'Evangelical Christianity and Low Self-Esteem'

[kalibex]

Interesting article about one man's observations regarding the brainwashing effect of the "Contemporary Christian music" in certain parts of the USA and the implications for how these Christian sub-sects operate (and recruit). A good reminder perhaps to pay heed to what we're listening to (in general), and what the messages are...

So what do I hear when I’m working out at the local health club, or eating at the nearby Subway, or just pumping gas at the local gas station? I hear that I am a weak, wretched person, incapable of really living life well on my own, constantly needing saving from myself. And boy, lemme tell ya, nothing energizes my workout like hearing a scruffy twenty-something whining overhead, “Jesus, I’m weak! Help me, Lord, I can’t go on!”

_http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/09/13/evangelical-christianity-and-low-self-esteem-2/_

 

[rs]

Having grown up in an evangelical Christian environment, all I can say is that modern Christianity is predicated on lowering your self esteem so that you can be "saved" and enslaved to a capricious God, who will bless you or curse you, all according to an invisible and unintelligible plan that you are not worthy enough to understand.

There is virtually nothing in Christian doctrine about empowerment or personal freedom. It's sick, really...

 

[clearmiddle]

Interesting article about one man's observations regarding the brainwashing effect of the "Contemporary Christian music" in certain parts of the USA and the implications for how these Christian sub-sects operate (and recruit). A good reminder perhaps to pay heed to what we're listening to (in general), and what the messages are...

So what do I hear when I’m working out at the local health club, or eating at the nearby Subway, or just pumping gas at the local gas station? I hear that I am a weak, wretched person, incapable of really living life well on my own, constantly needing saving from myself. And boy, lemme tell ya, nothing energizes my workout like hearing a scruffy twenty-something whining overhead, “Jesus, I’m weak! Help me, Lord, I can’t go on!”

_http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/09/13/evangelical-christianity-and-low-self-esteem-2/_

Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is quite diversified, and there is a difference between having music (CCM or otherwise) chosen for you (played over a PA system) and choosing it for yourself (again, CCM or otherwise) according to what works for you.

Having been involved in and then fleeing the Christian fundamentalist and evangelical scenes myself decades ago, I came to enjoy but then later strictly avoided CCM, until recently. Now I have a small collection again, and I am amazed at the insights that can be found in some of this music. The insights aren't exactly written into the music -- they result from the union of the work of the lyricist, the composer, the artist, and the listener.

 

[clearmiddle]

I initially overlooked this footnote to the above article:

* To be fair, I should note that there has been a movement over the last few years in Christian music towards writing more songs which focus on praising the Christian God without direct reference to the unworthiness of the one issuing the praise. Some theologians have encouraged more “theocentrism” in worship music, and it has yielded some more positive, upbeat songs. I find these much easier to endure while benchpressing since they don’t go on and on about our own weakness and inability. Some are even musically superior to the stuff that circulated when I was younger. It’s both ironic and unfortunate that the same resurgence in Calvinistic theology among evangelicals which encouraged this also leads to a great deal of self-loathing and metaphorical self-flagellating the moment the sermon begins.

I sometimes sing along with a neo-charismatic Christian congregation that emphasizes this kind of worship music. I usually stay only for the music at the start of their service and I am not aligned with them theologically or philosophically, but the experience of singing together brings out something that we have in common, that I would not feel if I were listening alone to the music.

 

[A Jay]

I sometimes sing along with a neo-charismatic Christian congregation that emphasizes this kind of worship music. I usually stay only for the music at the start of their service and I am not aligned with them theologically or philosophically, but the experience of singing together brings out something that we have in common, that I would not feel if I were listening alone to the music.

After my experiences with evangelical fundy-ism, don't think I could handle another church visit. But I know what you mean about singing with a group of people, it's a creative act that can bring people closer together and really soothes the soul.

Are there any possibilities for singing from the soul outside of the church you visit?

