Get Religion on the Dirty old Web

I rooted around online today, checking out such local churches as had bothered to create a website.

I’m very confused about the Assemblies of God. On the one hand, they have a lot of problems in their history, such as the Swaggart and PTL scandals. On the other, it seems like many of the churches are fed up with the monkey business, and they’re talking about things like the need to lead a righteous life.

I looked at David Wilkerson’s site, just to find out what he was about. This is the man who wrote The Cross and the Switchblade. He moved to New York City in the Fifties and started reaching out to gang members, and now he has a huge ministry.

I listened to a couple of his sermons. He makes me a little nervous when he talks about how he’s sure the end of the world is close. A lot of preachers have ended up embarrassing themselves, talking like that for fifty years and then dying without seeing any of it come to pass. But he talked very convincingly about living by faith, and unless I have him confused with someone else I listened to today, he said he never asks for money.

I turned on the TV at breakfast time, and a guy named Randy Brodhagen was on. At first, he came off as crabby and maybe a little crazy, but he gave a lot of good, stern advice about forgiveness. He doesn’t ask for money, either, which seems unusual for a charismatic these days.

Sometimes a tough preacher is what you need. In the past I’ve seen preachers make unrealistic promises (on God’s behalf) and then berate their congregations for failing to receive them. Your leg didn’t grow back? You must not be doing X, Y, or Z right. That’s fraud, pure and simple. But a preacher shouldn’t pander, either. Part of the job is telling people what they’re doing wrong. I thought Brodhagen made some good, useful points. I don’t know what denomination he is.

I listened to a sermon by a local pastor with a very nice church. Seems like a great guy, but I could not find the lesson in what he was saying. It’s strange; he’s an AG preacher, and usually, they’re very big on exegesis and so on. But his sermon almost sounded like a secular newspaper column. Not many scriptural references.

I found another local guy who talked about alcohol. He doesn’t drink, and he’s against drunkenness, but he won’t tell believers they have to be teetotalers. That seems reasonable and hard to fault. But he went off on an explanation of the water-to-wine miracle which was a little gross. He talked fast, so I may have misunderstood, but it sounded like he was saying drinking from the six jars, which were ordinarily used for ceremonial washing, was like drinking from a toilet. I must have gotten it wrong. It doesn’t make sense. I’m no zero-century Jew, but my guess is, they didn’t wash with dirty water. And Jesus wouldn’t serve someone from a dirty vessel.

I always thought that miracle was some sort of metaphor for filling people with the Holy Spirit.

I see the value a church website has. People like me are out there, thinking about going to church, and they’re reluctant to just drive around interrogating preachers. A church with an informative site and some sermon downloads is a lot more likely to get chosen for a visit.

I just can’t get over the power of the Internet as a tool for Christians. I’m so used to seeing filth and anger and depravity pour out of it. It’s amazing to see how wholesome it can be. You can read just about any Bible translation. You can listen to sermons. You can read Bible teaching. And you can shop for a church. Next time you find yourself caught up in obnoxious blogs and political feuds and other unhealthy Internet pursuits, look around for religious material. If you haven’t done it before, you’ll be shocked. And the best thing about it is that it’s habit-forming.