Chapter # 6 Honest Criticism of Christianity
Billy Rojas
Chapter # 6
Honest Criticism of Christianity
The Reality of Pentecostalism
What does Pentecostalism look like in reality? How do people experience Pentecostal religion?
Not exactly a timely book review, but I finally read a 1995 opus by Harvey Cox,
Fire From Heaven, his detailed study of Pentecostal religion. Any number of matters
in the book are dated now, but most of the text, as far as I can tell, remains
as relevant as ever. The publication is an education unto itself.
Rather than discuss the book chapter-by-chapter, comments here explore various themes,
sometimes drawing on other studies that shed light on what Cox said. Then there is
focus on my personal spiritual journey in life in stark contrast to Pentecostal religion.
Yet to say anything at all I have a problem to resolve that is similar to that faced by Cox
when he set out to write his chapters in criticism of Pentecostalism.
The book sometimes reads like a tribute to Pentecostalism; clearly Cox was impressed
by the many Pentecostal people he met during a period of several years, and he was
far more than a passive observer when he did his in-person research. Fire From Heaven
contributed much to what has been called "Pentecostal chic," it is that favorably disposed.
And if you have any real life experience with Pentecostals there can be times when
Cox's attitude is very easy to understand; at least now and then you may have
the same attitude -even if it doesn't last because of the serious liabilities
that are built into Pentecostalism which have been there from the beginning.
Regardless, Pentecostalism is the "real deal" as far as hard core 'living Christianity'
is concerned. It demands attention.
To make this clear, an anecdote might be helpful. This is from an Atheist website.
It seems that a young woman Atheist had decided that it would be a good thing
to attend church -for several reasons, among them to have a real-life sense of knowing
what she was talking about.. But which church? There are so many to choose from.
At which the woman said:
"I picked a Pentecostal church because television told me everyone there speaks in tongues
Whatever "turns you on," I guess. And for many people the emotional approach
to religion of the Pentecostals is exactly what inspires them.
Cox's problem was that he liked most of the people he met in the years when he
was researching Pentecostalism, some he admired considerably. But he needed to
spell out his criticisms, some of which could only be devastating to Pentecostals,
while at the same time he had no interest in insulting anyone, in over-generalizing
when he knew perfectly well that there are many kinds of Pentecostals, in making
unfair statements that failed to take into account Pentecostal strengths, or in
any way that distorted his true feelings.
The book concludes with Harvey Cox visiting a Pentecostal mission in the Grove Hall
area in Dorchester, a neighborhood within Boston that is noted for high crime rates
and violence in the streets, among other things. That is, there were similarities to
the Azusa Street venue where the original Pentecostal movement was born in 1906.
It was to Grove Hall that a group of dedicated young black professionals decided
they should turn so that they could try and re-start Pentecostalism in its original form
and return to its true mission once again. These young men had forsaken high paying
professional careers, maybe just for a few years but certainly for a few years, so that
they could best reach the people who needed it the most. Hence the start of
what they called the "Azusa Christian Community."
"Here were people," said Cox, "who had chosen to be actual witnesses to the kind of
community their Pentecostal ancestors foresaw." Clearly Cox was impressed by the
sacrifices the young people were making, and impressed at how they helped one another.
He also was impressed by their willingness to seek support from people in the Boston
squirearchy, the high tech upper crust mostly, and who recruited others from that
elite group to help out, but who never compromised their basic principles in
the process. What more can anyone ask?
We can set aside one especially glaring inconsistency: Pentecostals are not reluctant to
ask for help from 'the pagan world,' as did the group in Boston when they asked for
support from the high tech community, as much a population of non-Christians as
can be found anywhere in the US, a percentage of whom practice other religions
like Buddhism and various New Age persuasions. But when things are reversed,
when a non-believer, a non-Pentecostal, asks for help from a Pentecostal, the answer,
when there even is an answer, is "no way." In effect: "You are not a true Christian,
and you cannot possibly think I would help a heretic like you." That is, there is
world class hypocrisy that is built into Pentecostalism and it cannot be overlooked.
But let us gloss over this issue. This leavers us with any number of positive
qualities among Pentecostals and Cox certainly was not about to forget these things,
indeed, he reflected on them repeatedly, and warmly.
