BlogRodent: Pentecostal Rumination & Review

I submit for your consideration two apparently unrelated questions:

• Is the Assemblies of God a cult?
• Is Wikipedia an authoritative encyclopedia?

I submit that the Assemblies of God is as much like a cult as the Wikipedia is authoritative. We are, instead, a movement.

A Word on Wikipedia
Over the last few months Wikipedia has taken much heat over its collaborative form of public authoring and editing. Nearly anyone can post an article, make an edit, or undo edits. This is good, and not-so-good: The good of it is that Wikipedia benefits from the collective mind of many editors. Where one editor may have it wrong, several others can guide an article to incremental perfection (in theory). On the other hand, one misinformed or biased "editor" can make subtle or egregious changes, and it may not come to the attention of those best armed to correct it. Thus, Wikipedia's

Updated 01/09/2006: See my reference to Dan Edelen’s recent post, below.

Last Tuesday, I was asleep at the wheel when Eric Reed over at Out of Ur invited Dr. Craig L. Blomberg to post a thoughtful article on blogging and the Evangelical blogosphere. I finally saw the post today, and thought it worth sharing.

It’s easy to read Blomberg’s post as entirely critical. It’s not. But he does ask some hard questions worthy of consideration. His post, indeed, may be a sort of litmus test for motives: if you see it as overly critical, perhaps you’re the inspiration for his questions? I quote, below, a few excerpts, but the whole post is worth reading. My response, posted to the site, follows.

If Marshall McLuhan was even partly right that “the medium is the message,” then what message does the medium of blogging send?

Update: See "The A/G: Desperately Seeking Disciplers" for the latest information on this issue, and to see what the A/G is doing about it.

Blogging from the heartland, Sean MacNair calls it like he sees it. In a brief post he concisely serves up highlights from 100 years of American church renewal (See: "The Pardoner's Tale: My best (stolen) idea so far this year"). He buzzes over Pentecostalism, the Charismatic renewal, healing revivals, Billy Graham, the Charismatic Catholic renewal, the Jesus Movement, the megachurch-cum-denomination trend, worship innovations, and the Emergent Conversation. His point: Renewal threatens the status quo but ultimately gets institutionalized, fades into oblivion, or is assimilated into the mainstream.

Buried in his post is a subtle criticism of the movement that spawned them all, and the institution that formed as a result: Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God.

Today I felt my heart lifted even as my gut was wrenched. Kurt Eichenwald, writing for The New York Times, ditched a traditional rule of journalism by becoming a compassionate part of the story. And The NYT pulled out all the stops, backing him every step of the way. Three cheers for Eichenwald and the NY Times!

Update 12/30/05: Kurt Eichenwald updates us on the aftermath his series of articles have at least temporarily wrought in the online pedophiliac camworld. From the article: “The shutdown of the portals, all of which have been in operation for at least four years, came days after an article in The New York Times described how minors, often with the assistance of their online fans, had begun operating pay pornography sites featuring their own images sent onto the Internet by Webcams.” Child Pornography Sites Face New Obstacles (New

This is an update to: Youth pastor slays wife, confesses. Why, oh why?

Note: On 12/15 I updated this post with a comment found off the Web, and some commentary.

Eric Brian Golden had his first day in court yesterday. Golden’s confession was read to the the court by Detective LaPrentice Mayes, and other testimony was apparently provided, including some of Golden’s statements to the police outside the transcript. (Remember, “anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”). Judge Lawrence Dillon is sending Golden to the grand jury, charged with murder.

New information paints a more troubling picture of the Golden family life. According to Brian Golden, marriage had already been “rocky” for two years—with the trouble apparently beginning after their move to Southside. There was drinking going on (Golden claims

I struggle whether to blog on tragic news events with real victims still suffering, and about which I can do nothing. I am not a journalist, the story is not local, and I don't want to prey off of others' sensational misfortune just to garner a minor increase in blog traffic. But, being a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God) blogger, I do feel that when something newsworthy happens in our niche of culture, it's worth at least knowing about if only for reflection and with a view toward "big picture" issues.

This should go without saying, but I will say it anyhow: please pray for the church and families involved in what I am about to describe. My commentary and reaction follow my summary.

Happily married couple...

