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Posts: 6593
Mar 25 09 8:01 AM
There are some who call me .... Timmay!
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Mar 25 09 8:06 AM
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Mar 25 09 8:11 AM
Posts: 5331
Mar 25 09 3:43 PM
RobWood wrote: When you're wallowing in self-loathing and guilt, common sense and reasoning are no match for hard-line religious programming. I've always likened hardcore Christianity to a game, wherein if you play well, you get health, happiness, prosperity, salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit, but if you play badly, you chronically suffer from "ailments" such as addiction or abuse or homosexuality (using your example). You can ask for deliverance, but if it doesn't "take," there are only two possible explanations: 1. That's not how life actually works. 2. You are a failure.
Posts: 1627
Mar 25 09 5:24 PM
exPc Fan
boustro wrote: Yep. It was one of the many things that made me go "hmmmm". The rhetoric doesn't jibe with the reality, and I think virtually every pente knows it, somewhere inside. And that's one of the many things that you're just not allowed to say out loud.
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Mar 25 09 6:41 PM
Mar 25 09 7:10 PM
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Mar 26 09 1:08 AM
Musical Mantric
But they make it sound so final and automatic, yet all the "deliverence"-minded Pentes that I've ever known seem to have to keep asking for deliverance over and over and over again.
Mar 26 09 1:10 AM
Mar 26 09 5:21 AM
Mar 26 09 7:45 AM
blackdog wrote: It's always been like, seriously scary-obvious to me how much the "game" of Pentecostalism is rigged in favor of the leadership...that was one of the reasons I never bit one of their baited hooks and got sucked in...but I am always amazed...and can't help but wonder how so many others do not see this?
Mar 26 09 8:24 AM
RobWood wrote: Now, before you declare how impervious you would be to all of this obvious chicanery, consider that in the midst of this "in-rushing of the Holy Spirit," you have people apparently getting instantly and miraculously healed of physical ailments, depressed and despondent people suddenly laughing and crying with emotional release, the "voice of God" speaking through believers in the form of lamentations or exhortations or prophecies, and a general feeling of ecstasy flowing through the crowd and - whether you want it to or not - through you, as well. The experience can be so overwhelming that it - temporarily at least - overrides the cognitive center of the brain, and unleashes pent-up emotions that all human beings have.
Mar 26 09 9:10 AM
Posts: 304
Mar 26 09 12:43 PM
Mar 26 09 2:13 PM
RobWood wrote: It doesn't matter if you intellectually knew it wasn't real. Emotions can be much more powerful than mere thought. I believe that, under the right circumstances, virtually anyone can be sucked into Pentecostalism. I don't care how much education a person has, how sophisticated he or she may be, or how high the IQ - wear them down emotionally or physically through a series of negative events in their lives, separate them from the people, places and things that they love, mix in a liberal dosage of unrelieved pain - either physical, emotional of both - and you have a prime candidate for a Pentecostal or Charismatic emotional catharsis. That event can feel like a cold mountain stream on the parched lips of someone dying in the desert, and like all such pivotal moments, can start someone on a journey that may take years to complete.
Mar 27 09 3:59 PM
holly wrote: not always - i was brought up in it as a child and i honestly believed that was the truth cos thats what i was taught, long after i wished it wasnt i believed it. I dont think i had any choice over it.
Mar 27 09 4:20 PM
Mar 27 09 4:38 PM
Mar 28 09 5:56 AM
Mar 28 09 8:02 AM
blackdog wrote: RobWood wrote: It doesn't matter if you intellectually knew it wasn't real. Emotions can be much more powerful than mere thought. I believe that, under the right circumstances, virtually anyone can be sucked into Pentecostalism. I don't care how much education a person has, how sophisticated he or she may be, or how high the IQ - wear them down emotionally or physically through a series of negative events in their lives, separate them from the people, places and things that they love, mix in a liberal dosage of unrelieved pain - either physical, emotional of both - and you have a prime candidate for a Pentecostal or Charismatic emotional catharsis. That event can feel like a cold mountain stream on the parched lips of someone dying in the desert, and like all such pivotal moments, can start someone on a journey that may take years to complete. Ya know, looking back it does seem like my ex took particular pains at the time to try to isolate me from family and friends, and she seemed to make a point of manipulating me as much as she could get away with and especially, making my life hell when she didn't get what she wanted...so it would seem that there is definitely something to your theory. Unfortunately, the journey that I got started on then is far from complete.
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