Play to your own strengths and consciences

Given the profound Evangelical (and to a great extent, Protestant) aversion to visual imagery in worship, that visual arts will never be their strong suit especially if it’s something they’re socialised to dislike. So much so that not only is visual art forbidden in Protestant circles (in principle and to some extent, in practice), but also made effectively redundant by the strong emphasis on the word (both oral and written). So Protestants’ biggest strengths in the arts lie not in painting, sculpture and drawing but rather in writing sermons, devotionals, commentaries and nonfiction in general since they can’t do fiction well either.

That might be my opinion since I don’t really like CS Lewis and it’s baffling why he gets such a pass in Evangelical circles, you’ll never see people making pilgrimages to where CH Spurgeon was at the way they do with Lewis. Even though I feel CH Spurgeon, by the virtue of writing devotionals and sermons, is the more substantial of the two. If because things like prophecies, testimonies about heaven and hell, devotionals and sermons really get you into the meat of God’s message, the Bible and what he knows about how you feel and do at the moment.

Everything that has something to do with human nature, but in ways you wouldn’t be comfortable about regarding sin. I feel given the common Protestant apprehension towards visual imagery, to the point where Protestants are better off sticking to the oral and written word instead. That’s something they always excel at, given the word is something they prioritise far more often. Stick to devotionals, sermons, apologetics, commentaries and the like. Stick to what you’re good at and know what’s right.

Move to high church

As to why so many young Evangelicals become Catholic (or turn to high church traditions in general), this is sometimes motivated by a desire to seek faith though in very unexpected places. I ended up going to Catholic devotionals simply because I want more devotionals to read, as well as looking up on the various Catholic traditions all over the world to reconnect to my Christian faith. But it’s also possible why some turn to Catholicism is because they’re curious about what it’s all about, sometimes not in ways they don’t realise given their upbringing.

As I realised from going to Catholic devotionals, they don’t really worship Mary and the saints as much as others make it out to be. In fact, some of the Catholic devotionals I’ve read contain significant passages from the Bible itself. As if Protestant mistrust of Catholicism and anything similar to it is rooted in both dehumanisation and ignorance, since it’s quite common for Protestants to see anything Catholic as anything unChristian. Even though if you’ve read actual Catholic texts, there’s a heavy mention of God and the Bible somewhere.

Some Evangelicals become Catholic because they’re actually curious about it, some become Catholic because they want a deeper relationship with God. Just not in ways their elders and peers expect, but that would mean their attitude to faith’s rather transactional or at least more superficial than they’d realise. I feel with Evangelicalism, there’s a big emphasis on something showy instead of something deep. It’s this easy to become disillusioned with Evangelicalism, especially when compounded by prejudice.

I understand why exvangelicals become the way they are, the Christianity they were exposed to is rather spiritually superficial. Built more on superstar pastors and a preoccupation with strict gender roles, which is ironically more in line with their enemies (Catholics, but also Muslims when it comes to modesty). When you build your faith on following superstars, it can be easy to fall into idolatry if one’s not careful. If only Evangelicals realised this, this would involve realising they are hypocrites.

So becoming high church is their way of seeking a deeper relationship with God, in ways people don’t expect nor understand immediately. Well that’s how it is with me when it comes to perusing Catholic and Orthodox devotionals in addition to the Protestant ones, it’s really a matter of seeking a deeper faith in God. Sometimes the message and beliefs are the same wherever you go, or so as I found out in life.

How can you accuse someone of having something in their eyes when it’s the same with you, per the Bible if I’m not mistaken? This is pretty much why exvangelicals exist, they’ve had enough with the ignorance and petty prejudice all their lives. This is also why exvangelicals turn to other denominations, if because they want a deeper faith. You can’t get deep faith if this were based on showy celebrities, which Evangelicalism is prone to at times.

Deep faith is important, regardless of the denomination you belong to.

Mad World

Since the Bible speaks about being in the world, but not of the world that in some regards Christianity is a pretty countercultural religion especially in this day and age. The Bible tends to be either negative or mixed about what the world celebrates, until you realise why Biblical writers and God are like this. They’re not entirely against certain things, maybe to a certain point and within reason. But at other times I feel what the Bible has to say may go against what many Christians do, love and believe.

Admittedly this depends on the church and country, but there are some places that do link dogs to witchcraft not helped by that the Bible mostly has a low opinion of dogs and that there’s this one verse that mentions both dogs and witches together. It seems like how the dominant culture (even the dominant Christian culture) treats children as a burden, beings needing to be harshly disciplined and scolded whereas dogs seem to get off easily.