Travis Johnson, over at The Edge Church Think Tank, posted an article bemoaning the incredible shrinking church: “The Great Shrinking Church. What Gives?!?!” First, he cites some statistics from The American Church:

• 18.7%: Americans in church in 2000
• 18.0%: Americans in church in 2003
• 11.7%: Americans projected to be in church by 2050
• 4,600: New churches from 1990–2000
• 38,802: How many new churches there should have been in order to keep pace with American population.

That America is becoming an increasingly secular nation is no surprise. That traditional church style seems increasingly irrelevant in the “naughties” and that church numbers are in decline—again—no surprise.

So, taking an unflinching look at the numbers (there was more cited), Travis concludes:

“In my mind, those statistics absolutely prove that we MUST move every single priority to the side burner. Establishing new churches and transitioning declining churches needs to be

J. Lee Grady, over at Charisma magazine, has issued a call for clearheadedness among the charis-manics in his editorial, “It’s Getting Really Weird Out There.” The article cites strange goings-on at various Charismatic churches, and some classical Pentecostal churches.

This is where I cite my earlier post, “The Problem with Pentecostal Distinctives,” to reinforce his point. This is what happens when any group elevates experience and subjectivity above a commitment to sound biblical hermeneutics. This is why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14, addressing bad theology based on experience, grounding the Corinthians instead in the greatest commandment: love.

More than anything, we need to adhere to first principles: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. While none of us, not one, can claim to keep these commandments perfectly, it’s the goal we aim

There's a rash of fishy news stories on Google lately about a minor skirmish between a 300-member Assembly of God church and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA—not to be confused with “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals”).

The score: PETA 1, People 0, Comet Goldfish -12.

Look, it’s common knowledge that youth pastors have crazy ideas and are compelled to pull stunts. Even when it’s accidental, it’s still a big hit (see my post about young Blake Bergstrom, the “tent pitching” youth pastor—that post more than doubled the traffic to this lonely blog!). The crazier the idea and the more outrageous the stunt, the more hopped-up the kids get. And it’s a fundamental truth that hopped-up chirren is exactly what Jesus needs more of.

So, young, unsuspecting, youth pastor, Anthony Martin, over at the First Assembly

According to WebUser.co.uk, PlusNet (a UK ISP) has released a study concluding what many have said for years:

Nearly a third of people say their relationships have suffered because their use of digital technology means they ‘talk less’.

Among other “ground-breaking” conclusions:

• 90% said email, text, and IMs make communication less personal;
• 41% said they’d rather get a phone call;
• 40% say email, text, and IM are less confrontational;
• 27% use email, text, and IM to flirt;
• 22% use email, text, and IM to apologize for missed birthdays;
• 19% use email, text, and IM to call in sick to work.

I mentioned some of my thoughts on this in my interview with Garrick the other day. The Internet “mediates” relationships, like postal mail does, or sending messages to your spouse via the kids. But the almost “real-time” immediacy of the Net conceals it’s mediating

Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Charles Krauthammer has written a great “big-picture” view of the blame-shifting realities of Katrina’s fallout: “Assigning Blame.” It’s not long and is worth reading. Here’s a graf Krauthammer put out there as a “throw-away” item, but it brilliantly sums up what I wish I had written:

This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period. The problem with the evacuation of New Orleans is not that National Guardsmen in Iraq could not get to New Orleans, but that National Guardsmen in Louisiana did not get to New Orleans. As for the Bush tax cuts, administration budget requests for New Orleans flood control during the five Bush years exceed that of the five preceding

Bill Whittle at “Eject! Eject! Eject!” has posted a brilliant, if sometimes crudely worded (R-Rated), post about the nature of white hats and black hats, pink and grey, or sheep, wolves, and sheep-dogs: TRIBES. It is a passionate, reasoned response to the aftermath of Katrina, the erosion of moral levees, and the shocking polar opposite of 9/11 heroism. Watching this, many of us struggle for answers: “Why?”

Bill’s post doesn’t offer a solution, but he does offer a perspective and a cultural critique that is thought-provoking. There’s no way I could do it justice by summarizing it. If you are not easily offended by coarse language, you should read it yourself. Bill is not a man of faith, his language is blue, but his passion is righteous.

Here’re the final grafs to tempt you:

It takes courage to fight oncoming storms. Courage.

