Via WORLD Magazine Blog, an excerpt from Soldiers of Christ an article appearing in the current issue of Harpers Magazine:
Linda Burton was “specifically called by God” to Colorado Springs seventeen years ago, though at the time she thought that she was only running from a crack-addicted man who beat her. Linda was not a Christian at the time. She had married young and moved west; after her divorce, there had been many men, an abortion. With the man who beat her she fathered a son, whom she named Aaron Michael, the “strong right hand of God.” Linda took the baby and fled to Colorado Springs, which she remembered as pure and clean from a vacation she and the ex had once taken. She worked two jobs, one waiting tables at the best hotel in town, the other at Red Lobster. A friend at the hotel invited her to New Life Church [the subject of the article, one of the largest churches in the country], where she learned how her troubles were the result of demons and how to cast them out. Now Linda is an insurance agent, and she and Aaron Michael live in a suburban home. She hears voices, but they do not disturb her. “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman,” she told me one morning over a basket of cinnamon muffins still warm from the oven.
Sitting across from me in her kitchen, she closed her big brown eyes and shushed herself. “I’m listening,” she said quietly.
“To the TV?” I asked. In the next room, Aaron Michael was watching an action movie; the house was filled with the sound of explosions.
“No,” said Linda. “To my Spirit.” She opened her eyes and explained the process she had undergone to reach her refined state. She called it “spiritual restoration.” Anyone can do it, she promised, “even a gay activist.” Linda had seen with her own eyes the sex demons that make homosexuals rebel against God, and she said they are gruesome; but she did not name them, for she would not “give demons glory.” They are all the same, she said.[3] “It’s radicalism.”
She reached across the table and touched my hand. “I have to tell you, the spiritual battle is very real.” We are surrounded by demons, she explained, reciting the lessons she had learned in her small-group studies at New Life. The demons are cold, they need bodies, they long to come inside. People let them in in two different ways. One is to be sinned against. “Molested,” suggested Linda. The other is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could walk by sin—a murder, a homosexual act—and a demon will leap onto your bones. Cities, therefore, are especially dangerous.[emphasis added] [footnote at end of article]3. The life of the gay man, in the evangelical imagination, seems to be an endless succession of orgasms, interrupted only by jocular episodes of male bonhomie. The gay man promises Christian men a guilt-free existence, the garden before Eve. As such, he is not just tempting but temptation embodied; “the Enemy,” to whom Linda often refers.
It bothers me this “demons jumping” idea isn’t a direct quote but rather said by the author paraphrasing Linda. Also I would be interested to know just exactly what small-group at New Life Church goes around spreading this nonsense to its members. In case you didn’t catch it the first time here’s a little instant replay for you:
You could walk by sin—a murder, a homosexual act—and a demon will leap onto your bones.
Oh, wow… so we’ve found a member of a very large church who’s a bit whacked-out, extreme, and theologically confused. Guess that means they’re all like that, right?
How is this different from Christians finding the most extreme examples of gays and lesbians–usually from a gay pride celebration–then claiming that all GLBT people are like that?
I really don’t understand the point of this blog entry. I thought Ex-Gay Watch was about dealing with ex-gay politics in a sober, even-handed manner, not trafficking in open ridicule of others. Perhaps that’s only when Mike is posting.
Coincidentally, I also read this article — a few weeks ago, when I saw the current issue of Harper’s at Barnes & Noble.
The article profiles several evangelicals in the Colorado Springs area, including a national evangelical leader. The sum of the anecdotes seemed to be that Colorado Springs is a Neverland of paranoia, superstition, denial of reality, deeply ingrained doomsday fears, and the rigid policing of ideological conformity throughout the memberships of some leading megachurches. The overall effect of these profiles was actually much scarier than the one woman that Dan cited.
I haven’t blogged about the article, because I found its overall message, and some related articles/op-eds in the same issue, to be hyperbolic and hostile toward Christianity per se. The overall article requires some detailed analysis and dissection, ideally from people who are familiar with Colorado Springs and who have a weekend free to devote to the matter.
All that being said, there do seem to be quite a few fundamentalists who other-ize and demon-ize homosexuality. PFOX sometimes attracts these folks to its e-mail discussion list. I think that this phenomenon — the demonization of homosexuality and gay people — is worth analyzing on its own merits.
How far-reaching is it? How rooted is it in non-Christian forms of magic?