But in the last scene in the book, after a lengthy Pentecostal worship service, we find
Cox walking away. There is no explanation beyond the excuse that the meeting had
gone on quite long and he needed to be elsewhere, but you can get a very different
impression with no trouble at all. Despite the many good things that can be said about
Pentecostals the shortcomings of Pentecostal religion are so great that there
is no possibility of going further with it. In effect, Pentecostalism is
a titanic mistake.
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My feelings are very similar.
Of course, in part thanks to the book, I know that in some places Pentecostalism
is the best available alternative for real-life people to turn to. Recent ca. 2017
statistics tell us that there now are about 225 million Pentecostals in
Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. That exceeds even the Catholic Church
on the continent with its 200 million members there. In many areas
Pentecostalism is the one viable alternative to Islam. A choice between
Pentecostalism and Muslim religion, in my humble opinion, is no choice
at all. Pentecostal religion is superior up and down the line. And in some
countries, like Nigeria, Pentecostals have been able to create their own
more-or-less utopian communities where Christian norms of behavior prevail
and where economic success is a real prospect for many.
You can say something similar for Pentecostalism in Latin America or South Asia.
When you look into things it is no wonder that Pentecostal Christianity is growing
like crazy throughout the global south. And there are smaller outliers like Italy
where a new form of Christianity per se is being created. At least according to Cox,
in Sicily the Pentecostals are developing a form of Christian faith which regards
the Holy Spirit as female.
This makes sense, of course. From the outset,way back in 1906, in addition to
Pentecostalism being racially integrated, it was wide open to women leadership
in the church. America's first woman religious celebrity, Aimee Semple McPherson,
was an early Pentecostal who went on to organize her own denomination,
the Foursquare Gospel Church. Although a good number of Pentecostals
abandoned racial integration, and some came to regard women as ineligible
for any kind of official post in any of their churches, there still is the
example of the Azusa Pentecostals to keep in mind and who deserve respect
for what they did, decades ahead of their time.
At any rate, women in religious leadership is not too far removed from conceiving
of the divine as female. This need not happen, but it can.
There also are Pentecostal friends of mine for whom I am am very grateful, like
a lady friend whom I have sometimes referred to as Evangeline. What a wonderful
woman who has lived her life doing everything she could do, to be as faithful to
the teachings and example of Christ as is humanly possible. Maybe I could have
survived on my own anyway, but in the months after my foot surgery in 2016,
then the next two years with various medical appointments, Evangeline was there to
offer whatever help she could, to make my life more bearable. How could
I ever forget her kindness and the considerable time she spent to get me
through a number of difficulties? My gratitude could not be greater.
No-one can possibly tell me that Pentecostalism is some sort of deranged cult
that does nothing but produce misery. Sometimes it is a Godsend.
However, the problems with Pentecostalism are many and some are so severe
that it is difficult in the extreme to see how this religious movement as it exists
in America anyway, can possibly survive. There currently are approximately
30 million Pentecostals in the United States and it sometimes seems as if
every one of them is enmeshed in some kind of scandal. The most popular
are sex scandals, followed by money scandals, etc., including, among
Pentecostals who venture into politics, severe cases of head-on-backwards disease
wherein candidates for office say outrageous things that reveal to the world
how hopelessly uninformed they really are.
But to stick to the best known scandals, let me refer you to an article published
at The Way of Life website for February 11, 2016. David Cloud's essay is entitled
This review of the sordid facts tells us that a good number of Pentecostal imbroglios
since the 1990s have garnered headlines around the country. But the article
is not so much salacious gossip mongering; Cloud wrote with pathos since
he is sympathetic to the overall Pentecostal cause. Some quotes:
by moral scandals and deception, and nothing has changed.
"
"Scandals can be found in any group of Christians, sadly, but scandals
among Pentecostals and charismatics are significant because they claim
a special anointing of God’s Spirit. They claim double blessings
and triple anointings and super Spirit baptisms..."
"I know from personal experience that not all Pentecostals or charismatics
live scandalous lives. I was led to Christ in 1973 by an old-line Pentecostal
who was a godly man, and I thank the Lord for the compassion he showed..."