But in light of dog predation and pathogenesis wiping out species that dogs would emerge as the bigger liability of the two, though that involves seeing dogs as what the Bible knew them as. Even if positive portrayals of dogs exist in the Bible and throughout Christianity, the evidence is mixed at best so the Biblical stance on dogs could be inconclusive at times if the Book of Tobit and even the story about Jezebel were taken into consideration. So the general attitude to dogs is also mixed depending on the locale and version of the Bible.

It’s even more mixed in extrabiblical beliefs where on one hand you have dogs linked to saints like St Francis of Assisi and Saint Dominic, but on the other hand they’re linked to witchcraft and the Devil himself not helped by that there’s one Bible verse that mentions both dogs and sorcerers together as said before. Admittedly this is the same with cats too when it comes to saints like Saint Gertrude and Saint Agatha, the latter who’s even said to turn into a cat herself.

(Coincidentally both animals get used in Christian monasteries the world over.)

Then we get to how Christians get accidentally complicit in someone’s vices or sins, especially if they themselves aren’t particularly aware of what they’re doing is wrong. Sort of like the thing about nudity in art, if it leads somebody to lust then avoid it. It’s this simple but that involves becoming more responsible with what one does, because they shouldn’t be a stumbling block to others. That involves being more careful with what they do, because it too could lead someone to sin. But one people will not be comfortable with.

Because this involves realising they’ve set up stumbling blocks for people, or aren’t aware of their actions leading others to sin. This is something those in the art community will not admit or realise in any way, because they are accidentally complicit in some way that they too need to bear the onus of their actions. I don’t think a lot of Christians, especially if they’re into the arts, seem deeply aware of how deeply entrenched perversion is into them. I guess a lot of it dovetails into the school of thinking that self-expression dominates them.

But when it dovetails with the satanic ‘my will be done’ thing, this is the real answer why perversion persists and grows in the arts. This is also likely the reason why so many artists are into the occult and the Devil, even if Christian artists do exist but they are a minority compared to these people. I don’t think Christian artists will comfortable with this, even if it makes itself evident with the numerous references to the Devil as well proliferating depictions of various paraphilias.

Then we get to Christians being really strict or harsh on children, perhaps far too harsh at times because I think deep down inside it’s their way of getting back at secularisation. But without knowing that it comes off as wanting to be better than everybody else, it’s a holier than thou mentality that alienates everybody and the likely reason why we have so many exvangelicals. I do get the feeling why Christians support spanking and harsh discipline is because they think it’s the right thing to do, but with seeing others as beneath them.

Children, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, everybody else who seem to be enemies of Evangelical Christianity; I feel a lot of Evangelicals (and Protestants in general) get far too proud of themselves, thinking they are better than everybody else. Ironically atheists might be humbler than them, in the sense of not knowing any better. The Bible emphasises the need to love one’s enemies, which is something Evangelicals fail to do so often. More often than not, they tend to be snarky and harsh towards everybody else.

They tend to be harsh on children, even though the Bible insists that they shouldn’t provoke children to anger. No wonder why so many of them quit Christianity because of those awful experiences, they shouldn’t be proud of themselves because they are ultimately human like everybody else. I feel Evangelicals have the need to seek an enemy, just so they can scold and chastise them a lot whilst mostly ignoring certain things the Bible also condemns.

No wonder why they condone spanking, sexism, sexual abuse, racism and other vices because they see nothing wrong with those, or at least see others as violating their standards and beliefs a lot. But then again the same principle holds for exvangelicals, who are evidently fed up with their every whim and hypocrisy. Then we get to another sin or vice that many Christians don’t seem particularly aware of, some may even condone it and it’s gluttony.

Part of the problem lies with how some Protestant churches tend to hold potlucks, which contributes to gluttony for some people but one they ought to be careful with. Then the other part is that Christians see nothing wrong with gluttony, they barely ever talk about and oppose the way they do with LGBT. If only they kept the same energy for gluttony, then that would mean gluttony got off easily out of all the seven deadly sins. This dovetails with the need for fasting in Christianity, but the problems lies with enabling gluttony in many ways.

Because Christians unwittingly enable certain things that God condemns, this is why Evangelicalism and the like have so many problems that could be solved by following God’s word.

Bibliography:

What should be the Christian perspective on nudity in art?

