There is a lot of religious language (and godtalk) that bothers me. I so tire of people saying: “God has so blessed me because mine was the only house left standing in a massive ice storm or fast-moving fire.” Or ‘We are so blessed to be able to buy this lake home right after the multi-million-dollar price went down.” Or, “It was a miracle that my cab blew a tire; I missed my flight---the one that crashed leaving 192 dead.” I personally would be terribly relived to realize that the delayed cab saved my life, but I struggle with all the blessings from God and the miracle stories like that.
Ah yes - the curse wrapped up in a nice shiny blessing. God has so blessed me by saving me and me alone in that storm, from that crash. Too bad He so cursed you and everyone else. You and all those other hundreds of people must be unworthy, unlike me.
This really is one of the worst uses of religious language, the ones that claim to understand God's Providence and it just so happens to revolve around me personally, for my benefit.
Valerie, I appreciate your response and your work in this field. How should we respond to these "blessing god-talkers"? Would you say something to the individual about using the action of God in such situations or just let it go as I have typically done?
Another aspect of religious language: When a pastor announces to his (maybe her) congregation that he is leaving (for greener pastures) and couches it in God "called me to go," I'm always suspicious. I don't mind the term when a mega-church pastor moves on to take a struggling church in an inner-city; that truly requires conscience or a serious sense of God's leading. But I don't imagine we'll ever hear these words from a pulpit: "I'm leaving because it's a much higher salary, better perks and only a mile from the ocean beaches."
So much of appropriateness is determined by context. If it's someone with privilege or other standing, I have a bank of rebukes prepared. I like to make explicit the implicit in those cases. With other gentler souls I ignore like you do. A man once said God had told him he was holier than others. I asked, did God's voice sound rather like your own? He didn't like that.
When you have time, Valerie, I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say about a minister speaking of God's call when he/she is moving up the ministerial ladder. Also, about those who defend their decisions (no matter how controversial they may be) by saying something like, "I've prayed about it"--- and thus came to that judgment. Praying about such in many Christian circles gives the decision credibility and a superior sense of authority.
Yes - I agree. Speaking like that is a powerful invocation of sacred authority. And it refers to a "conversation" that no one else has access to, making it difficult to question. It blurs the lines of authority between God and the person talking. Which is God's voice and which is the human voice? Are they now speaking for God? That's dangerous stuff, in my view.
Recently I asked why a well known pastor had set up a panel on sex/gender in the church but only asked white male pastors to speak. He said, "We prayed long and hard about it." Hmmm.. well, as long as you *prayed* (sarcasm).
I have some sections in my book on the invocation of sacred authority, if you're interested. Also, it contains a chapter on prayer, and working on the Lord's Prayer made me think through not only the ways people talk about prayer and mention prayer as an appeal to authority like that pastor did - but it also made me think through a much deeper question, what *is* prayer? Our talk about prayer so often reveals that we view it as a sort of bending God's will to ours or bending God's ear to ours. God, here is my laundry list of things I need an answer to. God, should I move here or move there, etc.
I believe that prayer is instead seeking God's face, His very person, asking for the intimacy of Christ's presence in our lives through His Word. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Lord, let me see and rest in your will in whatever you have for me in this life. After Job, in prayer we seek the beatific vision!
So, like you, I am highly suspicious of people who use God's name via prayer to baptize their own will, their own decisions. I don't believe it's wise or even right to claim God's authority in the details of our decisions. Drawing close to God, seeking His face in prayer, equips us to follow in Christ's footsteps in our own human decisions on earth - loving the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbour as ourselves, a glimpse of heaven on earth.
That's really sad. I had a prof who said while driving alone in the car, he audibly heard a voice say, "My child, I love you." This was when he was in total despair. I wouldn't dare dispute such an account.
