I haven't been able to get back to the Seventh Day Adventist church. For several reasons, weather, illness and to be honest I have been attending Shabbat services on a semi-regular basis. I will try to get to them next Saturday, but in the meantime I am anxious to start blogging again, lets hope the weather holds up.
Well, it just so happens that I live next door to a church. It is an Assembly of God church and since its a whopping 20 ft from my house I decided to go. This was unlike anything I have experience before!
First there were people standing and praying with arms extended to the "altar". There was really no altar, few if any crosses were present. But still they prayed. The church was a bit plain but modern. They had electric guitars, drums, keyboards, etc. The first hour was nothing but singing. The music is what I would consider to be Christian Rock. People were really getting into it, dancing in the aisles, arms raised up, singing loudly, waving, etc. This music and singing went on for an HOUR. The congregation was really getting into it, this music, which I couldn't really figure out why, but they seemed to be getting something out of it. I was confused as to what the importance of all this was, some of it seemed incredibly bizarre. There were people whispering out their own prayers, saying things like "yes Jesus, thank you Jesus".
Finally the pastor got up, I thought he was finally going to start preaching, but no, more singing. This time Amazing Grace (what else?)
Sometimes I wonder if there is a correlation to IQ and religious preferece. I am not saying people of certain religions aren't intelligent, but it would be interesting to see what the IQ's of certain religious followers are. Are some religions more intelligent than others? It would be interesting to see. I digress...
Finally he started preaching and of course the first words were about tithing to the church. How you should be giving 10% of your earnings to the church and with that the collection plates started passing around. Everyone started pulling out cash and to be honest I will a little appalled. To be honest I have always found the collection plate a bit appalling. I don't like the idea of God and money going hand in hand. Anyway then there was more singing.
The pastor read from Acts Chap 11 20th verse. I am not real clear what his point was, or if there even was one. He then mentioned the government, made a comment the government trying to take the position of God. He mentioned the government telling us what we should buy, what we should eat and something about the nation "slipping". Again, I was confused, the government doesn't tell me what to eat or what to buy. If the government were going to take a God like position, wouldn't this be a good thing? He mentioned health insurance and how we will soon have no free choice and will be TOLD what insurance to buy. This isn't how I am understanding health care reform. Those private insurance will continue to have whatever they choose. Nothing was mentioned about those who can't afford insurance or who can't get it in the first place because they are already sick. Furthermore, I thought preachers weren't supposed to be talking about politics, doesn't this cause them to lose their tax breaks?
He went on to preach out "Gods will" and again, I didn't really grasp the point of it all. I am going to contact the pastor (my landlord) and see if he can clarify some of the comments he made. This was by far the strangest church experience I have had thus far.
For those of you that don't already know, I am leaning towards Judaism, been studying it for several months now. I will write more about that later.
Next week, Jehovah's Witness!!! Yikes!!!