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT DOGS

What Does the Bible Say About Dogs?

Beware of dogs! The position and role of dogs in biblical discourse

An Elephant in the Room-Sized Post on Gluttony

Obesity in the Body of Christ

Unowned& Feral Dogs and Wildlife

The global impacts of domestic dogs on threatened vertebrates

Cats of Valaam (Russian)

THE DESERT LISTENS TO GOD (Russian)

Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands” (French and English)

COMMENT ÊTRE DÉLIVRÉ DES SORCIER(E)S EPISODE 7, DOCTEUR HENRI KPODAHI (French)

Discovery of Witches, by Thomas Potts

The Cat Saint

https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/myt/hsr/uss/kih/9.htm (Russian)

The Witch turns into a Dog (Russian)

The witch turned into a black dog and milked the goats (Russian)

Free-ranging dogs as a potential threat to Iranian mammals

What Does The Bible Say About Spanking?

Epiphany About Something

I realised the other reason why Protestants like Jews so much isn’t just a matter of compatibility but that they’re the model minority, especially when you realise that so many of them distrust Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Taoists a lot. It’s like how so many Protestants, especially the ones I personally know, tend to be into Jews and Judaism a lot yet mistrust Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Taoism.

Even if they’re not any better either, I often see how Evangelicals routinely put down Catholics and Orthodox Christians a lot. They even put them in the same category as Hindus and Taoists, which says a lot about their racism when these denominations and faiths predominate anywhere east of Protestant (and Anglican) majority countries. Anywhere that’s east of Protestant-majority countries is ripe for missionary activity.

While it sounds like I’m against missionary activity, it’s kind of oddly coincidental that Evangelicals don’t seem to see Easterners as human the way they do with Jews. Because of Jews’ model minority status, it’s sometimes used as a wedge against anybody who aren’t Protestants yet aren’t Jewish either. Do you not realise how Zionism’s used to spite those who are commonly suspected of idolatry?

If Jews are really a model minority in Protestant circles, this has rather damning implications not just for Catholic, Orthodox, Taoist and Hindu communities but also for Jews themselves. It’s also possible Jews distrust Evangelicals because they don’t want to be pegged as the model minority for long, but that involves realising something. Jews have an elevated status in Protestantism that elides Africans and East Asians, the very people white Protestants have witnessed to.

It gets even more ironic when you realise that some aspects of Chinese culture are quite compatible with Christianity, such as respecting elders and female deference to male authority which are also central to Confucianism. It’s either a religion or a philosophy, but as a philosophy it lends itself well to Christian values and possibly why Christianity is exploding in numbers there. Same with South Korea when you think about it.

Meanwhile, Christianity has declined significantly in Israel since Jews returned and that Jews don’t see Messianic Jews as Jewish makes you wonder if the tendency to see Jews as honourary Protestants is linked to them being a model minority. If this is true, then it does explain a lot of things.

Evangelical Resentments

From my experience, it’s terribly not uncommon to see Evangelicals and Pentecostals rag on Catholics a lot, so much so that it’s their way of showing what they’re doing is superior, even though God says it’s still boasting to see yourself as better than others even sinners like them. They keep on ragging on Catholics for ‘worshipping’ Mary, even though some have made idols out of the unemployed housewife. Instead of doing away Marianismo, they recreated it in the form of complimentarianism.

Odder still is that for all their Biblical literalism, they seldom hold dogs and dog owners in the same regard they have for Catholics even if the Bible doesn’t have that high opinion of dogs either. The only Evangelicals who do so a lot tend to be Pentecostals from select countries like Cameroon, Ghana and Democratic Republic of Congo, where they associate them with witchcraft which makes them more biblically consistent since there’s a verse that mentions both dogs and sorcerers together.

I even have a nagging feeling why you don’t commonly see Evangelicals rag on dog owners that much is because Catholics constitute a very easy target for their resentment, even though dog owners should also be one of their targets especially when their love for dogs crosses over to idolatry. Maybe some of them do, but not enough to drown the rampant anti-Catholicism. Selective outrage much, to the point where it feels like hypocrisy despite their Biblical literalism.

Even stranger is that they should be good friends with Muslims, since they also don’t like the use of graven images in worship. But they also resent them a lot, not just that they worship a false god but they also remind them too much of themselves. Down to the fanatical obsession with women not showing skin or revealing clothes in any way, whereas this is relegated to a minority in Judaism. (Maybe that’s why Jews are wary of Evangelicals.)