 

[Laura]

Having grown up in an evangelical Christian environment, all I can say is that modern Christianity is predicated on lowering your self esteem so that you can be "saved" and enslaved to a capricious God, who will bless you or curse you, all according to an invisible and unintelligible plan that you are not worthy enough to understand.

There is virtually nothing in Christian doctrine about empowerment or personal freedom. It's sick, really...

True. A really excellent book with an "outsider's" view of the religion that Paul created is Hyam Maccoby's "The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity". I don't necessarily subscribe to his idea that there was a Jesus of Nazareth as depicted in the gospels and Acts, and that he was a pharisee, but rather that he was getting close to the idea that Jesus was modeled on Judas the Galilean and that Paul was the creator of Christianity, pure and simple, and used elements of Gnosticism, Hellenic dying/resurrecting savior mystery cults, and co-opted the Jewish OT for the "history" part of his myth. Where he went wrong was relying on the myth itself as a real history.

What Maccoby does VERY well, is summarize Christian theology as something that began as antinomianism, but really didn't work because Paul did not take human nature into account. Looked at rationally, as Maccoby does, Christian theology is really pretty silly and insulting to humanity not to mention making the Creative Force of the Cosmos look idiotic.

Of course, Elaine Pagels and other Nag Hammadi experts suggest that Paul taught two Christianities, two levels, and that the real deal was never put in writing but delivered in person. See: "The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters". She brings up some significant evidence that Paul was, indeed, teaching something very "secret" and that secret may have been more interesting than the low-rent "just believe and you get saved" routine.

Another couple of really excellent books on how this absurd system was created and foisted on humanity are Tolbert's "Sowing the Gospel: Mark's Work in Literary-Historical Perspective" followed on by Dykstra's "Mark Canonizer of Paul: A New Look at Intertextuality in Mark's Gospel".

Then, there is Hilsenrath's "Jesus the Nazorean" which almost gets you to the idea that Jesus was really Judas the Galilean, though she can't quite make that leap, preferring to stick with the name "Jesus" and assuming he was a son of Judas, instead of understanding that the name "Jesus" was an honorary moniker that went with "Messiah". "Joshua" means "savior" and "messiah" is "anointed" and I think that the zealot/sicarii/rebel followers of Judas gave him this title after they began "seeing" him (or saying they did).

The main thing that was Paul's unique contribution to the mix was THE CROSS which we are certain he got from witnessing a re-enactment of the funeral of Julius Caesar who was sort of the original man who became a god, and was a "savior of mankind" who was destroyed by the "evil powers" of this world and all the common people who longed for freedom wanted him to come back and fix things. Caesar's comet and the reported earthquakes, darkness, visions, all got mixed up together with a Jewish freedom fighter/religious zealot in Paul's mind; add a dash of gnosticism, co-opt the OT, and there you have it.

Then, when a student or follower of Pauline ideas decided to create the myth, i.e. gospel of Mark, he had a whole lot of materials to hand to represent Paul's theology in story form. He was clearly drawing on Josephus, Homer, Paul's OT exegesis, and his own creativity. I think the version of Josephus that he had also was a bit more expansive on the life of Judas the Galilean and most of this was soon edited out and the Testimonium Flavianum inserted in place of the story of the death of Judas because that account was way too close to the story of the crucifixion of Jesus to be allowed to stand. The author of Mark then used the name "Judas" as the betrayer to better divert attention away from the real-life rebel against Rome who was his primary model for the Jewish messiah. Also, it is clear that Paul did not know any idea of a betrayer, so that idea also came from the Caesar/Brutus relationship. He used elements of Caesar's life and sayings as a framework fleshed out by Homeric allusions, and Caesar's funeral as the frame for the Passion.

As an example of a man of virtus, Caesar was unparalleled. It's a shame to have exchanged that for a set of ideas that reduce humans to helpless slaves with no responsibility for their treatment of others or the world at large.

Well, my 2 cents for the moment.

