Ahh, the days of yelling preachers and melodramatic altar calls. Miss them? I don’t. It’s hard to believe that I ever sat amongst the other fundies, hanging on every gem poured forth from the seminary-trained, righteous, godly preacher-man. There was a time that I remember feeling an impending sense of doom, no matter HOW great things were going. The world was going to hell in a handbasket, and I had better be upset to the point of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Allow me to explain…. I became a believer in a panic-infested Holiness denomination, complete with the threat of a simple hair trim sending you straight to hell. There were things about my upbringing that prepared me well for listening to a lot of yelling and angst on a Sunday morning. Aaaaaand Sunday night. Aaaand Wednesday night. Aaaand anytime a revival preacher came in. Doors open, we were there. Throughout my Christian life, I went through several churches and even more preachers that were chock full o’drama.
Turns out, if the leadership is considered to have ‘spiritual authority’ over the peasants that attend, there is no END to the drama that can be fished up, I mean heck, I think you could take ANYONE’s life and dig up enough dirt to render them ‘ungodly’, remember ALL of us are imperfect?? And I still haven’t sorted it all out yet, but there is something about fundamentalism that makes people, well, kinda drama queens. Every fault needs to be fixed, every stone needs to be turned over to see if there’s some secret sin festering underneath. So, instead of having a group of people who are focusing on their strengths, growing organically, and helping each other through struggles out of love for God and each other; you have endless finger-pointing and drama with a capital D. The hierarchy is set up, and the leaders can call the shots for others until they themselves get toppled in favor of a new King of the Hill.
There’s something about having strict, black-and-white rules against things that totally ramps up the drama… now you have a solid ruler to measure people by, and you just KNOW when they are screwing up! This has the tendency to bring out the worst in people, and is one reason Jesus got on the nerves of the spiritual leaders of His time. It is interesting to me how differently Jesus handled each situation He came across, dealing with each individual as a unique person, varying widely in how each situation was treated; a far cry from the “one size fits all” mentality so prevalent in Christian books… this worked for us, so this is the rule for all time, always and forever. Here’s your formula, take two and call me in the morning.
But people are all different, and situations are all different, and lumping all situations together with one answer could not be MORE unlike Jesus, who dealt with individuals VERY differently, and had the nerve to kick loving God and loving others right to the top of the “how to follow God” list, trumping all other rules and regulations in one fell swoop of passion for humanity. I don’t recall seeing panic as a fruit of the Spirit, but with the way some churches live, you would think that were the case. Maybe this is part of why perfect love casts out all fear, when you are constantly acting out of love while serving a God who is love, there is little to be concerned over. You are living in trust that the love of God and love for one another will draw others to God (and it does), you are trusting the Spirit to change things that others struggle with, just as we trust the Spirit to transform ourselves. The judging stops, and SO DOES THE DRAMA.
I have now been living relatively drama-free for a few years, and I love it. You know, life is hard enough without us beating each other up or trying to please God with an endless list of do’s and don’ts that He never asked for. He far prefers your heart…. and as much as I LOVE theater, as much as I LOVE acting and LOVE movies,
I don’t miss the drama at ALL.
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