Oddly enough, I feel geek culture might be a far better target for their resentment of idolatry. I have this feeling before, especially whenever geeks love the things they like without putting God first. Well most of them do, not that they’re autistic but that what they’re doing is idolatry refined into an art form or a science. Fan art can constitute a graven image far better than Catholic art of Jesus, since the latter at least honours God.

Everything they say about Catholics fits geek culture far better, especially since I had this revelation in life that the closer I get to God, the less I am involved in geek fandoms. Which’s a side effect of being this devoted to God, you can’t have any idols competing with God and this includes geek fandom idols. I feel if they did target fandom a lot the way they do with Catholicism, not just those suspected of witchcraft but anybody who gets in the way of God it would result in great controversy.

Like if they start targeting geek culture for idolatry, they’d have a better target for their resentment but one that would be far more controversial if they did this at all. I guess it really is selective outrage all the way, even though some prove better targets for their rage and anger than others.

The new Catholicism and the new Evangelicalism

I have this epiphany that Evangelical Christianity has become the new Catholicism, in the sense where not only does one have to undergo training of some sort (Bible study) but also because like 18th century French Catholic clergy a good number of Evangelical pastors are very privileged people. The only real difference, that’s other than doctrinal beliefs, is that many French bishops were born into wealth while their Evangelical counterparts become wealthy through business.

Even then they lead lavish lives while their followers either remain socioeconomically lower or get lower over time, although there are pastors and bishops who lead truly humble lives and actually give money to the poor they’re overshadowed by their more ostentatious counterparts. Evangelicals may not necessarily venerate saints, but they do venerate pastors and any authoritative Christian. While a good number of Evangelicals avoid the trappings of Catholicism, in venerating, overpaying and elevating pastors they’ve recreated 18th century French Catholicism.

As to whether or not Evangelicalism has become ritualistic, though it could be argued that secular fandom is also ritualistic, yet speaking from experience as an Evangelical it’s considered mandatory to read the Bible and to an extent devotionals and listen to Christian music and watch Christian movies. Since I compared contemporary Evangelicalism to 18th century French Catholicism, it’s befittingly logical for Evangelical pastors to endear themselves to the political elite.

Evangelical Christianity looks informal compared to Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox and mainline Protestantism, but when compared to secular fandoms it looks very formal. Not just because some pastors have a habit of dressing formally (there are those who dress casually), but because Evangelicalism has become rather ritualistic. Not just with water baptism, but also the tendency to read devotionals and Bible both out of devotion and necessity.

Evangelicals venerate pastors in lieu of saints, a very prominent pastor might as well serve as their pope. While there are similar things in fandom, I do think Evangelicalism’s newfound formality may’ve put off some people and partly why Christianity’s declining in the West. Secular fandoms seem way more informal, in the sense that other than the objects of fandom, fandom authorities aren’t so detached from the rest of the population. Much like the average football fan, many football writers aren’t that rich.

Though it could be argued that fandom constitutes a new Evangelicalism, not just in spreading the word about something they like but also rivalling Evangelicalism in terms of emotionality over reason. Not just having feels about a certain programme or story, but also getting angry and spiteful over characters they don’t like (which gets worse if racism’s involved). New atheism might also be a contender for the new Evangelicalism in terms of how vocal and forceful this has become.

Tellingly, there’s even an atheist version of the daily devotional so sacrosanct to Christians. Perhaps, my comments on what makes new atheism the new Evangelicalism isn’t so off after all. I feel Evangelicalism has become so detached from the masses, not helped by that Evangelicals are socialised to distrust normal people a lot. Maybe that’s why others turn to fandom, they don’t want to be condescended to or infantilised and demonised for the things they like.

To the point where they do a better job at evangelising to other people than some Evangelicals do, which says a lot about the state of Evangelicalism we’re in.

Kind of empty

While Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox churches might also have a degree of Philo-Semitism, it’s more deeply expressed among Protestants (especially if they’re Evangelical or Pentecostal). Not just because it’s about fulfilling biblical prophecy, but also because Protestantism’s short on some things. Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism are rich in lore about saints as well as having a good tradition of monasticism, I feel speaking as a Protestant, has a depth Protestantism lacks.

Protestantism, by contrast, has a habit of excising nearly every Catholic element as a way to protest against the Catholic Church but to the point of becoming rather empty for some churches. So empty that they often co-opt from Jews a lot, even if it’s something Jews dislike. Whether if it’s appropriating Jewish practices or reading Jewish literature, it’s pretty much filling in the gap left by years of ingrained anti-Catholicism. While I didn’t convert to Catholicism the way my sister did, Catholicism does seem deeper.

