Blogaround

1. The Difference Between Mental Illness and Demonic Possession (February 1) "Yes—in the early 1990s, I think I participated in group exorcisms where the subjects were mentally ill, and not demon-possessed at all. And I wonder if I did more harm than good." An article about how to tell the difference. Personally, I believe demons probably do exist, but I don't think I believe any anecdotes I've heard from actual people about their actual experiences encountering an actual demon. Just seems so incredibly unlikely that a person would actually encounter one and also be able to figure out that's what it was.

2. Perspective: What pictures of abortions can and can’t do (February 6) This is a good article about the topic of what a fetus looks like- from the pregnancy apps happily declaring "your baby is the size of a blueberry!", to the abortion activists showing photos of fetuses after they have been damaged by the abortion process, to the women who had miscarriages and want to find the body and lovingly bury it. 

Personally, I don't like how images are used by both the "pro-life" and pro-choice sides, to either say "this is totally a baby!" or "this is just a meaningless clump of cells" because both of those are inaccurate and are trying to manipulate the images to support their argument, rather than trying to actually get at the truth of what a fetus looks like.

And I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that the physical appearance of the fetus should have any place in arguments on the legality of abortion. I think pregnant people should have accurate information- no hiding the fact that it does have tiny baby features, but also being realistic about when these things develop during pregnancy (the first trimester is completely different from the third trimester)- and then make their own decisions.

3. The Ant and the Universe (February 4) "The rubber band starts out one meter long, and stretches out one meter per second. This is one of those magical math rubber bands that can stretch indefinitely."

4. Stop praising Pastor Andy Stanley for pretending to love gay people (January 25) WELL-SAID.

I posted the link Andy Stanley's comments a few weeks ago (about how gay Christians who attend church are very committed to the church, and the church is lucky to have them, and straight Christians should learn from them). He's right, and it's something that conservative Christians need to hear- but don't take it to mean Stanley is queer-affirming or anything like that. It's quite possible he's just on the nicer end of "hate the sin, love the sinner."

Queer Christians know all about Christians who say very nice things about queer people but when it comes right down to it, you eventually figure out they don't support queer rights at all.

5. Enhanced clobber-texting methods (February 7) "A clobber text permitting torture would have been trumpeted by the advocates of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' as the definitive biblical word settling the matter beyond dispute, but a clobber text prohibiting the practice would have been relegated to endless exegetical dissection."

The Slacktivist has it exactly right. It's not just the clobber text itself- a bible verse that clearly says "don't do X", where X is whatever culture war issue is being debated. It's the whole culture around how to read the bible, how some verses are treated as more important than others because, uh, because, well, because... because... well, it's just obvious, and anyone who brings up a bible verse that says differently is "twisting Scripture."

6. Grace Community Church Rejected Elder’s Calls to ‘Do Justice’ in Abuse Case (February 9) [content note: domestic violence, coverup, spiritual abuse] "'They sided with a child abuser, who turned out to be a child molester, over a mother desperately trying to protect her three innocent young children. And that was and is flatly wrong, and needs to be made right,' Cho said to CT. 'Numerous elders have admitted in various private conversations that ‘mistakes were made’ and that they would make a different decision today knowing what they know now. But those admissions mean you need to make it right with the person you wronged; that is utterly basic Christianity.'"

7. Revival comes, again, to Asbury University (February 11) and Asbury Professor: We’re Witnessing a ‘Surprising Work of God’ (February 13) So... the story here is that Asbury University (a Christian university in Kentucky) had a chapel service last Wednesday, and people continued to stay there and sing worship songs and make public confessions and so on, for days... this chapel service is continuing for days (I am not sure if it's still going now or not- didn't find an article that said it ended...)

And yeah people are saying it's "revival" and "God is working" and all that.

So, uh, my thoughts on this:

My first question was, what sort of Christian denomination are we talking about here? What's the background? Is it in any way associated with Pentecostal/charismatic churches? Because, Pentecostal/charismatic churches are really into this kind of thing, they expect it to happen, they know how to set up their church service in such a way that influences people's emotions to make people think "God is working" and all that. So if this is somehow related to Christians who have a Pentecostal/charismatic background, I am not very impressed. But if these are Christians who come from the sort of church background where the worship services are fairly tame and they haven't experienced anything like this at all, well, now that's something. Then it's significant.

Apparently they are non-denominational or maybe associated with Methodists. So, yeah, not Pentecostal/charismatic. Okay, well then, that's unexpected- that makes me more curious about what's going on here.

Basically, I believe that it is totally possible that God does things that affect our physical reality. But, I am extremely skeptical of any actual account of any actual such events. (Oh lol this is kind of the same as what I said about link #1.) 

But hey, maybe this really is God, just deciding for some reason to be affectionate with people in this one particular place and time. 

But, uh, also a lot of it is people spreading the news "there's a revival happening" and then other Christians drive in from other places to see it and participate- so, it perpetuates itself.

I am also very skeptical about the way that people are interpreting this. Like, calling it a "revival." To me it seems more like, a bunch of people having a positive emotional/ spiritual experience- okay, but it doesn't really go any farther than that...? 

I mean, the only really long-term effect I can think of is like... maybe if you're there and you experience it, that feels like strong evidence that God exists and God can be experienced, and that would be something you remember in the future if you're considering the question of God existing/ what religion you are or are not going to identify with. (Oh lol, I just realized the Christianese term I'm looking for here is "it strengthens their faith" wow I'm really out of practice.) Uh, I hesitate about how to word this because I know I have readers who are atheists- basically, I think it's valid to dismiss other people's personal spiritual experiences as evidence for God and/or for a specific religion (because so many people have all kinds of different contradictory spiritual experiences)- but if it's your own spiritual experience, that's different.

When Christians see things like this and say "God is working," I think one of the main things they mean by "working" is "God is going to convince people to convert to Christianity." Which... I mean, that's just an interpretation. Just because a lot of Christians are having an emotional experience singing worship songs... like what does that have anything to do with non-Christians converting to Christianity? It's totally not connected- but in a certain type of Christian ideology, God being present and powerful means that God is going to convince non-Christians to believe in Jesus. In that ideology, it's connected.

One of my concerns is that when people have a spiritual experience like this, it confirms whatever religious ideology they already believe in. Who knows, maybe God is like "I choose, for my own ~mysterious reasons~ to create a spiritual experience for these people, even though they have a lot of very incorrect beliefs about me" (and really, doesn't everyone have a bunch of incorrect beliefs about God? They are beyond our understanding, that's kind of Their thing...) and then people take it to mean "oh, it really is true! All the beliefs I have about God really are true!" That's kind of a jump in logic (jump from "the spiritual world exists" to "God wants people to become Christians"- yeah, it doesn't follow).

And then I saw this tweet, which makes a good point:

I'm confused by the excitement re: the #AsburyRevival. It's a multi-day emotional rollercoaster with lots of singing. That's all.

"Revival" is happening when people start doing Isaiah 58:6-9 & Micah 6:8. Period.

Why wait for "revival" to get off your ass and do something? Go!

— Nick Laparra (@NickLaparra) February 13, 2023

YES! I think it's a little weird putting so much emphasis on emotional experiences... (Hence my side-eye towards the Pentecostal movement...) Like, I believe God is with us ALL THE TIME. And we already know what They want us to do: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly before God. You don't need a "spiritual experience." Go do it.