to have the £100; I just know my landlord did, but who am I to quibble? I guess it was kind of odd that there were only three of us there and one person happened to have that amount in cash on them, which is hardly normal and she wasn’t a rich person. Well at least I was genuinely in need.
Benny Hinn in a nutshell.
Call me an eighth-grade nerd, but I’m just rubbing my hands together in excitement waiting for the thunderous explosion that blows somebody’s eyebrows off!
Benny, Kenny, and BAM BAM (Todd) in a nutshell. I know of all kinds of people who are spoon-fed this crap and love it. There is so much of it in North America it is embarrassing to be lumped into the same pot; as mant pagans I know have that image as the face of Christianity..
Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit warn Christians that the pastor or whoever up there asking for their money just wants it to enrich himself? Aren’t Christians supposed to have discernment?
Why are these hucksters so able to decieve the congregation if the congregation has God living within them? Wouldn’t having God make you pretty smart?
For the “new math” you should have used set-theoretic intersection rather than arithmetic addition!
In the UK we might not be focused on money and possessions, but this theology manifests itself in other ways; I got my dream job, so this is what God wanted me to be, etc. Usually this is backed up by the dubious idea of divinely given “gifts”. Being a working-class snob and existentialist, this really gets my goat.
I think gratitude is a great place to be emotionally, but the idea that I got something because a god gave it to me sets in motion so much paradoxial lunacy.
Plus the whole mental gymnastics around why some god plays favorites.
I remember hearing singers in church, when complimented on the beauty of their performance, saying, “It’s all God.” I told them they must of had something to do with it. They would come back with some tangent like, “If I didn’t sing, then god would have the rocks cry out.”
I thought to myself, “It might be kind of interesting to see if the rocks cry out if all the Christians decided to be silent.”