There is a lot of religious language (and godtalk) that bothers me. I so tire of people saying: “God has so blessed me because mine was the only house left standing in a massive ice storm or fast-moving fire.” Or ‘We are so blessed to be able to buy this lake home right after the multi-million-dollar price went down.” Or, “It was a miracle that my cab blew a tire; I missed my flight---the one that crashed leaving 192 dead.” I personally would be terribly relived to realize that the delayed cab saved my life, but I struggle with all the blessings from God and the miracle stories like that.
Ah yes - the curse wrapped up in a nice shiny blessing. God has so blessed me by saving me and me alone in that storm, from that crash. Too bad He so cursed you and everyone else. You and all those other hundreds of people must be unworthy, unlike me.
This really is one of the worst uses of religious language, the ones that claim to understand God's Providence and it just so happens to revolve around me personally, for my benefit.
Thanks for drawing attention to this, Ruth.
Valerie, I appreciate your response and your work in this field. How should we respond to these "blessing god-talkers"? Would you say something to the individual about using the action of God in such situations or just let it go as I have typically done?
Another aspect of religious language: When a pastor announces to his (maybe her) congregation that he is leaving (for greener pastures) and couches it in God "called me to go," I'm always suspicious. I don't mind the term when a mega-church pastor moves on to take a struggling church in an inner-city; that truly requires conscience or a serious sense of God's leading. But I don't imagine we'll ever hear these words from a pulpit: "I'm leaving because it's a much higher salary, better perks and only a mile from the ocean beaches."
So much of appropriateness is determined by context. If it's someone with privilege or other standing, I have a bank of rebukes prepared. I like to make explicit the implicit in those cases. With other gentler souls I ignore like you do. A man once said God had told him he was holier than others. I asked, did God's voice sound rather like your own? He didn't like that.
Ruth would like that! She's had to say some things like this at times.
When you have time, Valerie, I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say about a minister speaking of God's call when he/she is moving up the ministerial ladder. Also, about those who defend their decisions (no matter how controversial they may be) by saying something like, "I've prayed about it"--- and thus came to that judgment. Praying about such in many Christian circles gives the decision credibility and a superior sense of authority.
Yes - I agree. Speaking like that is a powerful invocation of sacred authority. And it refers to a "conversation" that no one else has access to, making it difficult to question. It blurs the lines of authority between God and the person talking. Which is God's voice and which is the human voice? Are they now speaking for God? That's dangerous stuff, in my view.
Recently I asked why a well known pastor had set up a panel on sex/gender in the church but only asked white male pastors to speak. He said, "We prayed long and hard about it." Hmmm.. well, as long as you *prayed* (sarcasm).
I have some sections in my book on the invocation of sacred authority, if you're interested. Also, it contains a chapter on prayer, and working on the Lord's Prayer made me think through not only the ways people talk about prayer and mention prayer as an appeal to authority like that pastor did - but it also made me think through a much deeper question, what *is* prayer? Our talk about prayer so often reveals that we view it as a sort of bending God's will to ours or bending God's ear to ours. God, here is my laundry list of things I need an answer to. God, should I move here or move there, etc.
I believe that prayer is instead seeking God's face, His very person, asking for the intimacy of Christ's presence in our lives through His Word. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Lord, let me see and rest in your will in whatever you have for me in this life. After Job, in prayer we seek the beatific vision!
So, like you, I am highly suspicious of people who use God's name via prayer to baptize their own will, their own decisions. I don't believe it's wise or even right to claim God's authority in the details of our decisions. Drawing close to God, seeking His face in prayer, equips us to follow in Christ's footsteps in our own human decisions on earth - loving the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbour as ourselves, a glimpse of heaven on earth.
I had a young man in my first congregation who said things like that. Turned out he was schizophrenic.
That's really sad. I had a prof who said while driving alone in the car, he audibly heard a voice say, "My child, I love you." This was when he was in total despair. I wouldn't dare dispute such an account.
I wonder if this also relates to survivors’ guilt, and perhaps also a complete lack of practice in the language of lament in our churches.
That's a good point. Some of us lack that language as it is so infrequent in our circles. We hear it so little.