"At the same time, from its inception at the turn of the 20th century,
the Pentecostal movement has been absolutely rife with moral and doctrinal
scandals and ridiculous claims among its prominent leaders."
Some "for instances" of what is involved, also quotes from this valuable article:
"William Branham, the most famous Pentecostal healing evangelist,
proclaimed himself the angel of Revelation 3:14 and 10:7 and the Elijah
of Malachi 4, denied eternal hellfire, and renounced the Trinity. He prophesied
that the end of the world would occur in 1977. After being pronounced healed
by Branham during a Canadian healing crusade in the 1940s, many people died."
"Famous healing evangelist A.A. Allen was arrested for drunk driving during
a healing revival in 1955 and then fled bail and refused to face his crime.
He divorced his longsuffering wife in 1967. Three years later he died alone
in a cheap motel in San Francisco while his team was conducting a healing crusade
in West Virginia. He was 59 years old, and he had destroyed his liver
with his drunkenness."
"Kathryn Kuhlman, one of the most famous of the female Pentecostal evangelists,
became romantically involved with Burroughs Waltrip, a married evangelist
who eventually abandoned his wife and two children to wed Kuhlman..."
Others on the list include:
Oral Roberts, famous for his conversation with a 900 foot tall Jesus who assured him
that is kosher to use every trick in the book to squeeze money from his followers.
Jim Bakker of PTL, Praise the Lord, but dubbed "Pay the Lady" by insiders after bribing
his church secretary, Jessica Hahan, to keep quiet about being seduced by ol' Jim. As the
article added, Bakker's wife, the over-the-top 'stylish' Tammy Faye, co-host of
the PTL Club, "divorced Jim while he was in prison and married Roe Messner,
an old family friend..." About Tammy Faye, someone who never had read the
Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Romans nor the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew,
she established a ministry of her own which was supportive of sodomites. "She appeared
at 'gay pride' events nationwide, including a Tammy Faye look-alike contest in
Washington, DC, [in 2002] where she was surrounded by men in falsies and
pancake makeup."
Jim Swaggart is most remembered today for (1) his pulpit denunciations of consorting
with prostitutes and (2) for his insatiable consorting with prostitutes.
Peter Popoff was the evangelist who could read minds as well as perform healing miracles.
The trick was that his wife, who collected the information when interviewing participants
off camera, would then broadcast personal information about these people to Peter which he
heard by means of a concealed hearing device. As for the miracles, none were ever verified.
Robert Tilton had become a wildly popular Pentecostal preacher with an empire worth
about $80 million per year. He lavished most of this money not on the poor and
unfortunate (who only received a pittance), but on himself in the form of a private yacht,
a deluxe condo in Florida, and an 11,000 square foot mansion in Texas
Bob Jones of Vineyard Ministries, was once well known for his preachings about
moral values. That was his day job. At other times he was busy telling (willing)
women who saw him in his office that the way to heaven was to take off
all their clothes so he could get a good look.
Earl Paulk was another Pentecostal superstar who, it seems, could not resist
seducing well endowed teen girls. Not that I personally get all that worked up about this,
but just sayin'....
And there are many more. The article discusses the peccadilloes of Jamie Buckingham,
Clarence McClendon, Roberts Liardon, Douglas Goodman, Todd Bentley. David
Yonggi Cho of South Korea, etc, and Benny Hinn. About Hinn, although questions
still remain, it seems as if he had an affair with Paula White. Or at least sure
gave the impression of having had an affair with her.
But some scandals were utterly reprehensible
There have been several Pentecostal preachers especially known for their criticisms
of homosexuality but who, anon, turned out to have had homosexual relationships.
These include Ted Haggard, Paul Cain, Paul Crouch, Eddie Long, and Richard Roberts,
a bisexual who had encounters not only with underage girls but underage boys as well.
Richard, of Bob Jones University, also embezzled millions of dollars
which he used to support his extravagant lifestyle.
A special prize goes to a husband and wife team, Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks III,
both of whom had various extramarital affairs, with Juanita also being bisexual
and seducing a number of female Pentecostal evangelists...
Another "power couple," Randy and Paula White, weren't quite as bad, just some
garden variety adultery by each of them, plus maybe skimming from the collection plate
to finance upscale homes, he in Malibu, she in San Antonio, but what is most notable
is that Paula also maintained a condo in Trump Tower in New York City.
