{"id":828,"date":"2007-02-26T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-26T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=828"},"modified":"2007-02-26T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-26T15:16:00","slug":"the-tricky-side-of-charisma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"The tricky side of charisma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at GetReligion, a blog devoted to the collision of religion and journalism, Terry Mattingly links to a story of a Pentecostal preacher in trouble<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The details do not concern me. What caught my eye was this part of the linked posting<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Again, in my opinion, this false teaching arose because church leaders saw a need to conceal the widespread sexual immorality in their own ranks. \u201cTouch not mine anointed\u201d is often repeated alongside the Apostle Paul\u2019s statement that \u201cthe gifts and calling of God are without repentance.\u201d The latter verse, from Romans, is used to rationalize how a minister can lead a completely dissipated life and still display genuine gifts of God such as the ability to preach or prophesy. The misuse of these verses has done tremendous damage within the Pentecostal-charismatic tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n

Something that we polytheists should understand — something that I learned in my first coven — is that magickal ability or even the favor of the gods is not the same thing as moral character. <\/p>\n

When Mattingly calls Rev. Allen “charismatic \u2014 in every sense of the word,” that is what he is saying, with his Christian terminology. The man has “the juice.” But having the juice does not mean that you trust in him other areas.<\/p>\n

I suspect that Socrates, for instance, knew that perfectly well. Consequently, he does not discuss it. Every ancient Athenian probably knew that you could be filled with divine power — enthused<\/i> — now and then, but being so enthused did not make you a philosopher.<\/p>\n

Monotheists, however, want it all in one package: the Professional Good Man, to borrow a phrase from Elmer Gantry<\/em><\/a>. Consequently, they are always dealing with clergy-corruption issues.<\/p>\n

I had not realized that Pentecostal Christians, in particular, used Bible verses to explain away the issue. They ought to just understand that even if someone “displays the genuine gifts of [their] God,” he or she may still not be someone to listen to in other areas. Their sheep\/sheepherder model of organization gets them in trouble again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at GetReligion, a blog devoted to the collision of religion and journalism, Terry Mattingly links to a story of a Pentecostal preacher in trouble. The details do not concern me. What caught my eye was this part of the linked posting: Again, in my opinion, this false teaching arose because church leaders saw a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[24,40],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-christianity","tag-polytheism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-dm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6360,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6360","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":0},"title":"The ‘Pentecostal Drift’ and Modern Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Religion blogger Peter Berger, melding articles from\u00a0 The Tablet (Roman Catholic) and The Christian Century (mainline Protestant) notes \"the major demographic shift in world Christianity\u2014the fact that more Christians now live in the Global South: Asia, Africa, Latin America\u2014than in the old Christian homelands of Europe and North America.\" With\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1776,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1776","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":1},"title":"Elders Down the Memory Hole","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"All summer I have been editing and laying out a biography of the American Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944). I just sent the galleys to the writer, a professor in Arizona, and am working on my own corrections as well. There have been the usual hassles\u2014missing \"essential\" photos, notes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4288,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4288","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":2},"title":"Shamanism in Detroit","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Harner, cover your ears. Despite the new interest in shamanism since the 1970s, the real shamans on the American religious scene (and elsewhere) are certain Pentecostal Christian preachers. Contacting the unseen world while in an altered state of consciousness? Check. Faking when it they have to because the audience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"shamanism\"","block_context":{"text":"shamanism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=shamanism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/metrotimes.com\/polopoly_fs\/1.1308857.1335905678%21\/image\/404902191.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/landscape_335\/404902191.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4062","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":3},"title":"What’s Your Religious IQ?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I blogged yesterday, too much reporting on religion is written by people who are religiously illiterate \u2014 and, sometimes, proud of it. Every reporter at least ought to score well on this quiz from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Go ahead, take it. Fifteen questions \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2226,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2226","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":4},"title":"DADT Repeals Raises Issues for Wiccan Chaplains–Assuming that We Had Wiccan Chaplains, That Is","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Terry Mattingly at Get Religion, a blog about religion and journalism, looks at some of the fallout from the \"don't ask, don't tell' repeal for military chaplains. His main question is whether a new military policy on homosexuals serving openly (they have always been there clandestinely) will affect the ability\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2748,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2748","url_meta":{"origin":828,"position":5},"title":"Army Appoints Hindu Chaplain (Sort of)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There about 1,000 identified Hindus in the U.S. Army, and now they have a chaplain, Captain Pratima Dharm. Yes, that is probably fewer than the followers of Pagan paths in uniform. The Buddhists have been recognized too, but a qualified Wiccan officer was rejected. But there might be more to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}