Weird vs. Mundane
There’s this essay that’s got me thinking a lot (thanks for the link, Peaches). It’s pretty long, so I’ll try to summarize. He’s talking about how he’s tired of Christians that get all weird and extra-spiritual - what he (and I) mean by that is all the speaking in tongues, the healings, the falling on the floor, the wailing, the demon-vomiting, the prophesying of the end of the world, etc. that is sometimes common in Pentecostal/Charismatic/Spirit-filled/whatever-you-want-to-call-them churches. And specifically, what he’s tired of is these Christians looking down on other Christians for not doing all this stuff. He spends a lot of time qualifying what he’s saying, and I respect that. I agree with some of what he says. Other parts, I’m not sure if I disagree with him or if I am merely wary of where that line of thinking leads. Let me try to explain from my point of view, though.
I find myself in-between a lot. When I’m with the “weird Christians”, I find myself wishing that they would tone it down or explain what they’re doing, and for sure I wish they wouldn’t expect everyone to be like they are. However, when I’m with the extra-conservative Christians - the ones on the opposite side of the spectrum - I find myself wishing that they would believe in miracles, that they would ask for healing and expect it, that they would listen for God’s voice and say what they hear, and for sure I wish they wouldn’t look down on the Weird Christians for trying out the things Jesus and the early church did.
I’d like to think that I am at some healthy balance between them - that somehow I have it right where they have it wrong. But the truth is that I am doing exactly what they are doing. I am wishing that everyone could be just like me so that I can be entirely comfortable.
First of all, there is nothing inherently wrong with the Weirdness. Almost all of it is entirely Biblical. And I don’t just mean it’s Biblical in the sense that Jesus and the apostles did it, but the idea that God’s people will continue to do it is entirely Biblical as well (for the moment, let’s not argue this point - maybe later). What is un-Biblical is the idea that those who do not do these things are Wrong. Paul asks rhetorically, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” If there is freedom to do these things, then there is freedom to not if we are not yet comfortable with it. But the conservative side of Christianity also needs to remember that when the Weirdness gets pushed on them, they must not push back. Yes, it is not okay for one to say that all must speak in tongues to be true believers. But it is equally wrong to say that anyone who believes in tongues is not a true believer.
But I think my wariness in the essay above comes down to this sentence: “I’m annoyed at the attention weirdo Christians get, and the obligation I supposedly have to love them anyway.” I know he’s speaking with his tongue at least part way in his cheek, because the answer to this is clear. Yes, you are absolutely supposed to love them. Just as they are supposed to love you. Just as all of us are supposed to love every one that God has made, whether they be Christian or not, whether they are Godly or selfish, whether they just gave us an unasked-for gift or cheated us out of a sum of money, whether they ever love us back or not.
Because here’s the thing: God loves them. All of them. All of us have given God our collective middle finger and he loved all of us before we did it, while we were doing it, after we did it, and he’ll still love us when we do it again. Probably all Christians have done something thinking we were doing it in God’s name while God had nothing to do with it. He still loves us. He still loved us while we were doing it, and chances are extremely good that He worked through whatever we did in spite of ourselves.
I know that God loves both the hyper-spiritual and the super-conservative because of the fruits of their ministries. Both have been successful. I don’t mean that they have been successful in gaining numbers - that’s easy. Any non-Christian can get people to follow them for a time. The fruits that matter are the fruits in people’s lives and the fruits of the Spirit. When the unloved are loved, when the broken are healed (physically, emotionally, or spiritually), when lives are inexplicably changed, when the defenseless are defended, when the needy are satisfied, when God is glorified - these are the things that tell us that God is behind a ministry. I have seen people’s dark lives turned around in both conservative and in so-called “Spirit-filled” churches, in both liturgical and “anything goes” services. If God is working in both, then both must be doing something right.
But how can this be true? How can God possibly be proud of the people that believe He does miracles and the people that don’t? Why would the same God work through yelling and screaming as well as a monotone sermon? Simply because God is much bigger than our tiny, limited experiences. God requires both the conservative and the charismatic to even begin to adequately show all of who he is. God is both. God is everything in-between. And God is much more than the sum of all of it.
The point I want to make though is that we need to accept that fact and, therefore, each other. If God has put his seal on those who believe tongues are just a part of the body, then those who speak in tongues must love and accept them also. If God has shown that he works through the church where people fall on the floor like they’re drunk, then those that pray quietly and calmly must love and accept them also.
Certainly there are points of correction that can be made, but if they cannot be made in love then we need to take another look at ourselves until they can be. We must also be extremely careful of generalizing the problems. Certainly there are “prophets” that are making it all up, but not all prophets are false. Certainly there are people who fall on the floor just because that’s what they think it means to be in the Spirit, but not all such actions are culturally defined - some are very real. Certainly there are churches that shun all miracles and strangeness in favor of a purely intellectual faith and are dead because of it, but many such churches are very much alive. When speaking against one or the other, I want to encourage all of us to be specific instead of generalizing.
