Apr 29 2008
Matt Taibbi: Jesus Made Me Puke
The only decent reason for Rolling Stone magazine’s continued existence is the fact that Matt Taibbi writes for it. His latest is a real hoot: he goes undercover on a batshit insane fundie retreat: Jesus Made Me Puke. He joins a megachurch and actually gets on a bus to go to one of those crazy “Encounter Weekends” in which the truly pathetic listen to a bunch of nonsense, cry a lot, and come away even more braindead and suggestible than when they went in there. But first he had to look the part:
I slunk in my seat, trying to look inconspicuous. My disguise was modeled on other men I’d seen in church — pane glasses and the very gayest blue-and-white-striped Gap polo shirt I’d been able to find that afternoon. Buried on a clearance rack next to the underwear section in a nearby mall, the Gap shirt was one of those irritating throwbacks to the Meatballs/Seventies-summer-camp-geek look, but stripped of its sartorial irony, it really just screamed Friendless Loser! — so I bought it without hesitation and tried to match it with that sheepish, ashamed-to-have-a-penis look I had seen so many other young men wearing in church. With the glasses and a slouch I hoped I was at least in the ballpark of what I thought I needed to look like, which was a slow-moving hulk of confused, shipwrecked masculinity, flailing for an Answer.
But I don’t think he was prepared for what he was going to experience. He even had to make up some sort of story, his being that his dad was an alcoholic circus clown that used to beat him with his oversized shoes. And they bought it. The crazy part was the ‘deliverance’ part at the end, which involved the usual nonsense of puking in paper bags, speaking in tongues and casting out of all sorts of demons:
“In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I cast out the demon of the intellect!” Fortenberry continued. “In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of anal fissures!”
It was a rather eye-opening experience, in that it showed the deep psychological underpinnings that go with this kind of territory that makes believers willing suckers impervious to fact. It’s a fantastic and entertaining smartass read, classic Taibbi, and he really picks up on how so many of these suckers do indeed fit the stereoetypes we have of them.
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DAMN! How’d I miss this?????
Still mad at him “for walking the picket line?”
BTW, Jensen was unreal! Like coming back from vacation…. very refreshing.
Yeah, I’m still pissed about that, but he did write a great article.
That was interesting, but disturbing. Not for the same reasons you thought, I’m sure.
It bothered me that the pastor made the focus of the casting out of demons himself and not Jesus. (I know you don’t believe this stuff, but) all believers are empowered to cast out demons, especially their own. The fact that he would not let them pray and he was the one that saved them from the demons made him the focus. It was kind of cultish. One should not worship one’s pastor in such a way.
Really, I went to a conference that dealt with spiritual warfare and we prayed our own demons out. No pomp and circumstance. No tongues. No puking. No hero-worship of a self-aggrandizing pastor. The transformation happened in the quiet of our own hearts. There was no need to put on a show.
It’s a shame that Taibbi went to a church that only reinforced what he already thought - that it is all a sham. There is authenticity still left in some churches in America, where the pastors do not tell you to fake speaking in tongues. (Which, by the way, that everyone should be able to do that is not biblical. There are different gifts and people have different ones.)
And it is possible to be into all that stuff and not have “left behind the mental process that a person would need to form an independent opinion.” We form independent opinions all the time. In fact, right now, we are trying to decide whether or not we should go to a new church because we disagree with something. So there.
I have to clarify that I did not literally cast out demons, per se. It’s more like renouncing the things in one’s life that have given Satan a foothold or stronghold to have influence. (I am not sure of how much that distinction matters, though. Not at all to you, I’m sure.)
Were the demons of intellect one of the ones you cast out? Or was it anal fissures?
Hey, I don’t deny this stuff isn’t real to the people it’s happening to, you included. The game changes once it is claimed to be something outside. Then it gets silly. Satan? Gimme a break.
I have to clarify that I did not literally cast out demons, per se. It’s more like renouncing the things in one’s life that have given Satan a foothold or stronghold to have influence. (I am not sure of how much that distinction matters, though. Not at all to you, I’m sure.)
No, I know what you mean, it’s just that I would call them “traits and tendencies that make you behave badly’. Everyone’s got them, Satan has nothing to do with it. The thought that he does degrades the human experience. I own my actions, even the bad ones.