Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Emotionalism can lead believers away from faithful living, rather than toward it.

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Congregants sing during a Sunday service at Blackrock Church on April 10, 2022, in Middleton, Wisconsin. (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post/Getty Images)

A chapel service began February 8 at a small Christian college in Kentucky, and it kept going night and day for nearly two weeks. 

It’s been referred to as the Asbury Revival, and has been taken as a sign of a deep spiritual hunger among members of Generation Z who find themselves coming of age at a time of historic change and instability.

My reaction, like that of many, was mixed. I found the students’ raw emotion and obvious hunger for transcendence moving. And I have seen intense experiences serve as touchstones in people’s lives. 

At the same time, I have reservations about defining revival only as a profound religious service. Why not define revival as an uptick of love in action? I also think emotionalism can lead believers away from faithful living, rather than toward it. It’s hard to move into sacrificial service or to grapple with the complexity of real-world problems while trying to maintain a spiritual high. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Scarlette Tarte

    Nice and honest column. I was raised Catholic, now, an atheist. I remember when I was young, evangelicism was for the poor and uneducated. They met in tents on the outskirts of town, and had "revivals". I learned of Aimee Semple McPherson and other grifters, who planted people in the audience so they could pretend to "cure" them. There was a single mom and her two daughters that lived down the street from me growing up. In the projects. I grew up in New Orleans and as anyone knows who has been there , we have pockets of poverty dotted into wealthier neighborhoods. The mansions of St. Charles go two blocks deep and there is the projects and shotgun houses again. Which is actually a good thing, because rich and poor see each other, and know each other. I can't explain it, but it binds us together in ways I don't find in other cities.

    Anyway, we all played together on the street. And she asked me if I wanted to go to church with her. "Sure, I said". Not having any idea of there being anything like I was about to experience.

    So her mother picked me up and I jumped in, and they whisked me away...to a tent. On the outskirts of town in a field. Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the absolute wet wool blanket of heat and humidity that is New Orleans on a summer evening...but we were in a tent, in summer, with no air conditioning.. in New Orleans. And the piano player was getting down. And the people were singing...not staid hymns, but shouts and harmonies and tambourines. It was LOUD. And there was some lights, in purple and pink, being moved around. There was drums, too, a driving, incessant beat, and a rock guitar.

    I said to her "Angie, this is church?"

    Lol. It was quite an experience. People waving their hands in the air and mumbling strange phrases, speaking "in tongues". Jumping up and shouting "praise Jesus!". All kinds of carrying on.

    I was 10 years old. So after an eternity of music, whipping this crowd into a frenzy, here comes the preacher. Huge pompadour hair. A white suit with silver sequin lapels. The shiniest, whitest shoes I had ever seen. His name was Jesse Duplantis.

    He preached about hell. And the "holy spirit", and how you could tell if you truly had "the spirit". Then he laid down the invitation...it's time to get saved, he said. If you feel the spirit move within you, it's God telling you, much like The Price is Right, to "come on down". And he, preacher Jesse would hear your testimony, and lay hands on you and you would be saved. Hallelujah! Well, I wasn't going to go down but, Angie said, with her eyes full of tears "please come with me! I feel God pulling me and he wants you to go too". Eh, ok. So down I went. And we knelt on these riser stairs, and put our heads down in our arms...and by now, Angie was just sobbing her eyes out. So I'm thinking "I am supposed to be crying here". But the truth is, I didn't feel what everyone else was feeling. I felt...weird. Out of place. Like something was wrong with these people. And very sorry for my friend, who at ten years old was no more a "sinner" than any happy go lucky kid. But I tried to make myself cry. I tried to feel something. Preacher Jesse asked me if I wanted to be saved and I cried "oh yes"! And he grabbed my head and held it tight then prayed some arglebargle over me and raised his hands suddenly and said "you are saved by the blood of Christ! No demon can claim you! You are God's!"

    Needless to say, it was all very disconcerting, and was my introduction to what was then called The Charismatic Movement.

    And Jesse Duplantis.

    When I got home, I felt bad. I felt maybe I had done something wrong. I was Catholic after all, I wasn't in need of saving, AND, I had basically lied about feeling "like a sinner needing to be saved". I talked about it with my mom, and she told me about these groups. About how they wanted emotionalism, how it made them feel good. That some people believed that the holy spirit would literally go inside them and make them be able to do things like speak in a foreign language etc. Or a language only known to them.

    This experience largely tainted by outlook on these churches. I really came to hold them in much contempt. Contempt for making people feel so awful about themselves, especially little kids who had done nothing. Contempt for how they constantly hit people up for money, contempt for telling people if they were not rich, it was THEIR fault for not having enough faith.