We don’t have to understand each other to accept and love each other. We hardly understand God at all! Yet we are all capable of loving him with everything that we are, each in our own way. It should be enough for us that God vouches for them - just as he vouches for us. Then maybe when we get to Heaven it won’t be such a shock as to who else is there.
As one of those weird Christians I love this post a lot. Thanks for writing it. It’s a hard thing. I am not trained in the Pentecostal church tradition. I don’t know everything that led to its formation. So I don’t fit into the hyper charasmatic Pentecostal holy roaring thing. I don’t come close to stuff like that.
But I have been trained in the ways of the mystics and their lives and the lives of the prophets has transformed my faith away from the southern baptist tradition of my youth.
But as one of those weird Christians it is hard to always remember that everyone hears God the way that they are supposed to. We expect a lot because we (the weird ones) were given a lot. I don’t think that is fair to any of the camps. The folks in the middle get the shaft from both sides, don’t even get me started on the more conservative parts of the Protestant church.
I think the hard thing is we weird people always feel like we are expected to tow the line. We are expected to be like the middle folks and so there is a subtle pressure to fit in and not tell our experiences because we are shunned. We are the crazy people, the schizophrenics that were chased out of good society to make way for the feel good people. As a defensive mechanism we can sometimes put pressure to the middle to be like us.
Sorry if I ever did that. I have done that before.
That said I want to say thank you to the three of you for always accepting my weirdness and never judging me for it. I love that and that is Jesus. You showed the same call for love that he did/does.
We weird people have a long way to go before we can fully show grace to our more conservative brethren. In many ways they seem to represent the Pharisee class that Christ railed against in the New Testament.
I have always believed the Pharisees got a bum rap in some ways. They struggled to do right. They were not always successful but they did their best to adhere to the law of Moses. That said Jesus was right to rail against many of them and so sometimes I do the same. I hope I can show the same level of wisdom Christ did and not lash out of bitterness.
Both sides of the spiritual spectrum hurt believers. Some are so spiritual that they feel their righteousness comes from speaking in tongues; the people on the other side feel like they are righteous because they follow Paul’s letters. Neither side has it right and must learn from the other if there is ever going to be healing and reconciliation. May that which needs to die die so that the freedom and promise of the Holy Spirit would be realized for all.
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For all it’s worth, let me throw in my two cents worth.
I will repeat something I have said before, the key to the Christian life is the object of worship and not the form of worship. God sees the heart of man we only see the outside. In fact, in Luke 16:15, God says, “He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”" Actually an interesting verse, it says we rationalize other’s faith by what we see but God sees what is in the heart. Again, we are visually oriented and rationalize behavior accordingly.
God needs to be the central object of our worship. Jesus has commanded us, in Matt 6:33 to “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” It says clearly that our primary focus should be on the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these other things will follow. Unfortunately what sometimes happens is “But seek first all these things , and his kingdom and his righteousness will be given to you as well.” What I mean by this is that if we behave in a weird way or super conservative way and are caught up in the “things” associated with them, the tendency is that we feel if we do all things then we will reach the “correct” level of spirituality. May I remind each one of us that it is nothing that we can do but all that He has done for us? After all, Jesus’ last words on the cross were what? - “It is finished”. He paid the price once and for all. The “all things” we get caught up in have no bearing on our relationship with God at all.
In fact, Jesus Himself said it in Matt 22:36 - 39 “”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our love for God and others is a heart attitude, that which God sees, and not a visible physical phenomenon, that man sees.
Speaking of love, how did Jesus love? Selflessly and unconditionally. This is manifest by the supreme sacrifice on the cross. To see His compassion, look at His attitude towards the thief on the cross - rather than complain about the pain He was suffering He said, “today you will be with Me in paradise”. Can we love selflessly like that? In fact, Phil 2:3 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This is a tall order on how we should treat those that are weird or way conservative - we need to consider them more important than ourselves but do it in love. Interesting thought, don’t you think? But what if we see that they are not emphasizing the main thing, as Spencer mentioned in his article, ” . . . Always, being centered on the Gospel and on Christ Himself is what we must strive . . . ” The Bible commands that we are to admonish them in love and if they don’t respond, it’s not your problem, it is their problem. For the way weird ones 1 Cor 13 can be used where the first few verses say, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Love is the operative word here. Interesting how that word “love” keeps cropping up. In fact the Bible says, God is love”. Again, love is a heart attitude that God sees but man only sees the manifestations of love in another person through their actions and deeds.
Unfortunately when people get carried away with what they believe is the “correct form of worship” or what constitutes “true spirituality” at the expense of love the focus is on self rather than God. Prov 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” So if people continue on their quest of forcing their type of spirituality on you and become spirituality arrogant because of it, admonish them in love but then let them go.
Primary point is “FOCUS ON GOD”: “Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.” Prov 3:5, 6.