Let’s share stories, I’ll start:

story 1 Towards the end when I was struggling with my beliefs and getting one foot in deconstruction I had a conversation with the Pastor about their doctrine and practices (which were becoming pretty out there and wishywashy/wuwu). Particularly the “sozo ministry” which is kind of a hypnotism/meditation baloney thing.

Me: So in essence we’re in the business of reprogramming people now?

Pastor: (without hesitation or pause) Yes.

story 2 I was somewhat close with a let’s say “semi celebrity” pastor in the evangelical/protestant/baptist/… circles. The unspoken idea was that I’d become sort of a spokesperson to get a branch of his ministry of the ground where I live.

We’d call frequently on Skype. At some point he calls me and without any prompt starts telling me about the birds and the bees and making the case that maybe sometimes it’s ok in gods eyes to take of business on your own…

I was a grown man around 30 at the time mind you… wtf dude. Awkward and unnecessary.

Story 3 Each charismatic church is already a melting pot of mental issues.

One particular collection of issues thought it was a good idea to come to my place unannounced and tell me that god knows that I live like a bachelor.

Bitch get the fuck outta here, like being single isn’t already enough of a shame issue in church circles.

In short=> don’t bother with church kids because it’s all just bs and pointless nonsense like this.

    • FreddiesLantern@leminal.spaceOPEnglish
      3·
      8 days ago

      Oh boy am I glad you asked because it’s spectacular.

      The idea is that your relations to your parents/siblings are broken and need to be mended. And in a very vague way those are linked to or represented by God/Jebus/Holy Spirit (father/sibblings/mother I think).

      Then you have to go into a meditative state and have someone guide you through those relations and then pray or whatever the fuck. I think the end goal is to sort of replace your family ties by the aforementioned mythological beings. This further isolating the believer and making them more dependant on the church community.

      Like for an average Christian this should raise IMMEDIATE red flags all over the place, it’s not biblical, not even remotely rooted in any kind of tradition.

      And yet somehow… it was adopted by the church, no questions asked. That for me was (among MANY others) a thing that kind of opened my eyes.