Never a dull moment with those Pentecostals, it seems....
So, there's that.
It must be said, of course, that Pentecostals weren't too happy about these scandals
and as a rule the offenders were permanently disgraced. But one of this unsavory number,
Jim Bakker, managed to recover somewhat, and after his release from jail was able
to restart his ministerial career. He even has a new TV show of his own and
in December of 2015 went on public record as agreeing with the prediction
of Tom Horn that the Antichrist would appear in 2016. As a guess he was
referring to the forthcoming election, and if that was the case, then you know
the Pentecostals may be on to something....
Actually, the Antichrist was and is William Clinton, Satan's ambassador was and is
Barrack Obama, but Trump belongs in this crowd somewhere....
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Cox's book isn't the only way to describe Pentecostalism but it has the virtue
of being fairly comprehensive, and he is a skilled writer who explains things
with refreshing clarity. Some repetition of what has already been said
is unavoidable in order to do justice to Cox's book.
There are relatively few things to remember:
1. "...it is a serious mistake to equate Pentecostals with fundamentalists." (p. 15)
As a matter of fact, often enough the fundamentalists, so-called, are at the throats
of the Pentecostals. Why? Because such believers, most of whom are Baptists
of one kind or another, regard the Bible as sacrosanct, every word in the tome
inspired by God-on-High, based on true doctrine, without error. Actually what
Baptists and others say is that this is true for the original documents, which
happen to be lost to history, thus the copies made at some later date may or may not
be 100% accurate, but it is believed that there are few copyists mistakes or any
other blemishes and that available translations come quite close. Meanwhile the
Pentecostals, while they may revere the Bible, have a"looser" view of the book.
Besides, for them the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the hearts of Pentecostals
and, therefore, we get what amount to new revelations which have authority
that can be just about as important as the Bible. The fundamentalists are horrified
at this and verbally attack the Pentecostals at every opportunity,
2. Like many Baptists, however, Pentecostals regard theirs as a religion of the heart, (p 12)
and, accordingly, make considerable use of what may be called "narrative theology" (p 13).
That is, much is made of individual "testimonies," stories about how someone found Christ,
how he or she had to -metaphorically- wander in the wilderness for a time to learn the truth,
or needed to see things in a new way and obtained the needed fresh perspective by enduring
an illness, and so forth. Hence, when Baptists are not at the throats of Pentecostals
they may attend religious revivals along side them, their true brothers and sisters in Christ
-at least for the occasion.
3. Pentecostalism is a "physical religion" (p 11) which features all kinds of bodily movement
such as arms in the air to supplicate the Holy Spirit, such as lively dancing, especially among
Latino believers or African-descended believers, such as being taken over by the Spirit and
falling down, such as crying a lot, or laughing, and, of course, speaking in tongues. There is
also an "in your face" style of evangelizing that is omnipresent whenever a Pentecostal
talks to a non-Pentecostal about religion. Baptists (except some Latinos and African-Americans)
do not do these things, which they regard as excesses. Except that once in a while you may
find a Baptist preacher or evangelist who is in your face as much as any Pentecostal ever is.
But not, or hardly ever, members of the American Baptist Church denomination, which is,
take your pick, as far to the Right as any mainline denomination can get, or as far to the Left
as any fundamentalists ever get.
4. Many Pentecostals, but not all, follow what is called "later rain" theology (p 47).
This refers to a passage in the Old Testament book of Joel about how God had once
provided a shower of blessings -interpreted to mean the first pentecost as described in
the New Testament Book of Acts- but that at the approach of Christ's second coming
there would be a torrent of blessings, hence today's millions of Pentecostals speaking
in tongues is taken to mean the latter rain of Joel has begun and the millennium
is just around the corner. Which is also to say that in its origins in the early 20th century
Pentecostalism was strongly millennarian. Pentecostals may still be millennarian
but this is less and less true, at least in the United States, as churches adjust to
the need to prepare for the long haul since, it seems increasingly obvious,
Jesus is probably not going to arrive as soon as everyone would like.
Most millennarian Pentecostals are "pre-mils," as they are known, not "post-mils."
