I found this analysis of modern American culture relevant and accessible. We're apparently of the same generational cohort, but with different backgrounds. I was not raised in a church family, but grew up with the Beatles and hippies in suburbia. This is bound to confront and offend the pious and atheist alike.
I dipped into Christian faith briefly, but couldn't abide by the internal contradictions and the forced emotionalism. If Christianity is to reemerge as a cultural force, there's going to have to be a reconciliation of theology or dogma among all the Protestant denominations (at the very least), and ideally between Catholicism and Protestantism. The à la carte nature of modern Christianity destroys its credibility as "the one true faith", IMO.
In particular, the Catholic church needs to reconcile itself with its purported doctrine. You can't have high profile Catholics like Biden, Pelosi, the Kennedys supporting unlimited abortion for 49+ years and not being excommunicated. The Church needs to say what it means, and mean what it says to be taken seriously.
Definitely controversial. Definitely needs to be said, however.
BTW, the split between emotionalism and meditative spirituality exists in other religions as well. In late pagan Greece, the upper classes were dropping acid and contemplating complex mysteries. They lower classes were worshipping Dionyssus and going into emotional frenzies.
In India, there is Raja [royal] Yoga, with all sorts of meditative stillness exercises, and Bakhti Yoga which features emotional frenzy. Think Hare Krishnas for the latter.
I'd really like this analytical and meditative kind of faith. As a Hindu, we have some of that but also a lot of silly New Age stuff, for which I would blame people like Vivekananda
While I am certainly not an expert on Hinduism, I have read a bit about yoga from a few sources. Modern praise and worship Christianity resembles what I have read of bhakti yoga, as well the Hare Krishnas whom I have seen dancing in front of the Smithsonian Institute. This raja-bhakti division could also be found in ancient Greek religion. The upper classes were dropping acid and studying arcane mysteries for Apollo while the lower classes were dancing, getting drunk, and going into an emotional frenzy worshiping Dionysus.
It is inevitable that human beings will mix their cultural attributes and arts with their Christian faith. It is probably regrettable, but unavoidable.
I believe that the music portion of services has become a distortion to the purpose of church. I think the emotionalism is the tailing residue of the 1960s hippie/krisha emotional era.
This seems to be a property of the modern church: to be the last holdout for bad ideas. For example, free speech was once a left-wing demand. Burning flags, defacing the Cross, etc. Now, that all speech is (was) free, the secular have begun to tighten the reins, and Christian speech is now beginning to be restricted. An inversion.
But rather than return to a demand for Christian truth being paramount, the Church is left fighting for the progressive's original outcome of all speech being free. The Church needs to get its priorities straight.
Also, mainstream Christians are some of the least strategically aware and gullible people in the whole country. Blogs like this will be crucial to correcting this.
Even pastors who may be great men of God get punked over and over by a crafty secular culture.
I'm not against emotional churches. For many people, such emotionalism works. (And the Chrarismatic movement goes back way before the 1960s.) King David was such a person. He danced so hard he flashed the crowd and embarrassed his wife.
But other people need a more dignified service to get into a properly religious frame of mind. And the record tells of many early Christians engaging in meditative practices that differ little from Buddhist practice.
Different orders of service are Relevant to different people.
But what is missing today are churches which mix Biblical rigor with awe inspiring services. We need such if we are to have Christian professors to teach our young adults.
Yes, I agree and should have said "forced emotionalism" or something else to more clearly refer to what seems somewhat manipulative to me.
I am a Vulcan Christian for sure, and would prefer two straight hours of hard teaching, ending with a briefing on the week's agenda for action. Further, I feel that too many services remain rooted in theory and neglect application. Christianity is - in my view - a practical faith. "The Way". In my view, this implies action. The theory and theology informs the action, but should not replace it. This is where I think a lot of services have derailed.
What I wish we could have is a sort of "church for men". But not in a traditional sense, or denomination. Perhaps something like an Order.
An Order that allows a guy to remain within his own church and denomination, or outside the church, and to consult and commiserate with other like-minded Christian men. No money changes hands. No buildings. Formless. Model it after the early church in the Book of Acts.
Anchor it around the principles of there being no formal leader or hierarchy, as a founding - if not the primary - principle. Keep the primary doctrine very narrow, and avoid any doctrinal disputes.
1 Cor. "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
Discipleship. Iron sharpening iron.
Second rule:
Phil 2:12-13 Therefore ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling... for his good pleasure.
I think one other thing that will make the original post's plan possible is that the reasons for rejecting Christianity are being drained away. In the 1960s, the idea of free love and drug use, along with the lure of being an "intellectual" and embracing moral relativism lured many into worldliness. Further lures have occurred since.
A lot of these Vulcans, as you put it, have been marginalized in every way possible. They are completely out of allies and options (with regard to the cultural forces).
What is their reward in being a white-knight f-inist supporter on f-book? Sooner or later simping on instagram will lose its appeal. Pr0n? The same. None of the supposed benefits of supporting the current social order provide anything to the young man except costs.
Thankfully a merciful God will have us back even after we went prodigal son on him.
Men are slowly coming to the end of themselves, and maybe - just maybe - have no path left except revival or despair.
As I noted elsewhere, The analogy of Spock attending Hillsong made Mrs Keruru laugh. It's not that I don't like some of the Hillsong composers -- they are better than almost all new worship music --but. won't happen.
But the churches that can sing Bach are converged, liberal, preaching inclusion, diversity and anything but the gospel. Christ is not mentioned, because he would honour the law. It is all spiritual development, theory without the practice, having the forms of religion while denying any power therein.
So we are in a church in a bowling club, with a worship team that cannot keep tune, because the word of God is spike there.
