Last month I had a correspondent, whom I called Fenella, object to
Fenella’s concern is one I’ve heard dozens of times: When Christians pray something over and over and over, they figure we’re doing it to psyche ourselves into a state of euphoria. Other Christians have the very same complaint about the way certain churches do their music, or pick particularly repetitive songs: All that repetition isn’t done to praise God; it’s to whip ourselves into an altered state of consciousness. The “trance state,” as some of ’em describe it.
Once we’re in this trance, they worry we’re susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Naughty pastors might try to insert
I recently skimmed an article by a particularly fearful Christian; we’ll call him Otmar. Yeah, I skimmed the piece: I was trying to suss out Otmar’s main points, but these practices enrage him so much, he couldn’t stick to his descriptions and kept interrupting to vent his spleen. Dude’s got issues. (But now I’m digressing.)
Y’notice
Most of the churches I visit totally do the same thing. And for the very same reasons. I’ll own up to it.
- When you walk into the service, the church usually has some music playing to set the mood. Typically songs the people already know. Something what gets people thinking, “We’re gonna do worship songs soon.”
- Then a “gathering song”—one which invites people to start singing and worshiping and praising God. One of my previous worship pastors really liked to use “Come, Now Is the Time to Worship.” Something fast and exciting. Frequently a song about praise, and why we oughta praise God—and that it’s fun!
- Then another fast song or two. Or three.
- Then we slow it down. Partly ’cause we can’t have everybody all amped up during the sitting-down portions of the service. Partly so people shout and jump less, and get more introspective
and meditative, and hopefully pay more attention to anythingthe Holy Spirit might tell them. - Then another slow song or two. Or stretch out the one song for a while, depending on
how much the worship pastor really loves that songthe Spirit’s leading.
My own church tends to do four songs total. And since I get to pick the preservice music, I tend to go with gospel. They listen to
Back to Otmar. He insisted on reading something insidious into everything this church wrote. They used the word “invocation” for the gathering song. That’s an old-timey Christianese word, found in all sorts of churches, frequently to describe the opening prayer. Otmar couldn’t help but wonder what other things it might invoke. Like devils. Told you dude’s got issues.
And as I’ve stated many times elsewhere, the issue actually has nothing to do with whether these prayer and worship practices open Christians to evil forces. ’Cause they don’t. The issue’s entirely about style. It’s about individual Christians’ individual preferences about how they prefer we pray and sing. It’s equivalent to not liking the carpet in the auditorium. Except the guy who hates the carpet is claiming mauve is the devil’s color, and having it in the auditorium is dooming us to hell.
I admit there are songs I dislike so much, I can easily accuse them of being farted into existence by Satan itself. But I’m kidding. Fools like Fenella and Otmar aren’t kidding at all.
Euphoria is hardly a new phenomenon, y’know.
Humans are in a lot more control of our emotions than we realize. And really
We’re told, in the scriptures, to seize hold of joy,
So if we wanna make ourselves feel excited, we can. Sometimes consciously, by doing what we know will excite us. Sometimes unconsciously—we aren’t aware that more things trigger excitement than we realize. Christians already know our worship pastors are trying to get us excited about worshiping God. What we may not realize is they’re doing a much better job than we thought. They know how to set the mood, how to get our heart rates up, how to get us to anticipate God’s presence… and how to get us
And this has always been true. Humans have always psyched ourselves into intense, euphoric excitement as part of religion. We blame the Holy Spirit, but let’s be honest: It’s not the Spirit who wanted King David ben Jesse to dance so hard, he flashed his penis at the Jerusalemites.
No really, that’s in the bible:
2 Samuel 6.20-22 KWL - 20 David returned to bless his own house. Mikál bat Saul came out to meet David.
- She said, “What honor did Israel’s king have today?
- Today, he exposed himself to the eyes of his slaves’ maids,
- like those going into captivity expose themselves; a worthless one!”
- 21 David told Mikál, “It was before the L
ORD . - He chose me over your father, over all his house, to appoint me ruler
- over the L
ORD ’s people, over Israel. I laugh before the LORD . - 22 I’ll be more embarrassing than this. I’ll be low in my own eyes!
- With the maids you speak of: With them I’ll be honored.”
The L
Had Samuel’s author not indicated otherwise, I’m entirely sure the people who aren’t into exuberant prayer and enthusiastic worship music, would’ve condemned David for dancing with all his might before God, same as they condemn various Christians for moshing with all our might before God. Even mighta claimed this sort of vigorous exercise might put David into anaerobic respiration, into a state of euphoria, and even open him up to demons or something. Because, like David’s annoyed wife Mikál, they don’t approve of this behavior. It’s undignified.
Otmar pointed out other religions work themselves into euphoric states with their repetitive prayers, chanting, dancing, or what have you. Like the Hare Krishnas, chanting till they reach what seems to them to be a higher plane. Like the Sufis, dancing till they feel closer to God.
But grousing about it skips, if not avoids, the more important relevant questions:
- Does it actually open us up to dark forces?
- Does God even forbid such behavior at all?
Pretty simple answers to both: No and no.
Suppressing our freedom in Christ by calling it demonic.
First: Did Jesus ever warn us not to pray so hard, we might get too emotional? Light-headed? Start sweating blood?
Yes, our enthusiasm and lack of impulse control can lead us astray, and the scriptures do address that. If you think God gave you a bright idea,
Second: Arguing that because another religion does it, it must therefore be evil, isn’t just illogical: It’s stupid.
Other religions pray. Does that mean Christians should avoid prayer, lest we accidentally pray to the wrong god and call down evil spirits? Of course not. Yet I’ve often heard
Other religions ritually eat things. Other religions ritually wash their practitioners. Does this mean Christians must get rid of holy communion and baptism? Of course not; what a stupid idea. And yet I’ve often heard foolish people insist Christians shouldn’t have drums in our churches, because native tribal religions use drums to call upon their spirits, both good and evil.
You realize a
Because regardless of what these people claim about what evil spirits might do, the reality is they haven’t seen a single instance where that’s happened. Oh, they might tell us a horror story or two: “No, it totally happened! There was this drummer, and he was playing some of that Christian rock, and suddenly he fell down possessed…” and the rest of the story indicates nobody had the presence of mind to throw the demon out of him, so nobody looks good in this story. But it’s pure fiction. Somebody invented it to scare people. It’s working, too. But it’s fake. There are a lot of fakes in Christendom, and not just false teachers and fake prophets: There are plenty of fake “spiritual warriors” who’ve never knowingly seen a real demon.
Their real motive, as I said, is to be rid of any practices in our churches they don’t like. And since Christians are scared of devils, they get their way by threatening us with devils. Praying wrong? Devils. Singing wrong? Devils. Reading C.S. Lewis, who for some reason put magic in his Narnia books? Devils. Listening to any music but hymns and white gospel? Devils.
Too much excitement and euphoria in your worship? Enjoying Jesus more than they are? Devils.
You see how devilish
So when I encounter people like Fenella and Otmar, who want to clamp down on our freedom in Christ to worship in a way which doesn’t bother our consciences any, and instead threaten us with the stumbling-block of devils always waiting to pounce,
