The whole point of those events was to instill shame and guilt in teens and tell them the only way to feel better was to commit more to the group/to god. it's actually very insidious! giving them the addiction and "the cure" at the same time.
I heartily agree with your take, and I think there's a deeper issue here.
I think Rage against the Machine offers a valuable critique of Christianity, which deserves to be explored. But it's important to realize that the critique offered is not diametrically opposed. Indeed, the machine that the band is raging against is oppressive Babylon. They speak out for the oppressed. As I understand it, they primarily disagree with Christianity about the method to achieve liberation. Whereas Jesus desired reconciliation with the oppressor through sacrificial love, Rage implores the oppressed to take the power back.
Rage against the Machine, along with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock--potty mouths all of them--helped me see oppression that I never was taught to see in Sunday School.
My dad is a pastor, also an Emmanuel graduate, as it happens. The troubling theology I grew up with came from lay people who served as Sunday School teachers and youth leaders. Like “AIDS is God’s way of punishing the homosexuals.”
I was struck by the information that the typical church never progresses its teaching beyond the developmental level of a 10 year old. How do we expect kids to grow into a mature and robust faith when the people teaching them are themselves not very well versed in theology? I don’t so much mean technical jargon as engaging with questions like “what does it really mean to live your faith?” Or “how do we understand suffering?”
And yet, it’s a really hard sell for a church to have really challenging adult education. You never see a church history course and rarely see a higher level scripture survey class. I offered to teach some adult Sunday School at a church and was turned down flat because “people should just read the Bible- we don’t need more people sitting around and talking about it.” I feel like the education I got really did grow my faith, but maybe I’m weird.
I know this is pretty tangential. What I’m trying to get at is the people who teach this stuff are generally well intentioned, but they are passing on what they’ve been given. And the Church needs to find a way to do better.
The whole point of those events was to instill shame and guilt in teens and tell them the only way to feel better was to commit more to the group/to god. it's actually very insidious! giving them the addiction and "the cure" at the same time.
I heartily agree with your take, and I think there's a deeper issue here.
I think Rage against the Machine offers a valuable critique of Christianity, which deserves to be explored. But it's important to realize that the critique offered is not diametrically opposed. Indeed, the machine that the band is raging against is oppressive Babylon. They speak out for the oppressed. As I understand it, they primarily disagree with Christianity about the method to achieve liberation. Whereas Jesus desired reconciliation with the oppressor through sacrificial love, Rage implores the oppressed to take the power back.
Rage against the Machine, along with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock--potty mouths all of them--helped me see oppression that I never was taught to see in Sunday School.
My dad is a pastor, also an Emmanuel graduate, as it happens. The troubling theology I grew up with came from lay people who served as Sunday School teachers and youth leaders. Like “AIDS is God’s way of punishing the homosexuals.”
I was struck by the information that the typical church never progresses its teaching beyond the developmental level of a 10 year old. How do we expect kids to grow into a mature and robust faith when the people teaching them are themselves not very well versed in theology? I don’t so much mean technical jargon as engaging with questions like “what does it really mean to live your faith?” Or “how do we understand suffering?”
And yet, it’s a really hard sell for a church to have really challenging adult education. You never see a church history course and rarely see a higher level scripture survey class. I offered to teach some adult Sunday School at a church and was turned down flat because “people should just read the Bible- we don’t need more people sitting around and talking about it.” I feel like the education I got really did grow my faith, but maybe I’m weird.
I know this is pretty tangential. What I’m trying to get at is the people who teach this stuff are generally well intentioned, but they are passing on what they’ve been given. And the Church needs to find a way to do better.