I found this analysis of modern American culture relevant and accessible. We're apparently of the same generational cohort, but with different backgrounds. I was not raised in a church family, but grew up with the Beatles and hippies in suburbia. This is bound to confront and offend the pious and atheist alike.
I dipped into Christian faith briefly, but couldn't abide by the internal contradictions and the forced emotionalism. If Christianity is to reemerge as a cultural force, there's going to have to be a reconciliation of theology or dogma among all the Protestant denominations (at the very least), and ideally between Catholicism and Protestantism. The à la carte nature of modern Christianity destroys its credibility as "the one true faith", IMO.
In particular, the Catholic church needs to reconcile itself with its purported doctrine. You can't have high profile Catholics like Biden, Pelosi, the Kennedys supporting unlimited abortion for 49+ years and not being excommunicated. The Church needs to say what it means, and mean what it says to be taken seriously.
Definitely controversial. Definitely needs to be said, however.
BTW, the split between emotionalism and meditative spirituality exists in other religions as well. In late pagan Greece, the upper classes were dropping acid and contemplating complex mysteries. They lower classes were worshipping Dionyssus and going into emotional frenzies.
In India, there is Raja [royal] Yoga, with all sorts of meditative stillness exercises, and Bakhti Yoga which features emotional frenzy. Think Hare Krishnas for the latter.
I'd really like this analytical and meditative kind of faith. As a Hindu, we have some of that but also a lot of silly New Age stuff, for which I would blame people like Vivekananda
While I am certainly not an expert on Hinduism, I have read a bit about yoga from a few sources. Modern praise and worship Christianity resembles what I have read of bhakti yoga, as well the Hare Krishnas whom I have seen dancing in front of the Smithsonian Institute. This raja-bhakti division could also be found in ancient Greek religion. The upper classes were dropping acid and studying arcane mysteries for Apollo while the lower classes were dancing, getting drunk, and going into an emotional frenzy worshiping Dionysus.
It is inevitable that human beings will mix their cultural attributes and arts with their Christian faith. It is probably regrettable, but unavoidable.
I believe that the music portion of services has become a distortion to the purpose of church. I think the emotionalism is the tailing residue of the 1960s hippie/krisha emotional era.
This seems to be a property of the modern church: to be the last holdout for bad ideas. For example, free speech was once a left-wing demand. Burning flags, defacing the Cross, etc. Now, that all speech is (was) free, the secular have begun to tighten the reins, and Christian speech is now beginning to be restricted. An inversion.
But rather than return to a demand for Christian truth being paramount, the Church is left fighting for the progressive's original outcome of all speech being free. The Church needs to get its priorities straight.
Also, mainstream Christians are some of the least strategically aware and gullible people in the whole country. Blogs like this will be crucial to correcting this.
Even pastors who may be great men of God get punked over and over by a crafty secular culture.
I'm not against emotional churches. For many people, such emotionalism works. (And the Chrarismatic movement goes back way before the 1960s.) King David was such a person. He danced so hard he flashed the crowd and embarrassed his wife.
But other people need a more dignified service to get into a properly religious frame of mind. And the record tells of many early Christians engaging in meditative practices that differ little from Buddhist practice.
Different orders of service are Relevant to different people.
But what is missing today are churches which mix Biblical rigor with awe inspiring services. We need such if we are to have Christian professors to teach our young adults.
Yes, I agree and should have said "forced emotionalism" or something else to more clearly refer to what seems somewhat manipulative to me.
I am a Vulcan Christian for sure, and would prefer two straight hours of hard teaching, ending with a briefing on the week's agenda for action. Further, I feel that too many services remain rooted in theory and neglect application. Christianity is - in my view - a practical faith. "The Way". In my view, this implies action. The theory and theology informs the action, but should not replace it. This is where I think a lot of services have derailed.
Absolutely!
(And a church which DOES things is a church that is much friendlier to introverts. No need to master small talk in order to initiate conversation.)
What I wish we could have is a sort of "church for men". But not in a traditional sense, or denomination. Perhaps something like an Order.
An Order that allows a guy to remain within his own church and denomination, or outside the church, and to consult and commiserate with other like-minded Christian men. No money changes hands. No buildings. Formless. Model it after the early church in the Book of Acts.
Anchor it around the principles of there being no formal leader or hierarchy, as a founding - if not the primary - principle. Keep the primary doctrine very narrow, and avoid any doctrinal disputes.
1 Cor. "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
Discipleship. Iron sharpening iron.
Second rule:
Phil 2:12-13 Therefore ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling... for his good pleasure.
Something like the Masons but explicitly Christian?
emailed
I think one other thing that will make the original post's plan possible is that the reasons for rejecting Christianity are being drained away. In the 1960s, the idea of free love and drug use, along with the lure of being an "intellectual" and embracing moral relativism lured many into worldliness. Further lures have occurred since.
A lot of these Vulcans, as you put it, have been marginalized in every way possible. They are completely out of allies and options (with regard to the cultural forces).
What is their reward in being a white-knight f-inist supporter on f-book? Sooner or later simping on instagram will lose its appeal. Pr0n? The same. None of the supposed benefits of supporting the current social order provide anything to the young man except costs.
Thankfully a merciful God will have us back even after we went prodigal son on him.
Men are slowly coming to the end of themselves, and maybe - just maybe - have no path left except revival or despair.
As I noted elsewhere, The analogy of Spock attending Hillsong made Mrs Keruru laugh. It's not that I don't like some of the Hillsong composers -- they are better than almost all new worship music --but. won't happen.
But the churches that can sing Bach are converged, liberal, preaching inclusion, diversity and anything but the gospel. Christ is not mentioned, because he would honour the law. It is all spiritual development, theory without the practice, having the forms of religion while denying any power therein.
So we are in a church in a bowling club, with a worship team that cannot keep tune, because the word of God is spike there.