    But mostly contempt for just how shallow they were. There seemed to be no theological depth to them, at all, it was just pure emotion. A high.

    Which led me to another observation. So, so many people who had been addicted to drugs, would go to these type churches in an effort to remain "clean". They would often report that God or the spirit was filling them up, that when they had that, they didn't need drugs. And I knew right then ...they were just trading the drug high for the religious high ...and it wasn't going to last. 9 times out of 10, they went back to using drugs.

    Which is the danger of over emotionalism. Of wanting to feel that all the time. It's just chasing a high.

    There is no doubt that having moving moments occasionally in church can be a good thing. Feeling closer to your creator or your community is, I assume, a positive. But overwrought emotionalism all the time is unsustainable and unrealistic. What happens often is people can't get the high anymore, and then move on to another church saying to themselves "this one is a true church, I feel "it" in this one.

    I find them unstable, and I see that the preachers come and go often, as well.

    I don't think they are good for people and I don't think they are good for the country. I think they don't lead people to a deeper theological understanding. I just think of them as empty calories. A place to go and get some feel good self help and socialize.

    Of course, now, as an atheist, I can see problems with all churches and forms of worship. But I still have a bias in favor of more old school, mainline churches, and Judaism as well.

    I think they just offer the believer more actual meat for mulling over, more depth. There is a reason that City of God and Summa Theologica came out of Catholicism. I don't know any great works of depth that have come out of the evangelical church. Perhaps I am just uniformed?

    Anyway, I am grateful you wrote honestly about your mixed feelings on the emotional appeal of your religion. It is hard to be critical of something you love, hard to share doubts. Thank you for doing that. I have often wanted to hear from evangelical own mouths just what it is they get from their faith, especially when the highs start to wear off. Is there anything to sustain?

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    1. Rch22

      I grew up in evangelical churches but felt profoundly uncomfortable in "revival" services and events (and I never went to anything nearly as flashy as what you describe). As a child, I felt guilty about that discomfort. It was only when I was a college student at a training event for student leaders in my Christian organization that I began to understand why. They cautioned us against using music in our meetings as a form of emotional manipulation, and I began to understand how many elements of contemporary evangelical worship were designed to do exactly that. Eventually I landed in an Anglican church and I haven't looked back.

      Just a quibble: City of God was written in the late patristic era and thus many would not view it as a product of the Catholic church. The Orthodox church considers Augustine one of their church fathers and many Calvinists would call themselves Augustinian.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Scarlette Tarte

        Well, I think the Catholic Church probably does view it as a product of Catholicism, since Augustine was Catholic and all that...or rather, embraced it late in life.

        But I am sure it influenced lots of religious folk. And perhaps drew inspiration from outside the church as well.

        I think it was just me on some level recognizing I was being manipulated. Hence my discomfort. One of the most profoundly disappointing things in my was the realization that many, many people do not recognize when they are being manipulated. They really think they are having certain feelings on their own, without outside influence.

        It seems to be an almost willful obtuseness.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Joe

    Wait for the fruit. The famous Reverend Charles Finney revivals in the decade 1825-30 planted the seeds for the abolitionist movement that crested in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation -- the generation that ended chattel slavery in the United States. Eye witnesses of Rev. Finney's revivals were profoundly emotional, with sinners falling on their faces upon entering the venue.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Wilhelm

      As did the children of Rev. Lyman Beecher.
      The first third of the nineteenth century is a fascinating era in American religious history. It gave us The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Seventh-day Adventists and shifts in protestant groups from Calvinism to Arminianism. And there's probably more that I can't begin to recall.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I view revivals potentially as a gift from God. Every once in awhile, we experience a closeness to God we cannot rationally comprehend. There is no rhyme nor reason to it. It's a gift, and one we should happily accept.

    Revivals can inspire good works, and can lead to action. It is good when they do. But gifts are simply that, with no quid pro quo towards action. So not everyone will respond with action.

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  4. Nicco

    Now we get to see if this revival lives up to its name. Does it actually revivify not only the participants but also those in their circles, the Wilmore, KY community, and American Christianity more broadly? Does it inspire not just attendance at church on Sunday but also attendance to the needs of those around us? Does it inspire a living faith or a dead faith (i.e. without works)?

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    Matt Anderson

    We should also not discount/delegitimize the Holy Spirit using emotions to draw us in and then send us out to do the hard work. My childhood church experience is almost entirely the opposite of yours and I can tell you efforts to suppress emotion and the spirit are incredibly damaging.

