Wherein I lament the failure to practice what good theology and biblical interpretation ought to have taught us: tongues-for-show only shows one thing: lunacy.
Surely, by now, everybody's seen or at least heard of the WashingtonPost.com political cartoon by equal-opportunity skewer-artist Pat Oliphant that was automatically posted to the WP's cartoon site on September 9 last. If you haven't seen it, and if you are Pentecostal or charismatic, viewing it may make you angry. But if you feel so inclined, do check it out. (For coverage, check out the official A/G response, Christianity Today's blog post,
Wherein I break my silence to introduce my latest freelance writing project for ChristianityToday.com (a small article) and attempt to exlain in a thousand words or less what the entire media elite have yet to figure out despite the powers of Lexis-Nexis.
So last monday Ted Olsen at Christianity Today invited me to respond to the latest inquiries into Palin's faith with a sensible description of who the A/G are and how we fit into the rest of mainstream evangelicalism. This is my attempt.
I'll confess to being a little nervous when writing this. Not only would my denomination's leadership see it, but probably a couple million people could find something to disagree over it. But, hey — have keyboard, will write.
So, here it
Tomorrow, the 52nd biennial business-meeting for the General Council of the Assemblies of God begins. On Thursday, our next General Superintendent will be selected. Here are my thoughts on matters over which I have no input or influence, and which are probably inappropriate for me to publicly opine over. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from writing! If you read this and think I'm an idiot for writing it, just remember: you read it!
[Skip all the blather and just see my pick for the vote, if that's what you're after!]
The Generational Exchange … Happens Now
Stop now. Before you go any further, before you cast your nominating vote, before you accept your nomination (as if anybody reads this), go listen to
On the resignation of the Assemblies of God's current superintendent, Rev. Thomas Trask, and the chaos that is in its wake. Wherein I opine on matters explicitly not my business.
I'd like to make it perfectly clear at the outset: I am not a credentialed Assemblies of God minister. I'm not a credentialed anything really. I'm blogging on this matter because it's of interest to me as an Assemblies of God churchgoing Pentecostal who loves his Fellowship and because it's also of interest to you, my faithful readers.
Oh, also because I tend blog on this sort of thing, and I promised you that I would.
What you are about to read (if you read it) is opinion mixed with some facts. I will try to source
Tammy Faye Messner, the former wife of Jim Bakker of PTL fame, has passed away after struggling against colon and lung cancer for several years.
On July 17, just three days before her death, Messner's last message on her website announced that she had gained 5 pounds: up from her recent low of 65. In that same message she extolled the virtues of a good hamburger:
I crave hamburgers and french fries with LOTS of ketchup! When I can eat that again, it will be a day of victory!
Friday, July 20, was a day of victory for Tammy Faye.
More...
The Carlton Pearson curiosity continues.
Over the last few weeks I've noticed the amount of search engine queries landing on this site have shot heavenward for Carlton Pearson. The searchers have typed:
- carlton pearson goes bad
- carlton pearson has cancer
- carlton pearson has lost his mind
- is carlton pearson gay?
- did carlton pearson get a divorce?
As far as I can tell, Carlton Pearson's "badness" quotient has gotten no worse than when I wrote my semi-definitive exploration of his doctrine of inclusion back in early 2006: "Carlton D. Pearson: The Charismatic Bishop of Heresy." I've read that
The Rev. E. Thomas Trask, General Superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, has announced his resignation. I will prepare a report with more details soon. Really. I will.
Note: As promised, my long rambling cogitation is now available here.
[tags]trask, tom-trask, thomas-trask, thomas-e-trask, general-superintendent, general-superintendant, general-council, general-council-of-the-assemblies-of-god, assembly-of-god, assemblies-of-god, rev-trask, reverend-trask, resignation, blogrodent, religion, christianity, pentecostal[/tags]
I recently wrote about the relatively unremarked issue of gender dysphoria and believers opting for gender reassignment. I wrote that I had communicated with Assemblies of God leadership about this issue some years ago, and that I believed a position paper is in order — now, not at some later date when it becomes a "real" issue.
And it has begun. I'd say the issue is now real.
While it hasn't surfaced within the Assemblies of God yet, I suspect it will within the next few years. Meanwhile, The Church Report Online released a special report in its May 2007 issue, titled: "Identity Crisis: A Transgender Minister Reappointed to Lead
I've often heard it said within Pentecostal circles that the Holy Spirit gets little recognition — even within our own Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Of course, there's some theological justification for this: According to Jesus' promise in John 14:26, one of the Holy Spirit's primary roles in the believer's life is to direct our attention to Jesus:
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
As I was checking out a few of my unread feed subscriptions tonight, I came across a mention of the Google Trends service. This tool has been in service for quite some time, but since I was
For some time I've wanted to provide some sort of real-world ranking system so that those of you who want to know who the "big fish" are can find them, and so those of you who have successfully worked your blog into the stratosphere would get a little praise for your effort.