Deeper when it comes to lore regarding saints as well as the lives of monastics which appeal to me a lot more than Israel, so I think some of the problems with Protestantism and especially some churches is that they tend to be rather empty and shallow. Well, it seems some Protestants co-opt Jewish beliefs and practices in an effort to be closer to God, though Catholics and Orthodox believers have done the same with saints and monasticism (if they take the extra mile).

I still think in excising a lot of the things Roman Catholicism created in Western Christianity, it resulted in a much emptier and shallower Western Christianity. So empty and shallow, some Protestants appropriate from Judaism a lot to the detriment of actual Jews. If I were honest, I’m not that big into Israel. I actually find Turkey more interesting than Israel, it was even a Christian country at some point and Christian influence still lingers among some Muslim communities.

But Israel gets a pass due to its biblical association, though for some reason this doesn’t extent to Greece and Italy even though they too contribute a lot to Christianity’s evolution and get mentioned in the Bible as well. It’s a strange double standard that can be explained by how Greece and Rome as seen as bastions of idolatry, even though not all Greeks and Italians are like this. Israel, for all its faults, gets high priority among Pentecostals and Evangelicals.

In lieu of saint lore and monasticism, Protestants have prioritised Israel, Judaism and created their own subculture by ironically copying secular culture. While it’s true not everybody’s called to be celibate and Margery Kempe was not a nun despite being a mystic, even then it does come off as rather empty and shallow in a way Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy aren’t.

It gets weirder still that many Christians don’t bother learning or looking up on what Aramaic is, since it’s also spoken by Jesus and some portions of the Bible were written in that language. Likewise Christians don’t seem that interested in say Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish, which are also Jewish languages. Now I get why some Jews have an issue with Evangelical philo-Semitism, in the sense that Evangelicals are only into the more superficial aspects of Judaism.

The trappings, rather than the lived realities, along with how empty Protestantism is which drives the appropriation of Jewish practices but not learning the other Jewish languages like Aramaic and Yiddish for instance. It seems Protestant philo-Semitism is well-intentioned, but also empty when it comes to not looking hard enough for expressions of Christian mysticism prior to Protestantism (not just Hussites and Waldnesians but also Catholic mystics).

This proves my point about how empty Evangelical and Pentecostal faith can get when it comes to the actual depth and breadth of Christian history prior to Protestantism and after Judaism.

CS Lewis–Sympathiser to Catholicism

As I said before, whilst CS Lewis’s not formally part of the Catholic Church he’s sympathetic to it for many reasons like say JRRR Tolkien getting him converted to Christianity and him being exposed to Catholicism a lot does explain some things in the like manner Billy Graham’s sympathetic to the Russian Orthodox Church and probably aware of it on some level.

There are at least some Evangelicals sympathetic to Catholicism and other Christian denominations, or some Christians have profound experiences or knowledge with both denominations like at some point, somebody might be brought up in a Catholic church, goes to a Protestant school and church and then back again.

I could be talking about myself and a few others, but then again I’m rather sympathetic to the Eastern Orthodox like Billy Graham. I also have my sympathies for and interest in things like Catholic Charismatic (part of the Catholic Church that’s meant to revitalise the Church like what Martin Luther tried to do) and also Dante Alighieri.

The latter I think if he were alive today, with his vivid visions of hell and heaven he’d be either Pentecostal or Charismatic. So I can’t berate Catholics, Evangelicals and Orthodox anymore as I’m exposed to all three in varying degrees of familiarity.

Being fair to Catholics

I still think that even if there are stories of Catholic priest and nuns not being celibate, some of them legitimately are celibate and pious, even having a true relationship with God that it would be unfair to generalise all Catholics, Orthodox Christians and the like as such.

Ironically enough, Protestantism started out as an attempt to change Catholicism from the inside out but since it that didn’t go well it became its own church. (There are some Protestant churches with some Catholic tendencies and some Evangelicals sympathetic to Catholicism.)

I myself do show an interest in Catholicism and the Orthodox Church, with regards to animals that I think many Evangelicals are missing out on that even if that does help bridge gaps. I still think some Catholics and Orthodox are legitimate Christians, like Evangelicals are.

So I can’t be prejudiced against Catholicism anymore, given my sympathies and interests.