You will need to memorize the difference for the mid terms if you ever take
my class in History of Religions in America, so, pay attention:
A pre-mil is someone who thinks that Jesus will return at his discretion and there is
absolutely nothing anyone can do to hasten the millennium. Only after Christ's return
will the Kingdom of Heaven be established on Earth.
A post-mil is someone who thinks that it is our responsibility as Christians
to do everything possible to try and build the Kingdom in the here-and-now.
Admittedly this does not compel Jesus to return except as he sees fit,
but he expects us to try and to work toward this objective. "Pre" refers to
Christ preceding the Kingdom, "post" refers to a partly constructed Kingdom
that Jesus will return to, hence, in effect, his return comes after (post)
the foundation of the Kingdom. If you want to get on my good side in
class just remember that I am a post-mil. I point this out because
by Master's Thesis was all about the pre-mil Millerites of the 1840s
who eventually morphed into the Adventists.
The "mil" suffix refers to the millennium as discussed in the Book of Revelation
in the Bible, the 1,000 years the Kingdom will reign over our planet. But for all
we know, "thousand years" may actually mean 1,000 centuries or 1,000 epochs.
A really, really long time, in other words.
Its not that hard to keep all of this in mind if you make a sincere effort. :-)
5. Pentecostals emerged from the Holiness movement among Protestants
which reached its apogee sometime toward the end of the 19th century.
That is, it takes the intense devotionalism of the Holiness people one step
further. Hence, like the Holiness churches of yore that were mostly Methodist
in inspiration, Pentecostals are pietists. But take this to mean extreme devotionalists
not, as many encyclopedias define the word pietism, a movement among 17th century
Lutherans based on lots of prayer and worship, etc, taken to extremes, exactly
what Martin Luther rejected when he set out to eventually become a religious reformer.
In any case, the original pietists influenced the Wesleys who, in turn, passed
along the idea to others who created the Holiness movement, who then served
as a major part of the inspiration for Pentecostalism.
Don't be discouraged by all of these facts, they become second nature after
you have studied history of religion for a few decades.
6. Pentecostals are not all that difficult to categorize when the issue is non-Christian religion.
Most are adamantly antagonistic toward the truth claims of non-Christian faiths. But there
are some exceptions. On page 91 Cox takes the view that glossolalia is directly related
to similar phenomena that are found within other religions, everything from Shamanism
to some forms of Hinduism. And, given the flexibility that Pentecostals have because
their faith is experiential, not doctrinal, at least some individual Pentecostals have
concluded that it would be a good idea, albeit guardedly, to learn whatever may be
possible from other faiths. After all, this is America and the nation is home to
significant numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, New Age believers of various stripes,
and so forth, including Sufis, Sikhs, Confucians, Baha'is, Taoists, Jains Shintoists, etc,,
even a small number of Zoroastrians. And, needless to say, Jews are integral
to American culture. You simply can't ignore all of this.
But most Pentecostals have a different view of other faiths, namely, that they are all
wrong, false, misleading, and potentially dangerous. They especially don't like
witchcraft or anything that can be construed as witchcraft, which they regard as diabolical.
This negative attitude toward witchcraft and toward other religions is derived from
the Bible verse, "be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers."
However, almost as much venom may be directed against established 'liberal' churches
or Catholics. And, while Cox did not make the connection, this may have something
to do with a delayed reaction to the World Parliament of Religions of 1893 inasmuch
as from that time forward representatives of many foreign religions began to proselytize
for their -to Americans- exotic faiths.
This is also different than the fundamentalist view of things. Many Baptists were agitated
over Darwinism, the new Biblical scholarship, the Social Gospel (even though its chief'
theologian, Walter Rauschenbusch, was a Baptist), and anything else that was radically
"modern." The early Pentecostals were overwhelmingly poorly educated and simply
had little or no knowledge of such things even if they did have awareness of colorful
and highly visible religious imports -the kind of people that were all too easy to see
in the streets of 1906 Los Angeles.
Indeed, although Cox is pretty much silent about it, some Pentecostals are even suspicious
of the Apostle Paul and are involved in the so-called Jesusist movement. This is also
called Jesuanism, or Jesuism, sometimes Jesus Christianity. What this is all about is intense
focus on Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount. For such believers you can almost say
that all of the Bible reduces to the Beatitudes and nothing else really matters all that much.
