Christianity and Control

[Grandiagod]

This will probably be locked, but hey, whatever.

Christianity incorporates many “control” techniques to both entice new members and to keep them.

The first of these I will call “The Belonging Technique”, or TBT.

TBT has been used by many modern day cults as well as Christianity. Basically it invokes a special feeling of “brotherhood” between the members of the religion. It helps Christians feel different and somewhat superior to the hedonistic “outside” world. It makes them feel as if they can fit in, as if they “belong”. (Hence the name of the technique.) In order to belong many Christians are willing to overlook the fallacies and the acts of other Christians. In this way Christianity becomes an almost exclusive club. A club where all others are doomed, and only Christians can be saved. Thus adding to the bond between Christians.

The ways Christianity accomplishes this are incredibly visible, but often overlooked. First, the aforementioned damnation of all non-Christians, helps Christians feel exclusive. Also, lets not forget the rituals that many Christian churches perform. Even the smallest and seemingly innocent rituals add to TBT. Singing praises for example, that can be compared to ritualized chanting that a lot of other cults use. The singing brings together these Christians, and once again, reinforces exclusivity and brotherhood. Lets not forget communion, all the Christians stand in line and follow each other, once again the sense of brotherhood, then they receive the bread or wine, a sense of exclusivity. Now, somewhat of an ironic metaphor for this is they way they lead sheep to the slaughter. At the entrance of the slaughterhouse is the “Judas” sheep, this sheep is there for one single reason, to keep the other sheep calm and lead them into the slaughterhouse, where they are summarily executed. Now I am not saying that Christians will be lead to some sort of philosophical or literal slaughter. It is a literal, real world example of what TBT can do. These sheep believe that they all belong to the same group, however the Judas sheep is only their to control them.

Another way TBT is accomplished is providing a united front against a common enemy. At first it was Satan, the cause of all evil and wrongdoings, the literal boogeyman lurking in the proverbial shadows. But as time passes, less people are prone to believe in Satan. Christian leaders have noticed this and have even gone so far as to imagine up opposition for Christians in order to keep them on their toes. The “War Against Christmas” is a good example of this. If Christians believe that they are under attack, they can gather up their brothers in arms and rise up against the evil outside world and its insidious enemies. But TBT is only the first of these techniques.

Christians are taught that God is omnipotent and all seeing, that everything goes according to his plan. This discourages Christians from seriously questioning their faith. Rather than look at some of the impossibilities in scripture they merely dismiss them as works of God’s omnipotence. Here is a real life example: I was talking to a person who believes in the young Earth theory, I pointed out that if they Earth was really as young as he said it to be, the light from many of the stars would not have reached Earth yet. His response? “God put the light there.” By bringing that kind of logic to the table a Christian cannot possibly find fault with Christianity because God can do anything. Multiply fish, rise from the dead, etc. Anything is possible under that belief. And questioning it is useless and sometimes even openly discouraged.

Also let us not forget the guilt techniques used in order to make Christians feel indebted to God. Now there is never going to be a preacher that says you should feel guilty because humankind has been nothing but trouble to God. But there are many subliminal messages used. The whole entire Old Testament is basically a guilt trip to for humanity. We got kick out of Eden, Sodom and Gomorrah, humanity fell from God’s graces dozens of times. And lets not forget Jesus dying to save us from our “sins” . All these stir up the emotion that says. “Hey, God went through all this for us, we should give thanks, worship him, etc.” No Christian will actually blatantly realize this however, that is why this is a subliminal technique.

The last and most commonly presented technique is good old fashioned fear. Fear of rotting in Hell for not being a Christian. A phenomenon that applies to virtually all religions is that they all have and explanation of what happens after death. Usually, the followers of the religion will end up with some glorious reward, and all others will be doomed. Why do most religions incorporate this? Because it answers some of the most eternal questions in a quick and easy manner. One of these question is the question of life after death, Heaven and Hell wrap that up quite nicely. Another is the meaning of life. Who can know the meaning of life unless one has previously lived? Also, Christians believe that they will transcend their bodies and enter an enlightened state. What better way to figure out the mysteries of the universe? However, if you are not a Christian, you will burn in a pit of fire for eternity. This scares up a very intimidating argument for Christianity. Join us, or burn in Hell. Now, that is probably the most blatant scare tactic to ever grace a pulpit.



Now discuss.