 

[whitecoast]

Interesting article about one man's observations regarding the brainwashing effect of the "Contemporary Christian music" in certain parts of the USA and the implications for how these Christian sub-sects operate (and recruit). A good reminder perhaps to pay heed to what we're listening to (in general), and what the messages are...

So what do I hear when I’m working out at the local health club, or eating at the nearby Subway, or just pumping gas at the local gas station? I hear that I am a weak, wretched person, incapable of really living life well on my own, constantly needing saving from myself. And boy, lemme tell ya, nothing energizes my workout like hearing a scruffy twenty-something whining overhead, “Jesus, I’m weak! Help me, Lord, I can’t go on!”

_http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/09/13/evangelical-christianity-and-low-self-esteem-2/_

The mainstream Christian fetishization of guilt has always seemed to me like someone who does not work on themselves one day took a concept they overheard from someone who can and does (the concept of bankruptcy and that we're nothing) and running with it roughshod over all aspects of secular life. I think it's a very good illustration of why "the work for dummies" is, IMO, never a good idea in practice. So it goes.

 

[MusicMan]

I think that we should not put aside the thought that 'back in the day' if your ideas went against the PTB, then you would end up strung up on a cross or stoned to death for your efforts.

For the Israelis, if you prophesied and were found wanting in that prophecy you could be taken out of the city and stoned. So in this regard, Saul/Paul would have had to be very careful in what he said and who he said it to. Hence the reason for an inner group and the hoi polloi, much like the way you use FOTCM.

The Romans were very creative in their executions. Josephus had to pander to the Romans, and I'm sure he was well aware of the Israeli way of thinking. I think he somehow had to get his message across to both worlds in the only way he knew how.

That said, I played contemporary Christian music in (Anglican) churches for twenty years, occasionally in other denominations too, and never felt that I was on a guilt trip. Quite to the contrary, I always felt uplifted.
But I can only speak for myself.

How other people perceive music is like appreciating other kinds of art.

 

[theos]

Having grown up in an evangelical Christian environment, all I can say is that modern Christianity is predicated on lowering your self esteem so that you can be "saved" and enslaved to a capricious God, who will bless you or curse you, all according to an invisible and unintelligible plan that you are not worthy enough to understand.

There is virtually nothing in Christian doctrine about empowerment or personal freedom. It's sick, really...

Yep. That was my big problem with it too. And listening to that message set to music, no matter how stylishly or beautifully sung, is very grating to me. Back in my churchgoing days I got to the point where I would purposely arrive late to skip the music portion. It's like they were priming your brain to feel good and unified with the other worshipers so they could more effectively wack you with the propaganda and lies that followed. I don't know if I saw it like that at the time but something about emotional manipulation of the music really annoyed me.

 

[nicklebleu]

Having grown up in an evangelical Christian environment, all I can say is that modern Christianity is predicated on lowering your self esteem so that you can be "saved" and enslaved to a capricious God, who will bless you or curse you, all according to an invisible and unintelligible plan that you are not worthy enough to understand.

There is virtually nothing in Christian doctrine about empowerment or personal freedom. It's sick, really...

Yep. That was my big problem with it too. And listening to that message set to music, no matter how stylishly or beautifully sung, is very grating to me. Back in my churchgoing days I got to the point where I would purposely arrive late to skip the music portion. It's like they were priming your brain to feel good and unified with the other worshipers so they could more effectively wack you with the propaganda and lies that followed. I don't know if I saw it like that at the time but something about emotional manipulation of the music really annoyed me.

My experience was exactly the opposite! I had to go to church (at least for a few years) and hated it, such a waste of time. And the endless palaver made me nauseous, even though at that time I was not yet completely atheistic.

Music was the only relief, albeit too short. I loved to sit between the organ pipes (of course that was forbidden, but I knew the organ player well and he usually let me sneak in) and feel the music in a visceral way.

I still love Russian orthodox music, gives me the goose bumps, and I guess a bonus is that I don't understand a word of it!