Puritanism on Steroids

There has always been war, violence, homosexuality, natural disasters, prostitution, fornication, and none of these things are going away any time soon. So why do Christians rant and go on and on about the “end times,” fire and brimstone, hell, or as they love to refer to it, “The Lake of Fire?” It is not like things are getting worse so quickly that you have to scare everyone to death by standing on a box on the corner yelling at the top of your lungs, “You are all going to Hell!” This technique might have worked forty years ago, but today, people are not fascinated by being the “yellee,” and it certainly does not give anyone warm and fuzzy feelings inside either. I do not recall anywhere in the New Testament a Jesus that carried signs that said, “repent or go to hell,” I think he seemed like a nice guy that helped people instead of scaring them into salvation. At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said essentially, “I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ.” Christianity, in particular Pentecostalism, has become corrupt, humiliating, and grotesque; this change has led to such disunity and because of this confusion the religion seems to be hurting people more than helping. From sins to dogmas, the Anointed Ones to politics, boycotts to censorship, and discipleship to scare tactics, let’s learn just how ridiculous the “church” has become.

Charles Parham, a young college student from Kansas, with the help of the Wesley’s, founded Pentecostalism with the idea that sanctification comes from salvation and is followed by being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism is a charismatic movement that began in 1900 and the term is derived from Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. The revival of the Azusa Street Mission began in 1906 and laid the foundation for the type of church Pentecostals would agree could set them apart from the rest. For the next three years this movement swept across the globe filling churches with loud, sweating, charismatic believers and changed the way Christians participated in religion forever. The idea is to accept Jesus as the son of God (salvation), and therefore committing to a life of faith and holiness (sanctification), while also acknowledging The Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost), and receiving the gift of speaking in tongues. Pentecostals believe in exorcism, speaking in tongues, faith healing, and in general seek supernatural experiences. However, throughout the decades, the attractiveness of this movement has worn off and many believe that it is a religion full of manipulation, greed, and hypocrisy.

Many believers only believe what is taught to them from their pastors, since their pastors are never wrong, and they have no interest in researching that belief, causing more and more Christians to be lazy and ignorant. These Christians are so quick to believe everything they hear their pastor say and most of these pastors have no clue what they are teaching, mostly because it is something they have heard from another pastor who heard it from another pastor. Some examples of the ignorance these pastors teach is the belief that the water that Jesus turned into wine was, in fact not wine, but grape juice. They also say in order to keep ourselves clean and blameless we should not watch bad movies, listen to bad music or hang around with bad people. It has something to do with being “unequally yoked” which is in the second book of Corinthians, but I believe it is taken completely out of context in many ways, although Paul may have been a little nuts when he wrote the book. Another verse taken to the extreme is in the book of John claiming Christians should be “In the world and not of the world.” Pastors have declared that this verse is saying bars, alcohol, and smoking are all sins, when nothing in the Bible has stated such a claim.

Christians have become so accustomed to listening and living and not KNOWING and living, two very different things. They don’t care to research because they take sermon notes, sing all the songs, go to the alter, but not once do they question the truth of what they’re being taught. Because of this, it is very hard for them to let go of any preconceived ideas, therefore these ideas are not easily debated in any situation. In fact, many Christians can’t debate their religion at all, simply because they don’t research the ideas. Some read only the Bible because they think there is no need in reading any self-help books or books that oppose their beliefs because they do not like the idea of subjecting themselves to any discouragement that would tempt them to disbelieve. Some believers only hang around with other believers because they fear becoming like the world causing them to fail as so called disciples of Christ. People should know their options and should feel threatened by a religion that takes those options away and this is why some consider Pentecostalism to be a cult. This is where the issue of dogmas as absolute truth comes into view.

Pentecostals ask no questions once they have been given instruction, this leads to incompetence and manipulation. There is very little doctrinal unity among Pentecostals and Dogmas are a great reason why. Many pastors use their pulpit as a pedestal and the members of the congregation do their part to make it that way by simply not learning their options. An example of this is the creation of “sins” from ones own convictions. Some agree that consuming alcohol is a sin, while it is not stated in the bible as such, it is only a sin because one person thought it to be wrong for him and assumed it was wrong for everyone else. Another way pastors use their position to manipulate the congregation is by the use of “God given” prophecies. This instills one of two extremes into his congregation, fear or hope. The fear of the threatening prophecy to come true or the hope that the encouraging prophecy will and it gives them the need to do whatever it takes for things to work in their favor. Tithing is another way pastors manipulate, claiming that members who tithe will have better finances than those that do not or even that those that do not tithe will have hardship. The very book these pastors teach from never mentions giving in fear, but in joy, going directly against what the pastor’s intentions may be. This introduces us to the issue of false teachings.

Boycotts in past years have been a great opportunity for change but in recent years, specifically in the 90’s boycotts became more of a censoring tool than a need for change. They are now being organized to impose morals and beliefs on the freedoms and liberties of others. Just because Pentecostals think something is bad, this automatically gives them the right to ban it within their large group of followers. They have proven very effective until the boycott of Disney in 1996 because of the creation of Gay Day. Ultimately all this did for followers was cause them to miss out on all the fun the rest of the world was having while Disney still made record numbers in costumers and sales. One of the biggest problems with Christians that I have mentioned so far is their lack of research. Emails are forwarded, letters mailed, petitions signed all without one question of its truth. Just because something sounds bad and everyone else is “making a difference” by doing it, automatically it is right for them to pass the information along to the next bird brained Christian.

Have you ever received one of those silly emails saying “If you believe in God, pass this on to twenty people. If you do not, you are ashamed of him?” Like God really cares that I send twenty of my closest friends an email like that. I am sure he would rather me be learning more about what I believe so that I could effectively share it rather than take up space while I stay away from the “bad” people that will turn me against my religion. Pentecostals are so quick to hear information and pass it on like lives depend on it. Take tracts for example, a small piece of paper given to non Christians as a witnessing tool. Some look like 100 dollar bills, some like cartoons, but all are a complete joke. While working at Starbucks for three years, I received countless witnessing tracts, and most of them were from rude, ill, and impatient customers. Why would someone that had just been so irritable with me try to share his religion with me? Did he honestly think I would give him the time of day after the way he treated me? Did he even care or was he just doing his “God-given duty?” He made no connection with me whatsoever, which ,I think got him the opposite result he was aiming for. It was probably wrong of me, but I threw his silly shred of nonsense directly into the trash, which is what I am certain happened to the rest of them if he was the one handing them out to anyone with a heart. This deals with the issue of discipleship without relationship.

A person cannot understand true Christianity if presented with it this way, and will not know what it truly has to offer them, and even because of that experience he may never open up to the religion. A big part of Christianity is being like Christ. A Jesus that shared his time, generosity, care, fed the hungry, walked with the lowest of society. That is what true Christianity should mirror, an image of love and selflessness, not the monster so many have reflected. True Christianity can be a great thing for people, when it focuses on the things Jesus himself focused on; love, kindness, generosity, patience, peace, faithfulness. All of these things make up a virtuous person, and if the world of Christianity did their job the way it was meant to be done, I guarantee so many people around the world would be less bitter, cynical, and reluctant towards the people and religion itself. However, Pentecostals have placed this religion in a horrible position, and one that will take a very long time to fix, if even fixable. If it is possible for one person like Nelson Mandela to change the world in such a positive way, then certainly it is possible for thousands of hateful Christians to change the world in a negative way. How many people and how much time will it take to fix what these people have broken?