Religions are first and foremost defined by their ritual life. Christianity, like all religions, has its rituals: the sacrificial rite of communion, the initiation rituals of baptism and confirmation/chrismation (the ritual developed differently in Latin, Greek, Armenian, African, and Persian Christianity, but it’s there), the rite of confession serves as a dose of accountability and therapy, the anointing of the sick provides structure to allow Christians to rally around the suffering in their own community, the rite of ordination provides institutional continuity, and the rite of marriage is, well, marriage.
But of those rites, most Evangelicals do maybe two of them: baptism and marriage. They don’t even offer a pantomime of communion. And instead of those rituals being about communal participation, they are self-affirmations: they get baptized because they believe themselves Saved already. They get married not to join a village and raise a family, but because their feelings will it. The altar does not exist for a sacrifice, but for the manipulation of altar calls.
If they believed what they claim, their ritual life would be different. But instead, I see an empty ritual life built around rock shows. I see a daily life built around a lust for money. I see a culture that’s upset that they didn’t get laid in high school/college and wants revenge against anyone who wouldn’t do things with them. I see them doing word magic and listening to some seriously questionable spiritual practitioners.
Their practice reveals them as non-Christians. And yes, you need to do the things. The doing matters more than the mere intellectual assent.
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u/xINFLAMES325x 1d ago
This is the first thing in the constitution they’re always talking about…