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The radio preacher I mentioned is as close to this as I actually got in real life, that and televangelists which are usually more in the direction of the Prosperity Gospel and healings and such -- but in my mind both are of a kind, they simply direct their emotional manipulations to different ends. The hellfire-and-brimstone types terrify people into joining / compliance and get off on the control aspect, the prosperity / healing types hold out false hope to get people to send in money and get off on the resulting wealth. Both are emotional manipulators.
Your run-of-the-mill fundamentalist pastor is usually more well-meaning and less whacky, at least in my experience in the upper midwest. My problem with them is less the overt hucksterism and more about empty promises and setting of unrealistic expectations and promotion of magical thinking that ill serves people in real life.
My neighbor asked me to check out his church. He has been bugging me to go for months. I wonder what I am going to see, surely not the hellfire types or even the healing types, not sure about the fundamentalist. I will keep these things in mind.
My guess is that it's because today's generation is the most sinful and morally bankrupt who has ever lived
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of
exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict
their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize
their teachers.” ~ Socrates, 469BC - 399BC
The point being, this generation is no worse than previous ones. I think it's just habit (tradition?)
that the older generation criticizes the newcomers for what they perceive as being morally worse-
off.
Quote:
If a church criticized sinners the seats would be empty. There is a much larger audience for "Jesus died for your sins" and leaving it at that saying nothing to discourage further sin.
Or, churches are slowly coming around to realizing that the concept of hell isn't necessarily biblical.
Besides, if the only motivation for right behavior is the threat of eternal hellfire, what does that say
about the person (not to mention the religion preaching it)? Shouldn't Jesus be enough, if what he
allegedly did had any actual impact on things?
Besides, if the only motivation for right behavior is the threat of eternal hellfire, what does that say
about the person (not to mention the religion preaching it)? Shouldn't Jesus be enough, if what he
allegedly did had any actual impact on things?
That is the argument against free will right there..... If God truly had given free will, he would not have thretened to burn us forever in eternal hell if we didn't do things a certain way.
So it's deliberately-contrived form of speaking that's supposed to make the people in the pews believe the guy speaking is under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit when in reality he's just tacking this suffix -ah onto the tail-end of every word to put emphasis on his sermon? Got it.
And Christians wonder why normal people are so skeptical about religion these days.
I think the reason why these preachers yell and -ah their messages is because of peer pressure. The minister is supposed to be excited about what he's preaching and soft toned preachers are liberal. People then stand up and shout and applaud when the preacher gets excited because of peer pressure of everyone around them seeing them as sitting out the preacher if they don't stand up during the exciting times. A amen-ing and applauding audience brings about more fervent preaching. So, you have a positive feedback loop.
I think the reason why these preachers yell and -ah their messages is because of peer pressure. The minister is supposed to be excited about what he's preaching and soft toned preachers are liberal. People then stand up and shout and applaud when the preacher gets excited because of peer pressure of everyone around them seeing them as sitting out the preacher if they don't stand up during the exciting times. A amen-ing and applauding audience brings about more fervent preaching. So, you have a positive feedback loop.
Which sort of reinforces my theory that 99.9999% of Christians get their theology from their local church pastor rather than the Bible. The average Christian reads "saved by faith" and then "saved by faith plus works" and you can just hear the wheels in their head grinding to a halt and see the smoke start to whiff out of their ears. It's no accident that the most common book in the American household, the Bible, is also the one most caked with an inch-thick layer of dust.
You KNOW, The Holy Roman Catholic Church all those other so called Christian churches are fake and all those that follow them are going to Hell too.
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. People then stand up and shout and applaud when the preacher gets excited because of peer pressure of everyone around them seeing them as sitting out the preacher if they don't stand up during the exciting times. A amen-ing and applauding audience brings about more fervent preaching. So, you have a positive feedback loop.