Hence you get a 100% "meek and mild" Jesus -and forget about his physically throwing
the money changers out of the Temple, forget about his socializing with sinners
including prostitutes, forget about his condemning sodomites to Hell, forget about
his telling the disciples to sell their cloaks to buy swords, forget about the secrecy
involved in his parables, hence an esoteric dimension of Christian faith, forget about
the levels of meaning that can be extracted from the story of the woman at the well,
indeed, forget most of what the Gospels say.
Speaking personally, I find this outlook completely unjustifiable,. It is also, by any
kind of Christian orthodox standards, heretical. The crux of the matter is that orthodoxy
(lower case) insists that all of the Bible is sacred scripture, not just one part of it,
and this includes the Old Testament inasmuch as the Hebrew Bible (the OT, or Tanach)
was "the Bible" to Jesus and his first followers. There was no "New Testament" until
some point in the second century AD, and even then there were questions about
the Book of Revelation, which some believers excluded from the canon, and about
texts like the Shepherd of Hermas, which some believers included in the canon.
But, ever since there has been a New Testament, it has been a truism for normative
Christians everywhere that true doctrine can only be found when you take into
consideration the entire Bible, all of its books, not just selected writings.
Not that heresy is necessarily a bad thing, Tyndale was judged a heretic for
translating the Bible into English, which we now regard as a very good thing.
Luther was a heretic and he gave us enlightened Protestantism. Galileo had
the status of a heretic. And so forth. But in this case it is as objectively bad
as anything can get. At least some forms of Pentecostalism, and possibly
most forms, are examples of extreme reductionism, in effect throwing out
large parts of the Bible for reasons of doctrine even when the published book
remains intact on a believer's night stand. But on top of this Pentecostalism is,
as many people think, essentially a neurotic expression of faith, basically faith
as an unhealthy obsession, something that is alien to the "whole person"
spirit of the New Testament.
It is pietism on steroids.
Most Pentecostals are not Jesusists but there is something of this tendency everywhere
in the movement. And, to understate the case, someone with a Jesusist outlook
who comes on strong to someone who is normal, may well find the experience repulsive.
Not because Jesus is repulsive, the opposite is the case, but because, so it can be perceived,
the person doing the Jesus-ist proselytizing isn't mentally well. You are being asked
to buy into someone else's obsessional neurosis. And who needs that? This is one way
that, while they may not begin to fathom why, Pentecostals alienate others.
7. Pentecostalism has been called the religion of the poor, and there is truth to this
characterization. But mostly this refers to the urban poor, not so much the rural poor
(who, if they are religious, generally are Baptists of one variety or another), and
it should be noted that maybe half of America's 30 million Pentecostals
are now middle class. By one count, 13% are affluent.
This presents some difficulty for Pentecostals because their official theology has it that
believers should eschew worldly things, should not live for money, and should not be
the least materialistic.
One way out of the dilemma is to flip the concept on its head and claim that the whole
purpose of sacrifice is to allow one to become rich. Hence the so-called "Prosperity Gospel,"
which says that God / Jesus / the Holy Spirit wants you to become well off. The idea is
that if you pray for riches and you are a sincere believer, your supplications will be heard
in Heaven and, in due course, the Almighty will reward you with money and goodies.
Hence, as Cox observed, all of the attention to money in many Pentecostal sermons.
And there are a few verses in the Bible that say as much.
However, there are more verses that make the opposite point and, to say the least, there is
no indication that either Jesus or his disciples were wealthy. And Paul sometimes
complained about his relative poverty even though he had a trade, working with
canvas, and he sometimes had a little -we would say- discretionary income.
But again and again we find many early Christians living on little income,
even no income, like the "seventy" who were sent into the world to evangelize
with nothing, so to speak, but the shirts on their backs and their well worn trousers.
This was the outlook of the first generation of American Pentecostals, as Cox made
clear on page 120. The early Pentecostals disdained the "commercial blather of
consumer society." They were anti-materialist and rejected "the world" and its
blandishments. Indeed, "accumulation of worldly goods" was seen as a "snare
and a delusion," basically a trap for the soul. The ideal, therefore, should be to
find work in a helping profession like nursing or in honest labor like construction.
