The post below is from Pithless Thoughts. Father Orthoduck is only posting part of it. I do highly recommend that you go to his blog and read the entire article.
So, I recently posted a video of a “goofy” charismatic couple “praying”. Basically to be honest, I posted it because it invited derision, smirking, ridicule and well, yeah, comments.
But I confess that, when I created the post, I hesitated for a split second before I hit “publish”. And then I violated my personal rule of thumb for the internet: “If I hesitate to hit SEND, there MIGHT be a reason to sit on it.” I ignored my hesitation this time, I published the post. But the unease did not go away. But then again, laughter goes a long way to cover up dis-ease.
Then, last of all, Fr. Sean commented:
“So I finally broke down and decided to get to a computer that actually deals with videos, and I watched the silly thing.First thought: I can not and will not judge their mode of expressing praise for God. If I do so, I will be accountable to the God whom they are praising, and whom I praise with much less fervor and (apparent) sincerity. I strikes me as odd that any Christian could look askance on this as an example of private praise. Surely I do things which would seem even sillier to another person. Thank God that he is my only audience (I hope!).
My serious objection to the video was simply that I was watching it. It felt almost like watching a video of a loving married couple expressing their love for each other in bed. I might criticize their technique (“that’s not how I would like to do it”), but the main point is that I would have no business watching it and they, no business exposing it to public view. Yes, that is exactly what I thought. “This should have been a private thing between them and God, not in front of an audience, and certainly not on YouTube.”
So the question is, as Christians who embrace the fulness of authentic, Apostolic Christianity, who confess the fulness of the Apostolic faith and who worship according to the fulness of the Apostolic rule of prayer, what attitude do we bring, should we bring, to worship? Perhaps we can think of attitude here as being related to of one of two archetypes. Pentecostal worship is Dionysian: exuberant, spontaneous, and unrestrained, while, for example, traditional Anglican worship is Apollonian: sober and “decently and in order”. So what is the answer? Perhaps the answer is a synthesis of the two that feels inwardly a lot like the former while appearing much like the latter from the outside.
I found myself using “Christian porn” as a way to describe some of an evangelical pastor’s too-much-information approach to preaching through the Song of Songs as a sex manual (while explicitly rejecting any allegorical or typological interpretation of the book). While the themes and thoughts raised in the post resonate with me I wonder how we can square this observation with the possibility that, by this working definition of “Christian porn”, huge swaths of the Psalms could get judged as fitting in this category of sharing things that are best kept between the prayer and God. I went for a long stretch of my life finding the psalms emotionally oversaturated and implausible. I just didn’t believe real people could have possibly had those kinds of intense feelings, such intense certainty about being right or being wronged. I am, to keep things brief, reassessing the impulse to judge emotions in such a negative light whether in the scriptures or with people.
I think that the issue was not the expression of emotion, or I hope not. Rather, I see it as the getting a thrill out of feeling better than another person and making fun of them. The form of worship is not to my taste, but to make fun of the video is what Pithless was driving at, I think.
Abouna, I have a question about the form of worship.
Recently I had criticized megachurch Evangelicalism, posting this satire/parody video of familiar megachurch techniques–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlyvLzIcTBc
A friend also complained of visiting a similar church that solicited donations for Third World poor while sporting a multimillion dollar lighting system. I was about to agree, but I held back for a moment for this reason:
Orthodox worship, while not “contemporvant,” uses extremely expensive objects for worship. Gold crosses. Gold chalices. Icons with gold leaf. (And I’m pretty sure that keeping a priest vested for the entire liturgical year costs more than a (new) car). So I guess my question is, can we criticize expensive Protestant worship when our theology of worship (apparently) calls for elaborate ecclesiastic ‘bling?
We can criticize various facets of Protestant worship, but you have a very good point, to criticize Protestant worship merely on “bling” would be to point at ourselves.
Well…. I can think of something. It’s not so much great expenses on aesthetics, so much as ~how~ and ~on what~ great expenses on aesthetics is.
Consider again gold blessing crosses, gold chalices, gold icons. All these things were made for the specific functions of worship and point back to the Biblical (even Old Testament) forms. The gold is meant to approximate Apostle John’s heavenly vision, and the idea is that this ISN’T EVEN what heaven is like.
Contrast the drums, Stratocasters, laser light show and hipster culture. Notice that in my video, with the exception of the offertory, not one thing the characters talk about is Christian (words taken face value, of course). All of these things are interchangeable with a secular entertainment venue. It’s almost as if pop culture entertainers are using Jesus as the subject of a romance ballad.
….Well, I’m not sure if that is a good enough criticism of extravagant expense in either church. But in mitigation, Orthodox (and Catholic) worship can be streamlined to fit the needs of people who can’t provide much. I remember a picture of the current Camp Pendleton Orthodox chaplain (I know! I can hardly believe we have one here, too!) doing DL with an “iconostasis” made of empty crates and printed icons of Jesus and the Theotokos.
…. but then again, all an Evangelical needs is a guitar and a Bible.
Coming back to the heart of Steve Robinson’s post, just because I’m critical of a Calvary Chapel or a megachurch Christian’s form of worship does not mean that I am passing judgement on their faith and love for the Lord. Some, God bless them, have kept praise on their lips throughout the years.