After thinking about it and hacking around with some online tools, I finally have an easy way for me to quickly determine the Technorati Ranking of every blogger on my PneumaBlogs list. (The Technorati ranking is determined by the number of links to a site by other bloggers within the last few months. So it's sort of like a "vote" by other bloggers.) Upon seeing the results I was surprised at some of the lesser-known bloggers making it to the top of the heap.
Congratulations!
In a mad dash of creative craziness, a few more things have popped up on the PneumaBlogs tool-set. So, for your blog-reading enjoyment, here's a quick summary of everything not covered in my previous post ("PneumaBlogs, PneumaSphere, PneumaSearch").
FireFox Search Plug-in
< ?php include ("/home/rtatum/public_html/blog/pneumatools.txt"); ?>
First off, fellow PneumaBlogger Christoph Fischer ("my cup of coffee") saw that I'd created a Google Co-Op tool to search within the entire set of PneumaBloggers (PneumaSearch) and he went off and quickly fabricated a PneumaSearch MyCroft extension for the FireFox search bar. What this means is that if you use FireFox and if you use the built-in FireFox search bar, you can quickly add a tool to your search box that will allow you to search only within the PneumaBlogs universe of bloggers.
Thanks Chris!
Squidoo alternate for PneumaBloggers
In case you haven't noticed, over the past several days I've been trying to bring my "Pneuma" pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable.
Just now I've added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that's right, I've gone crazy with the whole "Pneuma" prefix, just like I've irrationally appended "Rodent" to everything else. I guess, in the tradition of Web 2.0 mash-ups, I'm the PneumaRodent. But that may be carrying things too far. (Talk to my editor about it.)
Anyhow here's what's new:
I've finally gotten around to evaluating everybody who's been asking for consideration, and it shows. My paltry list of 70-80 PneumaBloggers has shot up to 130+. That number could change daily, or weekly.
Also, previously, I've used the built-in "BlogRoll" or "Links Manager" function of WordPress to manage my ever-growing
Last year, on October 3, I did a live interview with John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti from Word-FM about the "Jesus Camp" documentary that was then the height of Evangelical fear-mongering (start here if you don't know what I'm talking about: "Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood — or Is it Spin?"). At least that was before the Ted Haggard fracas blew up.
Not long before this interview took place, I had also been interviewed by MSNBC for its program, "The Most." (If you're interested, see "Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on MSNBC."). It was interesting experiencing these two interview formats back-to-back. I enjoyed being on "The Most" as a floating-head talker, but I really enjoyed chatting with John
I have been silent on the outing of Ted Haggard, not because I have nothing to say, but I needed to know more of the story before writing anything. And I needed time for my heart to break.
Now that most of the relevant data are in, I will do my usual thorough job of reviewing most of what has been written and produced on the matter so I can serve up a concise lengthy treatise.
Stay tuned.
[tags]BlogRodent, ted-haggard, new-life-church, homosexuality, drugs, methamphetamine, charismatic, pentecostal, national-association-of-evangelicals, nae, colorado-springs, colorado, sexual-sin, sin, moral-failure[/tags]
This is a review of The Apostle that I dashed off back in 1998, about half a year after that film was released. I wrote it for a discussion list that is now defunct. I thought, in light of the other recent movie I reviewed (Jesus Camp, it would be interesting to resurrect this from the ol' mail archives.
Since I wrote it eight years ago, it's a little rough around the edges. But I'm posting it with minimal editorial changes--mainly for the sake of time.
Enjoy ... and if you get a chance to rent this flick, I think you'll enjoy it, with the few caveats I mention below.
After all the debate about Robert Duvall's move, The Apostle, I finally got a chance to see it in one of the cheap second-run theaters locally.
That two unbelieving directors don't understand Pentecostals — or Evangelicals — isn't surprising. That they produced a film rife with ignorance and bias is also unsurprising. But that ordinary people who can normally tie their shoes and avoid bad movies like Gigli don't see how insufferably biased this documentary is … well, that's just depressing.
Now the admirably snarky and witty artist, Julie R. Neidlinger (a fellow Pentecostal who's actually been to the A/G campgrounds featured in the film), has blessed us with a post that might help. Julie has been guest-commenting, blogging here and there, and strenuously trading comments, attempting to defuse the snap judgments and shallow rhetoric inspired by the film and its trailer. And, frankly, she's about fed up.
At 2:40 PM (CST) on Tuesday, September 26, I "appeared" on MSNBC's 'Net review: The Most, with Alison Stewart. Alison's producer spoke with Mark Moring, editor for the Christianity Today Movies channel, wondering if he'd be willing to answer a few questions about Jesus Camp on-air.
Since I'd seen the documentary and recently written an article for CT Movies, he deferred to me. I nervously accepted the opportunity.
I appeared not as a representative of Christianity Today (my employer), but as "a Pentecostal blogger" writing for Christianity Today Movies.
For three minutes, I fielded three questions:
- "What did you walk away from this documentary thinking about Evangelical camps for kids?"
- "Becky Fischer ...
Jesus Camp, what an experience. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's investigation into the hidden world of one Pentecostal kids' camp simultaneously delighted me, fascinated me, and embarrassed me. I love this film. I hate this film.
It angers me.