And to this day there are some Pentecostals who take this outlook to heart,
becoming hospital orderlies or janitors or house painters or the like,
enough to live on but guaranteed NOT to make you wealthy.
8. What may be called the "political theology" of Pentecostalism is -I don't know
of a better way to say it- stupid beyond comprehension. It follows from early
Pentecostal millennarianism even though today's believers do not spend much
time thinking about Christ's return. Yet the foundational political views originally
based on an expectation of Jesus' advent became ingrained in the ideology
of the movement and those early views survive pretty much intact.
under the title: "Libertarianism Makes You Stupid." The article says it all
How is anyone supposed to be able to do politics if he or she is clueless about
what is going on in American politics? And do not try to tell me that there
are no politically concerned Pentecostals like this; there certainly are.
But in effect they have painted themselves into a corner with no way out.
They are captives to approximately the worst kind of theology imaginable
Moreover, instead of becoming informed about politics, they are told that the
very best thing to do is make themselves "informed" about demons.
See pages 284- 285 for a synopsis of Pentecostal demonology. There you
will find discussion of the demonology of a certain C. Peter Wagner, then
at Fuller Seminary. Which is useful to know in one sense, and I suspected it
all along, namely, that San Francisco is ruled by an anti-spirit demon
named the Spirit of Perversion, Oakland is ruled by the Spirit of Murder,
San Jose by the Spirit of Greed, and all of Marin County is under control
of the New Age Spirit.
Sounds about right.
But what in blazes are you supposed to be able to do with the information?
This is fantasy stuff, basically, even when someone evaluates areas
of California accurately enough. Cox calls Pentecostal demonology
-of which there is much, much more- "religious science fiction."
And he doesn't like it and said that he found it "distressing." Cox was
being too kind; this kind of stuff is a load of crap. And how in hell
can any educated person believe in such drivel?
This is not to say that the Devil isn't a real being. A lengthy discourse about
all the reasons for believing that Satan exists isn't necessary; all you have to do
is think about the great murderers of the 20th century, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot,
Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Osama Bin Laden, and so forth. And it really is useful,
if you are interested in Mesopotamian history, or the history of ancient Israel,
or, for that matter, Buddhist or Hindu history, or tribal African history,
to know something about archaic demonology. This kind of knowledge explains
a number of things about life in the remote past, including how the Israelites
framed their ideas about good and evil. And even Jesus talked about demons.
But aren't we beyond that kind of consciousness? There are far better ways
to think about the problem of evil. But not for Pentecostals.
9. An "other-worldly" perspective characterizes Pentecostals. And they are convinced
Hence, as much as possible, giving up the things of this world so that one can
live in a sort of spiritual bliss, forever thinking about God, ceaselessly praying
to Jesus, and turning inner angst into inscrutable contemplation of divine things.
But how many people find this approach genuinely satisfying?
Is it as much as 0.0001% ?
Regardless, many Pentecostals give up watching movies, throw out their
television sets, refuse to listen to Top 40 music, and only allow
their own kind of music.
Their own music can be quite good, incidentally. I have tuned in to some Spanish language
Pentecostal services broadcast on local CTV. Very rousing and easy for participants to dance to.
And, since ideally a religious service is supposed to be a spontaneous event with no pre-set
order of activities, the music portion of worship may continue for considerable time.
But what about self-imposed withdrawal from at-large culture?
To be sure, I also have little use for Top 40 hits, and at least 85% of Hollywood movies
I have ever seen have been worthless. Also, probably close to 90% of what is
available on television is garbage. But now and then something comes along and
all the worthless material can be set aside as irrelevant to my life and the 10% or 15%
can be enjoyed to maximum effect.
For all of its many faults, TV also helps connect you to the wider world. I have been
"introduced" to some very smart people via C-Span, for instance, listening to lectures
by authors "pitching" their newly published books, or via world class dramas
telecast on PBS. And there sometimes is useful news.
This is written during the aftermath of the worst show storm in the history of the city
of Eugene. Because of television I have been able to learn about road closings, expected
changes in temperature, the status of public transportation, and much else. Plus, during
football season, I don't want to miss film clips from the latest gridiron battle-to-the-death
between the ducks and the (Stanford) trees, or the beavers and huskies. And if I'm lucky
there may be footage of the ASU game. I mean, this is America, you know.