Courage isn’t free. It is taught, taught by

Friday night we went out to eat with the kids to AJ’s current favorite watering hole: Cracker Barrel. While my favorite foods are spicy Thai curries, the rest of my family prefer blander fare. Well, Jen likes Italian and TexMex quite a bit, but the kids? Oh, mac-and-cheese or boiled eggs is about as sophisticated as their palate gets. So, southern-style cooking is just fine for AJ and Elisabeth.

But it’s not the cooking that draws AJ there. It’s two simple things. No, make that three: First, an endlessly fascinating commercial enterprise with toys easily accessible to his grubby fingers. Second, a checker-board with rocking chairs right by the fireplace. (Our Cracker Barrel ritual requires a game while the drinks are coming.) Third, rocking chairs. After dinner, we tour the store, with a stop at the toy section. We pay our bill, and AJ gets to help with the transaction. We

In the Paris News story about the Assembly of God church shooting in Sash, Texas, Debbie Wolfe is quoted, remembering the scene when Sash A/G pastor James Armstrong was killed by the gunman:

“Brother Armstrong’s wife crouched down beside their travel trailer, and I know the man walked back and forth several times shooting. The Lord protected her.”

Can I tell you I am bothered when folks say this?

Does Mrs. Wolfe really mean to imply that God was not protecting Rev. Armstrong? That God was not protecting the other three who were murdered this Sunday?

Not really, I really don’t think that’s what she means.

But the words say it, and people who aren’t native speakers of “church talk” hear a different message than she’s intending to send. (For my part, I think she and others like her simply mean, “The outcome should’ve been different, but God must have had a different purpose

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Association of Christian Schools International (800+ religious schools in California) and the Calvary Chapel Christian School (Murrieta, California) filed a civil rights lawsuit this past Thursday against the University of California, claiming religious discrimination. I believe the suit specifically alleges that UC discriminates against students who are taught creationism. According to the LA Times, UC won't recognize high school science courses using textbooks based on creationism, or that challenge Darwinistic theories.

Aparrently, UC believes it is impossible to teach real science when matters of faith are at stake. Has anyone in the admissions office there looked up the definition of "theory" lately? Among the high school courses rejected by UC are:

• Christianity's Influence in American History
• Christianity and Morality in American Literature
• Special Providence: American Government

Those sound like reasonable course titles, to me.

I found this especially compelling in light of some of

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a seven-page research article yesterday regarding pain and fetal development. Five researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) pored over nearly 2,000 studies before arriving at their conclusions.

Or did they? Is it possible the conclusion was already in hand before even beginning the research?

According to USA Today, Susan J. Lee is the article's lead author. Susan is an attorney currently studying medicine at UCSF. That's nice. However, before deciding to advance the cause of medicine, she advanced the cause of abortion rights while serving as counsel for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL Pro-Choice America — be sure to see Stan Guthrie's piece about NARAL and it's true history). Not so nice.

I was really missing my Pocket PC on the drive home tonight. Not just because it’s worth a chunk of change, but because since I brought it home, I’ve stopped listening to AM radio on my twice-a-day hourly commute and during lunch.

I used to get more than two hours of talk radio piped into my cranium on a daily basis. (Not recommended for mental health, or accurate world views. You start to really believe you could refinance your home and get a loan for zero interest, that bankruptcy might actually be a way to get ahead, that the government is just waiting to throw money at me, that lasik eye-surgery is so easy any monkey can do it for peanuts, that I desperately need a heart checkup—now, that hair transplants will make me irresistibly sexy [natch, I already am!], and that technical college

This is a long one. Apologies in advance.

The General Council of the Assemblies of God—the US A/G fellowship I belong to—met last week (August 2–5) in it’s biennial (every other year) business meeting at Denver, Colorado.

As I mentioned previously, I believe the US version of the Assemblies of God will soon be facing a challenge to its sense of global centricity due to the growth of the Evangelical church in the global South. (It’s not the international headquarters in Springfield, MO, by the way, just the US headquarters—there is no international authority for the A/G.)

I saw a news item on Google today that brought that home. It led to further exploration at the AG.org website detailing news and reports from last week’s meeting, and it was a very interesting tour. Allow me to take you through it.

First off,