For those who haven't seen the trailer, by now, the premise is simple: follow three pre-teens from Missouri heading to a summer camp owned by the Assemblies of God in Devils Lake, North Dakota (Lakewood Park Bible Camp). Document their experiences there, and follow up on the aftermath. Simple enough.
But the devil, as they say, is in the details. Or, in this case, the future Evangelical Army of God is in the details. As Ewing and Grady have noted, their initial raw footage had no real drama: "There was absolutely no conflict. … it wasn't dynamic enough." So, toss in a conflicted profile of the "Kids on Fire" camp director, Becky Fischer; include a few oddball characters for color and commentary; stir up dissent using Air America radio host Mike Papantonio and his uninformed Greek chorus of callers. Then get a major Charismatic Evangelical to appear in the documentary to give your subtext some heft and legitimacy and tie it all together with a neat little bow called George Bush and the Supreme Court.
Back at the first of the year, on January 3, I wrote a post wherein I teased out some trends from the most recent official A/G statistical report published in 2004. I concluded that:
Not only are the new believers outstripping the net change in adherents, they seem to have no impact on the growth trend at all. If the data are accurate, we may be bringing folks to Christ in the A/G, but we’re not keeping them.
—"Examining Assemblies of God statistics on growth"
And I illustrated my conclusion with data, specifically, with this chart:
Note the numbers:
472,704: Conversions
49,533: Net Change in Adherents
10.5%: Percentage of Net Change in Adherents
This week, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's indie documentary, Jesus Camp, is set to release, and already the blogosphere is all abuzz about it. I can't wait. I will be catching a pre-release screening of the film through the auspices of Christianity Today International, my employer, and will write my reactions to it as soon as possible. Of course, I'll share it with you.
Upon seeing the trailer, linked below, I was shocked and fascinated. Repelled and embarrassed. And angry. You see, I went to these camps as a kid. I witnessed this kind of exuberant excess, only I saw it with the eyes of an insider, both as a teenager and later as a camp counselor. I have seen the pseudo exorcisms (I sincerely doubt any of the exhibitions I saw at the altar were genuine possession) and I've seen my peers faint and wooden on the floor, both praising, weeping, and sometimes faking it.
And, looking back, it is a little creepy. But it was also formative.
Just a very quick note to say that I've updated the PneumaBlogs list in recent days to include some stellar new names, including:
Over on my post, “Charismatic Heresy,” inspired by the egregious charismatic excess highlighted by Charisma editor J. Lee Grady, reader Lynn asked some questions that deserve more attention than a comment reply merits.
Lynn writes:
I go to an A/G church, but have very Reformed views. It has been a struggle for years.
Here’s one question I have: Why, if Charismatic/Pentecostals have the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” do they tend to have MORE sin/problems in life than other more mainline denominations? It seems to be a doctrine that this second blessing is supposed to give power to live a godly life. I just don’t see it! My Presbyterian and Baptist friends seem to have a better handle on living the Christian life.
What about “prayer language”? Is this phenomena really in the Bible? I see the gift of tongues, but not a prayer language solely for the individual? If it is really supposed to build up the believer, why does it produce such flakiness?
Recently, on an A/G forum I participate in, somebody raised a question about Paula White, and several folks jumped in to offer their opinions. Some way through the discussion, we received this contribution from a long-time member of the group who is a seasoned minister in the Assemblies of God. He begins with a very brief critique of Paula White in response to the questioner, but then expands on some ideas about what Paula White and her colleagues represent as a trend in the Pentecostal and charismatic tradition.
I thought it was too good and on-point a post to share. Not because it slams the A/G … Mark loves the A/G and is a faithful minister within our Fellowship. But this is a timely and critical warning. I think Mark speaks the truth, and we should heed it. This is why we have the Carlton D. Pearson’s of the Church promoting heresy and unusual doctrine.
Read on.
There’s a new academic journal on the block, and it’s from one of the A/G’s premier seminaries (I say “one of” because we have other great seminaries not on American soil, such as Asia Pacific Theological Seminary and West Africa Advanced School of Theology). It’s called Encounter: Journal for Pentecostal Ministry.
More later, but first, allow me to get a couple new feeds out of the way.
Previously:
On Wednesday, February 15, WSAV News reported that Eric Brian Golden, the 35–year-old Southside Assembly of God youth pastor who killed his wife, was formally indicted on several charges in Chatham County, Georgia (in Savannah). According to the Chatham County Courhouse website, the case was filed on the 15th, and the next event will be a conference hearing on April 20. Hon. Perry Brannen, Jr., is the judge, and Golden is being defended by attorney John P. Sugrue.
I don’t know what is typically accomplished at a conference hearing in Georgia criminal courts, but from what I’ve read about other kinds of conference hearings, it will probably provide an opportunity for the court to do some quick work and avoid a trial and also review and litigate possible appeal issues such as how the arrest and confession were handled, and so fort. Since Brian Golden has confessed, 
unless his confession is recanted or unless there is some critical need to spend taxpayer’s money for a court case, I suspect there may not be one. However, as you can see, Brian has an attorney now (and he didn’t when he made his initial confession), so, who knows?
