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Mainstream \u2014 and even much of \u201coff-the-beaten-path\u201d \u2014 christianity is centered around the concept of worship. I was taught \u2014 and taught others, myself \u2014 that God desired worship and that it was essential to your christian life to worship.<\/p>\n
But, like most things christian, I found a problem with this. Believers in christ love to ascribe anthropomorphic characteristics to god but only when it\u2019s convenient. Like \u201cgod is a good father\u201d but \u201che must punish sin.\u201d Or, \u201cgod is love\u201d but \u201cgod is just.\u201d Or, \u201cwe must strive to know his will\u201d but \u201che works in mysterious ways.\u201d So when I looked at god through this dichotomous lens, I was able to decode the worship paradigm as another heaping-helping of religious B.S.<\/p>\n
Pertaining to humans, the only people who demand worship are narcissists. These people are always pining for the praise of others and get depressed \u2014 or worse, dangerous \u2014 when they don\u2019t get the praise they crave. Also, the people who are \u201cworshipers\u201d are more followers than leaders and more likely to be of the personality type that feed narcissists with the idolizing that fuels them.<\/p>\n
There was a dude who demonstrated this trait for four of the last five years but his name escapes me\u2026<\/p>\n
Anyhooo\u2026<\/p>\n
When we find a person whose life model is structured around how many people praise that person and how fervently, we typically ascribe this to some mental-related personality disorder. We see this person as someone needing help. More importantly, when this disorder manifests in someone in leadership, we see it as a danger to all in that individual\u2019s charge.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re cool with it as long as it\u2019s god. I want to burn a few cycles to unpack this.<\/p>\n
Christians get together for what they call \u201ccorporate worship.\u201d They gather in what they call a \u201ctemple\u201d to offer \u201csacrifices of praise\u201d in order to provoke \u201ca move of god.\u201d The issue here is that these same folks deem god omniscient \u2014 that would imply that he\u2019s all-knowing of all things at all times. They also will tell you that \u201cgod has a plan.\u201d But if god knows what you\u2019re going to say before you say it and there is the possibility that your petition is contrary to his plan, you have to ask, what is the point of this production?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Honestly, who is the beneficiary?<\/p>\n Of course, I was taught \u2014 and taught others \u2014 that worship doesn\u2019t benefit god, it benefits the worshiper. That, somehow, we are \u201cfilled\u201d and \u201crefreshed\u201d by it. I would submit, however that the numbers of those who receive any benefit \u2014 tangible or otherwise \u2014 are probably about the same for those who don\u2019t. This doesn\u2019t bode well for the \u201cgod is not a respecter of persons\u201d premise.<\/p>\n When I was a pastor, I got a lot of questions about \u201cchurch\u201d specifically, \u201chow\u2019s your music?\u201d And \u201chow\u2019s your worship?\u201d I can tell you that mine were not the popular answers \u2014 to the former, I\u2019d respond, \u201cdo you come to church for a show or concert?\u201d and to the latter, I\u2019d reply, \u201cif you cultivate a culture of worship, you don\u2019t need to wait until Sunday to cram it in.\u201d I guess my pastoring and preaching was a bit too pragmatic for some. To this point, though, people actually believed that without emotionally moving music and corresponding emotional theatrics, church simply wasn\u2019t \u201cchurch.\u201d<\/p>\n Which led me to understand what the purpose of church really was: conscience salving. One of the things I used to say as a preacher is that folks go to church for the same reason they go to nightclubs \u2014 to be entertained, get fed, and get high.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And sometimes, to get laid. But that\u2019s a topic for another article.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the days of the old testament, folks went to the temple to offer sacrifices as atonement for their sins and to thank god for either blessings or that he didn\u2019t smite them. Ostensibly, the temple sacrifice system has passed away with the \u201cNew Covenant\u201d but now there\u2019s \u201csacrifices of praise\u201d and \u201csacrificial (monetary) offering.\u201d Both of these are considered to be types of worship. What\u2019s troubling, here, is that these things project the narcissism of \u201cgod\u201d onto the \u201cman of god\u201d or \u201cwoman of god.\u201d In other words, the person in the pulpit must be praised and paid.\u00a0 <\/span>And when the praise is subdued or the offering is substandard, the pulpiteer is inclined to believe that they are either unloved or haven\u2019t fully demonstrated their power.<\/p>\n Kinda like their \u201cgod.\u201d<\/p>\n Personally, I think worship is a waste of time \u2014 at least in the corporate sense. Nowadays, my \u201cworship\u201d is on meditation, self-enrichment, and self-fulfillment but focused on how my personal edification can enrich and help fulfill the lives of others. I no longer see the need to observe specific weekdays or holy days; I try to make my life one of service to myself (because you cannot help anyone if you, yourself, are broken) then to the rest of humanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As for music, my spirit resonates with the works of artists as diverse as The\u00a0 <\/span>Beatles or Kendrick Lamar \u2014 more so than I ever heard anything divine through christian or gospel music. And I don\u2019t need anyone to \u201cpreach\u201d for me; my spirit is nourished through the voices of many. Lastly, I no longer use any one book as a source of truth \u2014 I believe that education, enrichment, and edification can be found in books regarded as secular as well as spiritual.<\/p>\n If there is a god, I certainly don\u2019t believe that she would be so petty or he would be so narcissistic as to require \u2014 or even desire \u2014 constant praise or worship. I think that any deity would be cool with us being our best, authentic selves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s the view from my cockpit \u2014 your mileage may vary!<\/p>\n Derrick Day<\/strong><\/em> is the author of Deconstructing Religion<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. He is also one of the co-hosts of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and the host of The Forward Podcast<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on the One Institution Media Network<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. More recently, Derrick is a contributor to the new book, Before You Lose Your Mind,<\/strong><\/em><\/a> published by Quoir<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow him on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mainstream \u2014 and even much of \u201coff-the-beaten-path\u201d \u2014 christianity is centered around the concept of worship. I was taught \u2014 and taught others, myself \u2014 that God desired worship and that it was essential to your christian life to worship. But, like most things christian, I found a problem with this. Believers in christ love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4299,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377,196],"tags":[54,421,45,418,415,412,39],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheistic-theist","category-love-minus-religion","tag-christian","tag-corporate-worship","tag-god","tag-narcissism","tag-narcissist","tag-praise","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\n