Last night, flipping through the channels, I stopped on several different Christian stations and was mesmerized by the bizarre and weird behavior that I witnessed. I could not stop watching and spent approximately two or more hours flipping from one show to another. I was nothing short of embarrassed for not only those folks that I witnessed, but for myself. I was embarrassed for myself because as a Christian, the non-Christians that do not understand Christianity will lump me, and sometimes do lump me, with that wacky brand of Christianity.
I grew up in a different religious background and my only view of Christianity was what I saw on television. What I saw on television was, in my mind, a representation of Christianity. I am not an anomaly; others that are not followers of Christ will acquire their views of what is mostly portrayed on television. The media is a powerful tool and society is influenced by what is portrayed on television whether it’s Christianity or otherwise. What I viewed on television last night dominates the airwaves in Christian broadcasting.
Flipping through different channels last night, I watched people work themselves up into a frenzy that resulted in people flapping their arms like chickens before falling back and laying on the ground. They call this ‘slain in the spirit.’ There were so many bodies on the ground that people had to step over the bodies to get around. I watched two women doing an activity that looked like the ‘paticake’ game I played as a little girl, while one woman had tears streaming down her face as she did the ‘paticake’ activity and she eventually also fell backward while someone caught her and she too became one of the bodies that lay on the ground. I witnessed one pastor from a church in another state that was visiting who was praising the ministry. He worked himself up, growing louder and louder in his speech, and he too fell back and lay on the ground. I watched people jump up and down, on and on, as if they were jumping rope. They had people employed as ‘catchers’ and their job was to go around and catch people as they fell backward.
On another station, I watched a one of the women beseeching her viewers to mail in toys for children around the world. To be sure, this is a worthy and commendable cause. Yet, the manner in which she implored her audience was discomforting. With tears streaming down her face, she spoke of how a child’s face became angelic when handed a toy doll while the child pointed toward heaven. I could only watch for a short period of time before flipping to another station. I could not stomach much more.
Recently, I watched a U-Tube short video of a Christian service. The pastor did not have a message to preach while he stood at the podium. He simply stood there and laughed so the others in the congregation laughed. Pretty soon, everyone was hysterically laughing and again, this hysterical laughing caused people to faint and bodies were strewn about the floor while the laughter continued. The pastor did not teach from the bible, he simply stood at the podium, holding the microphone and laughed. They call this holy laughter.
There was much that I witnessed last night and I only share a small amount of the bizarre behavior that I saw. Suffice it to say, not one of those peculiar manifestations can be found in the bible. These wacky exhibitions did not appear on the scene until the late 1800’s.
What I witnessed is not Christianity. It is not a ‘manifestation of the spirit.” It is not of God. Absolutely nowhere in the bible can this behavior be found, it simply is not anywhere in the bible. God does not cause people to act like lunatics and call it worship. It was nothing short of an embarrassing spectacle and sadly people believe God is causing them to behave so foolishly.
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