And what would I do if deprived of my favorite TV drama? I already know what
I did when PBS stopped showing Foyle's War. I had horrible withdrawal symptoms.
As dicey as things may get for sensory-deprived adults, what about children?
Years ago, growing up in Chicago, mother sometimes had visits from a male friend
from her high school days. This was strictly friendship, not the least suggestion of
anything else. Lavergne was a Pentecostal, affiliated with the Assemblies of God,
and a decent well-intentioned man. He was married and his kids needed to live
through their father's religious obsessions, no TV, no movies, any of that.
You can guess how that worked out. Kids have an innate need for social connection.
They want to belong. Their nervous systems evolved to be part of a social peer group.
Someone can pray all he wants, but these are objective facts.
Of the half dozen children in the family there weren't any who didn't have
psychological problems; one became an habitual criminal. Clearly there was
no 1: 1 relationship between how the kids turned out and their Pentecostal
upbringing. Life is not that simple. Nor is one family an adequate sample
on which to base conclusions. However, it is pretty hard not to see a relationship
between media deprivation and consequent social isolation, followed by maladjustment,
when discussing children.
10. Charismatic Christianity is not the same thing as Pentecostalism except
when it is. Page 106 discusses the differences.
One way to look at things is to say that Charismatics are people who have been
deeply influenced by the Pentecostals but have remained in their original churches.
Hence there are Catholic Charismatics, there are Charismatics who are part of
Presbyterian congregations, and Charismatics who are members of a community church
that is totally unaffiliated with any Pentecostal organization. Yet some Charismatics
are independent, like Vineyard, which has become its own version of a denomination,Also distinctive about Charismatics is that the extremes to which Pentecostals go
are mostly absent. There still may be arms raised heavenward, but there is no
being "slain in the spirit," viz, falling down to the floor in religious rapture.
And there may be little or no speaking in tongues.
Harvey Cox's book on the Pentecostals is valuable but it has distinct limitations.
And as you might suspect for a Harvard professor, what it includes and excludes
tells a story all its own.
Cox likes the Pentecostals but he hates their stand against homosexuality.
His solution to the problem was to barely mention Pentecostal opposition
to sodomy, maybe on the assumption that if you ignore the issue
it will go away.
Still, all told, the book is "must reading" for scholars of American religion.
And for anyone who is curious about the nature of Pentecostalism
for their own purposes; it is well written and thorough.
It is anything but the last word on the subject, however.
-----------------------------------------------
It would be possible to continue discussion of Pentecostalism for many more pages
but it would be best to conclude with some recommended reading and a few comments
that express an overall view of this religious movement.
Highly recommended studies include:
Why I am no longer a Pentecostal, by William (Bill) Davis, which is quite lengthy but very
informative. Davis was a Pentecostal for 50 years before he finally had enough; there is not
much about the religion he leaves out. For Davis, while there were some positive memories,
most of that time was wasted, which he deeply regrets.
Real Wrongs of the Charismatic Movement by Robin Schumacher. Also informative and detailed
this article is available at
The Confident Christian blog, dated March 25, 2016.
Are Pentecostal churches phony? Nation Online, December 23, 2013. This is an article
published in Malawi that criticizes Pentecostal practices in Africa.
Talk: Charismatic movement / Criticism salvage
This is a Wikipedia article that provides
information about several different kinds of Pentecostal religion around the world.
What it all comes down to is what kind of life you want to lead? Do you want to be taken
seriously by other people? Pentecostals usually know the answer: If they tell other people
that they are Pentecostals the other people head for the door or the fire escape. Normal people
almost always want nothing to do with Pentecostals. And educated people sometimes regard
Pentecostals are something like clinically insane.
Hence, Pentecostals hide their faith from most people. With good reason they fear rejection.
Worse, the truth claims made by Pentecostals simply do not hold up to any kind of informed
scrutiny. Those claims are not true, in other words.
Basically Pentecostalism is a road to ostracism by just about all other people, including
most Christians, certainly in America. And, speaking personally, I don't see where
it has much at all to do with the life of Christ. You might even say it has
nothing to do with the life of Christ.