No, but the leader of the church, who also happens to be the leader of the largest evangelical organization in the US (claiming over 30 million members), speaks in similar terms. To say that he is not representative of most evangelicals would be like saying that George Bush is not representative of most Republicans.
If he is not representative, then why is he the leader?
Hmmmmm… I think I’m with you on this one. In my experience demons very rarely manifest as homosexuality.
I don’t pretend to be even-handed when this sort of nonsense is being spread around the country in a collaborative effort to deny the civil liberties of innocent people.
The fact of the matter is this story invokes the principle of an “ex-gay” which makes it a concern of this site. The story in question is generating a great deal of attention in the blogosphere during this holiday weekend and come Tuesday will likely accelerate its proliferation.
I just posted this to the WORLD mag blog–Jeff’s own blog, TheRevealer.org, contains his discussion with some commenters about the article.
I agree with the first poster here that not all Christians are like the ones in this article. However, Colorado Springs, for better or worse, is the HQ of a very influential movement in the evangelical world, and we would be foolish not to pay attention to it as part of the pluralism of our American culture.
hey thanks CK, I definitely agree there’s plenty of room to criticize Jeff’s article, something I didn’t really have the time or interest to do myself. Thanks for the link.
I hate to be vicious but…
The life of the gay man, in the evangelical imagination, seems to be an endless succession of orgasms,
so what? Is she envious?
My life has been an endless succession of orgasms. As has my same-sex spouse’s life. Orgasms with each other. So? The orgasms have gotten a bit farther apart as we’ve gotten older, but they still occur.
But I wonder, are evangelicals envious because they don’t have any orgasms?
It seems the spirit she is NOW listening to is the spirit of bigotry, not love; of narrow-mindedness, not love.
Just as Jesus accepted the woman who washed his feet and poured oil over his head, while the “teachers” and disciples complained. Jesus would not accept this bigotry from these “teachers” and “disciples”. Lukewarm christians make me sick, If you love, Love All- Walk the talk!
I am glad this was posted even if it doesn’t represent “all Christians”
First, it is important to monitor these anti-democratic developments even when they are relatively small and geographically confined. They can grow into real threats against us all.
Secondly, these views are the logical outcome of fundamentalist Christianity.
Gay people are not slavers, conquerors or unified to commit violence on anyone.
Unfortunately, many of these sort of people (and yes, Christopher, they do not typify Christians as a whole) don’t recognize this–especially the idea that they do not wish to commit violence on anyone or conquer. The myths of gays as sexual predators and/or pedophiles, and the bizarre idea that people are gays want to convert everyone to homosexuality, are woefully ingrained.
Re: “Secondly, these views are the logical outcome of fundamentalist Christianity.”
Actually, I’d have to say that these views are the illogical outcome of fundamentalist Christianity. This perspective is important because fundamentalists aren’t going away. But views like these are important and need to be amplified so people understand the lunacy of what some people are saying.
Re: If he is not representative, then why is he the leader?
He may be representative, but he’s not the leader. He just has an enormously loud and well-finded megaphone. Evangelicals don’t have popes, and thank God for that.
These two facts taken together are exactly the opening we need to exploit. I listened to a very good piece on NPR yesterday evening by Walter Cronkite who discussed CBS’s reporting of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s-1960’s. He talked about how CBS’s early timidity in covering the burgeoning movement was rooted in management’s fear of loosing their southern stations to rivals. So CBS was constrained to just let both sides speak for themselves.
But when White southern racists spoke to reporters, they sounded so ugly and hateful that their own words turned the rest of the country off, including many fellow Southerners. They weren’t persuaded by arguments for racial equality, they were persuaded by sheer embarassment. Cronkite pointed out that this embarassment lead to a wave of peaceful (albiet very reluctant and uneven) integration in many parts of the south, with the well-known exceptions being the many violent incidents that we know about so well.
This got my partner and me thinking: Unlike 1950’s Alabama, the FRC and their ilk only talk freely to their base, and since the vast majority of Americans don’t listen to their brand of Christian radio, it goes somewhat under the radar. Everybody knows they’re there, but I don’t think people understand the full virulence of the things Dobson, Perkins, et al are saying. Instead, they are dismissed as being among the fringe. And since most Americans don’t believe they are part of the fringe, they don’t get all worked up over what the fringe is saying.
