CRN.Info and Analysis

For the second time in less than three days the ever elusive editor has deliberately used the word “emerging” in such a way as to connect the emerging church to ideas which are completely absent from emergents. The first time it was involved the advocation of recreational drugs. Apparently that particular… insinuation (which is a polite word for lie) wasn’t quite good enough. So now its time for the anonymous, and deceptive editor get a little bit more ham fisted by connecting the emerging/emergent church to Anton LaVey who popularized the atheistic philosophy of the “Church of Satan“. Check out the headline:

Anton Szandor LaVey on the Original Emerging Church the Church of Satan

Of course with the phrase “original emerging church” the author, known only as the cowardly anonymous editor implies that there is at the very least a philosophical connection between the Church of Satan (the original) and the emerging church (the current). The problem is, there is none. There’s not actually one, and there’s not even a pretext of one presented.

The irony here is the most famous teaching of LaVey is the phrase “do as thou wilt”, its even presented right there in the clip posted by the editor, in the opening of the monologue LaVey says that religion has to dominate by fear in order to enforce its teachings of abstinence rather than motivating by indulgence.

Let me ask you this question. If a writer is willing to smear, lie and generally deceive by linking his or her opponents to boogie men like Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan what philosophy are they exhibiting? One that says “do as thou wilt” or one that says “I am the way the truth and the life”?

From here:

Mentone, AL - Since its founding almost a half a century ago St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Mentone has been a church that by its own confession has “struggled to be happy.” The members of the congregation of just over 100 people seem to consistently struggle with one another, arguing and holding grudges.

Over the years disputes have broken out over everything from building projects to who will run Vacation Bible School, to someone’s casserole not being eaten at a church picnic.

“We have two ladies in this church that haven’t spoken to one another in over twenty years” said deacon Charles Ainsworth. “I don’t remember all of the details, but it had something to do with one of the ladies criticizing the flower arrangement that one of the other ladies had made. It’s not that we don’t love one another, we just don’t seem to like one another. “We’ve all grown up together, and we just seem to get on each others nerves a lot.”

The various pastors of the church over the years have tried to preach peace among the congregation, but to no avail. But the church’s current pastor, Rev. Prentiss Carnes recently “discovered” a verse that may be the solution to all of the strife within the church.

“I was reading in Ephesians and came across 4:26a where it says ‘Be angry and yet do not sin,’” said Carnes. “I started thinking and realized that there’s a Biblical mandate here to be angry, that perhaps all these years we’ve been getting it all wrong. May God has called us to be an angry church. That seems to be where our gifts lie, in being angry.”

And “angry” is just what they are fostering now at St. Luke’s. The church has recently made Ephesians 4:26a its theme verse and has set out to make itself known as “the angriest church in America.”

“It’s a relief to know that we’re okay” said Lillian Ainsworth, wife of Charles. “We stayed so blooming mad at one another all of the time I wasn’t sure what our problem was, but I see now that we just have a different calling by God. The Lord calls some of us to be angry and that is our calling I suppose.”

“I believe we can be angry at one another and not sin because we still love each other deep down” said Carnes. “But we need to foster this anger that we have and learn how to do it better. God commands it, and therefore we must do it.”

One of our previous posts dealt with the overall nastiness of Phil Johnson, and two of the commenters in that topic have put forth the argument that Elijah was mean and personally insulting to the prophets of Baal, and that Paul wrote that he hoped the Judaizers would mutilate themselves, and Johnie Mac’s attack dogs came no where close to rising to that level.

Of course, both of those examples are prophets dealing with enemies of God, rather than brothers and sisters in Christ. Making the argument that Elijah and Paul were, to say the least, harsh in these two examples and so its ok to be harsh is as silly as claiming a church has been spiritually gifted with anger.