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    1. Midge

      I suspect conservatives, or non-conservatives sympathetic enough to hang around conservatives, are especially attached to the fact that getting the right stuff done can't be exciting all the time. But finding your task exciting *none* of the time makes the task so much harder that very few people who are good at what they do achieve that while being excited about it none of the time. Many differences in academic and career aptitude don't boil down to who's smarter overall, but to who's excited by what. Sure, the world doesn't owe us an exciting calling, and many of us will have to put up with work that doesn't really interest us just to get by. But it's harder. And it's harder to be good at it.

      Our emotions aren't a sure guide, but they don't exist only to deceive us. Instead, we have emotions for a reason, even if we also have skepticism of our emotions for a reason. I think most people can remember at least one day when maybe they were just so sick with flu or a toothache or something, that everything seemed wearisome and they got a whole lot less done than they usually do. We may take pride in how much we're still willing to work even when everything seems wearisome, but that pride already accounts for the natural diminution in motivation that something like illness can cause. Even the very disciplined typically work harder and better when they also *feel* motivating feelings.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Bel

    "It’s hard to move into sacrificial service or to grapple with the complexity of real-world problems while trying to maintain a spiritual high."

    This is universally true, for the "spiritual but not religious" to devout Christians to other religions that emphasize community over self. Not all of Buddha's time meditating was blissful.

    If someone can feel similar ecstatic emotions tripping on magic mushrooms in the woods or taking molly at a rave, those feelings are probably not sustainable even if more naturally occurring.

    It's is absolutely what happens after that matters the most.

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  7. Trichwages

    “Emotion and passion have their place. They are vital ingredients to a well-lived life. But I am also cautious toward emotion because of the way it can cloud our judgment and corrupt our decision-making.”

    Great column, and I look forward to reading your book when it’s released.

    I am going to use this comment to recommend another article, which, IMO, addresses something similar in the political realm:

    https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-erosion-of-deep-literacy

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    Gregarious240

    Thank you, Jon. I really appreciate your thoughts, perspective, and experience. As it happens, I am a worship pastor at a small Baptist church, so this question certainly hits home. I constantly wrestle with emotionalism in worship. I don’t want to squelch the work of the Spirit, but I am skeptical of creating a “worshipful” experience (what does that even mean?) for just the reasons you outline. I’m very intrigued by your book and I’d like to hear more of your thoughts in it. Will it be on Amazon or can I find it elsewhere?

    Thanks again!
    Grace and peace.

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  9. Midge

    "I grew up in a church where every Sunday we gathered in a large auditorium. I was surrounded by hundreds of people. The drums and electric guitar were loud, the lyrics were hypnotic, the chord structures were simple and appealed to my emotions. I’d close my eyes, bow my head, raise my hands, and sway with the music. Everyone else did the same.

    "It is hard to describe to those who haven’t experienced it what these church services are like. It’s beyond a mood-altering state. It is, at times, an emotional nirvana."

    So is fasting all day, then hearing this, on Good Friday:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHlsAzScJs0

    Or being part of a congregation singing this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_OBbjAfVrI

    Granted, neither Vittoria's "Tenebrae factae sunt" nor Bach's Passion chorale produces happy-clappy, "simple" ecstasy. But if the goal is to avoid emotional manipulation, avoid traditional liturgical music, too. Avoid traditions of attending worship after having not eaten all day. Avoid all-night vigils.

    The point that it's not all about the feels is a good one. Concern about the quality of the feels – are some just too simplistic? – is also one I share. But beauty is, among other things, emotionally manipulative. And beauty is important.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Scarlette Tarte

      I think way too many preachers (so called) are using this emotionalism to manipulate people out of their money, far more than they are using it to guide them into being better Christians or human beings.

      We are easily manipulated. This is why I object to being forced, as a captive audience, into military fly overs or public prayer. It's just wrong to do that to people. So many are really not aware that they are being manipulated. It's one thing if you know how it's done and why they are doing it. But mostly, people are not thinking along those lines and guarding themselves from it.

      I especially think it is horrific to do that to children.

      Religion is a potent thing. It should be administered carefully, and I wish there was a way to screen for the unscrupulous. It's just too easy to appeal to that deep desire humans have for there to be something after death, for there to be deeper meaning to life.

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  10. Sandykoch2003

    While I do not discount the movement of the Holy Spirit and I think what is going on at Asbury to be genuine, I find the current form of worship in modern Evangelical churches to be manipulating. A rock concert with a self-help message. The Me generation at its finest. I too experienced the 70's Jesus Movement as Junior/Senior High schooler.

    We are called to be salt & light, to serve not to be served. We are to be different than the culture in which we inhabit and to therefore draw others to Jesus not to dictate a culture onto those who do not know who we serve and why we do what we do, believe what we believe. We are told to love our enemies not "own them".

    Maybe it is just our generation's culture to be all about the emotion in all our experiences, religion, civic, government or the press. Hopefully, Gen Z will do a better job. May they "go and be".

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