White American got upset when the racist fringe presumed to speak for everybody when they were given the microphone. We need to stir up the same sense of embarrasment among Straight Americans towards this new fringe. I’m betting all of my straight neighbors would be embarrased by all of this demon talk. They need to hear much more of it. Good for Harper’s.
They always warned about them gays that wanted to “jump your bones”. I didn’t know they meant literally.
😉
Evangelicals don’t have popes…
True. Just to point out, Evangelicals have carney barkers. That’s exactly what they are. They go out to bark the people into the tent. I’m speaking metaphorically, of course, but that’s exactly what they are.
(Lest anyone wonder “carney” means “carnival”)
Leaving aside the question of what this sort of taboo and purification religion has to do with more orthodox Christian thought, we should all notice that it is just so convenient that sin is so outside of these simple folks perfect lives that they never have to worry about actually committing a sin unless some devil makes them do it, and hey, you folks out there can be victims too. Let’s also notice that this is a very handy projection of the conversion culture that is so central to evangelical practice, a “satanic” altar call by a magically powerful preacher, as it were.
Raj:
My cousin was a carney. You got something against that? 😉
Jim, not in the least. Assuming that he was providing an honest service (trying to get people into the tent), and not going around villifying people who they didn’t want in the tent.
There’s a bit of a difference.
raj,
actually, it makes sense, in a way. After all, the current evangelical movement is the child of all the tent-revival evalgelists of the 1920’s-60’s.
Tim & Jim, that only goes to show you that evangelism is part of the entertainment industry. I could expoind at length–and actually I have (should have saved the comments)–but it became clear to me that evangelism was nothing more and nothing less than part of the entertainment industry.
My carney-cousin was reasonably successful for two reasons: He could draw a crowd, and he sold fresh, ice-cold lemonade.
That’s my way of saying that entertainment has become part and parcel of the character of evangelical worship, much to the chagrin of a few writers at Christianity Today, where a lively debate on the subject has been taking place for a number of years. I agree that the evangelical movement is nothing less than part of the entertainment industry, but for a few folks outside the megachurches, it is something more.
I was never part of the evangelical movement, but of the services I attended for various reasons (idle curiosity, mostly) I walked away wondering whether any worship actually took place or whether I just saw an updated version of an Up With People stage show. But there have been a few churches I visited — far from the maddening crowds — in which genuine devotion was expressed. I could be wrong, but these few examples appear to this outsider to be a very small and shrinking minority.
I don’t mean this to demean anyone’s deeply-held beliefs. I’d love for someone to prove me wrong. But this is how it appears to me, and I suspect most people outside of the evangelical movement have the same impression.
raj & Jim,
If you are ever interested in learning about the one person who is probably most responsible for blending religion and entertainment, look into the life of Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Four Square Gospel Churches.
“Sister Aimee” recognized the power of entertainment and unappologetically used it to champion both herself and her brand of religion.
There’s an interesting article from a 1927 Harper’s magazine about her style of worship.
https://www.harpers.org/AimeeSempleMcPherson.html
It was completely revolutionary at the time but I sure sounds familiar now.
Having attended a few “performances” out of sheer perverse curiosity…
I must say I get the same queasy feeling when a religious crowd is flapping and jumping around to music or yelling in tongues en masse as I do in a pool hall full of drunken bikers — never quite sure when the hysteria will get completely out of control and someone ends up hurt.
Having grown up in a culture that “expects” some evangelicals etc to behave this way, perhaps the most eye-opening occasion (for us) was watching a tour group of 20 Korean Christians go utterly off the planet in a pre-dinner talking in toungue. The local Thais sat there in stunned silence, rather wondering if they should be calling the local mental health professionals to the restaurant. Worse, they kept looking at us as if we could explain what was going on — pfft, as if! Talk about embarrassing.
Obviously, some don’t take Matthew 6:5-7 to heart…
Also, Literature Police time
Jim, agree with you; but it’s “madding crowd”!!!
What? You don’t find madding crowds maddening? 😉
“Far From the Madding Crowd” was a novel by Thomas Hardy. An excellent novel, too, by the way.
My carney-cousin was reasonably successful for two reasons: He could draw a crowd, and he sold fresh, ice-cold lemonade.
I don’t intend to denigrate your cousin, but I’d be willing to suspect he spiked the ice-cold lemonade with a bit of an “adult beverage”.
I have read that G. Washington was elected to political office largely because he provided sufficient numbers of “adult beverages” to the electorate.