What He Said

Okay, so I'm a little behind, but I've been trying to catch up with a few neighbors in the blogosphere. Just spent some time over at Totem to Temple's blog and found myself nodding vigorously and yelling "Exactly!"

The following posts in particular stuck out:

I Have a Problem, Therefore You Must Also Have the Same Problem

The Pathetic Realm - Charismatic Magicians

A Friend Sent This In


Each echoes so much of the stuff I've dealt with in my church past. It reminds me all over again that I wasn't nuts, they were. The Charismatic Magicians post resonated in particular. I remember one "special service" where an evangelist came to preach. I dutifully went to the altar at the altar call, and the man put his hand forcefully on my forehead, as if to force me to fall over "slain". Steeling myself, I went completely rigid and all but dared him to make me fall. He pushed again, I leaned into it, resolute. Eventually he gave up on me and passed on, toppling others like Dominoes.

On two separate occasions a nice elderly lady was supposedly "slain". Each time, she was hurtled backward with such force she nearly knocked me down. (Why she always ended up hitting me, I'm not sure, and I often wondered about it). Maybe I'm crazy, but there was absolutely no way, in my mind, that the gentle and loving Holy Spirit would throw and old and frail woman down to her own danger and peril. That is just not the Jesus I know.