Today, I and my friend Chad basked in the glory that is the Berean Baptist Church, this one was located in Ogden, tucked away in a quiet neighborhood with its adjoining youth academy (oh please save these poor children...).
"We believe that God created the heavens and the earth, including all life, "Each after its own kind," by direct act, and not by any process of evolution. We further believe that the Genesis Flood in the days of Noah was universal."
- part of the Church's faith statement
It was a modest little chapel with a very plain decor as to be expected from a Baptist denomination. They are a fundamentalist, King-James-only, independent Baptist church. It did give me a sense of nostalgia from the days of Faith baptist church with my father, there were several hymns that I recognized and some of the messages were similar to what I heard all those years ago.
ATMOSPHERE: 6/10 candles
Non-hostile and welcoming, the chapel was modest and simple. It was filled with plenty of natural light. There was definitely a bit more energy here than last week's venture to the St. Paul Lutheran Church. It was more informal and I noticed that the age groups in attendance were more varied. It was warm, quaint, and comfortable.
MESSAGE: 2/10 candles
Okay, prepare yourself, there is material in this section that you will very likely find offensive but remember that these are people's beliefs and we need to do our best to respect peoples' right to believe what they want. Please remember that in the comment section! Comments and criticisms are fine on the beliefs but please refrain from insulting the individuals who hold those beliefs.
The messages of the sermon could be summed up as follows: (O) = I agree, (X) = I disagree,
(N) = neither agree nor disagree
- Forgiveness is good. (O)
- We as humans love our grudges, love our resentment, and we take pleasure in holding on to those (N)
- Criticizing or questioning church authority is sinful and wrong (X)
- Sex is bad and men are rapists without god to keep them in line (X)
- You are worthless without God (X)
- We are born into slavery (to sin) and are compelled to sin and are unworthy of salvation. (X)
- Christians have a new master, God. As a slave to God he can do what ever he likes to you and there is nothing you can do about it, FEAR HIM! (XXX)
- you need to worship god to be happy, so come to church regularly, "there is no other way to be happy, but to trust and obey" (X)
- The Bible isn't supposed to make you feel good about yourself (O) because we are prideful, sinful beings (X)
- True Christians are persecuted by Mormons (X)
The sermon started talking about forgiveness, which is something I can get behind totally!
"Forgiveness is letting go of bitterness. That bitterness affects those around you and hurts those over whom you have influence and those who look up to you."
However that was a brief review of last week's lesson so we quickly moved on and the pastor discussed what constitutes a sin and defined it as any non-conformity or transgression to the laws of God, making this a VERY broad definition. He also added, which I found particularly interesting that criticizing church authority is sinful and dangerous, as all sins kill in one way or another, this segwayed beautifully into .... SEX!
Oh how passionate the Pastor was on this issue! Shouting, literally pounding his fist on the pulpit and frequently used the word "fornicate" which I found quite amusing, it was like what you see in the movies. He addressed the young men in the audience and Chad brought to my attention a woman who leaned over to her son and sternly said to him "Are you listening to this?". I think from now on I am going to bring my digital recorder to capture some of these precious audio moments, however, they post their entire sermons on their website if you are curious to see what goes on.
Then came the real meat of the sermon, the main card of the service. This is where they lost me. I mean I should have had some idea what I was walking into but his caught me at such a surprise it took all I could muster to keep from outburst. Today's sermon was about... wait for it... SLAVERY! You heard right, slavery. That day, the day before Martin Luther King Day, we were told that we were all slaves. We are Slaves to sin, we are born into slavery making us the lowest of the low in the slave hierarchy. There is a Greek word to describe this, dulos, meaning slave, but not just any slave, the lowliest of all the slaves. There is a hierarchy of slavery with those being born into servitude occupying the lowest spot on the totem. That is us. The only way to move up the ladder is to change master's... Meet God, your new master. Serve him and worship him, he (and I'm not making this up, these were the pastor's words and they were supposed to be metaphorical... I hope) "takes your old, ugly chains and shackles and replaces them with a better chain, like gold or an ornament".
SERVICE/ACTIVITY: 5/10 candles
Ok, there were some ups and downs. Positives, it was entertaining, it was interactive with the occasional member of the congregation chiming in with an "Amen" or a "that's right" or a "praise Jesus". The pastor frequently used buzz words like fornication which I found amusing. The choir was nice and music was played on the grand piano.
The negatives? So... many... hymns! Some were nice, I'm not going to lie but a lot of them dragged on for a while. I also have to dock points for the comments on the Mormons. This church seems to have a sort of victimized complex with the Mormon Church. They feel picked on and that the Mormons scrutinize true Christians' ideas of salvation through faith rather than works which the Mormon church emphasizes.
COMMUNITY: 8/10 candles
The people were great! Very open to us as new visitors, friendly, and most members of the congregation came over for a handshake and an introduction. We weren't even all the way in the door before being approached by a greeter with goodie bags. He asked us if it was our first visit, it was. I realized I had left my notebook in the car and ran out to get it. The greeter seemed a bit surprised when I held the door for some people on my way back in saying that that was the first time he had ever seen a first time visitor hold the door open for the regular members. Wasn't quite sure how to take that, but I guess it was a compliment.
OVERALL: 6/10
I can't even imagine what it would be like living a life believing this. Up to the time of this writing, this was the most self-loathing, guilt ridden sermon I have ever attended. I learned that God made sex and made us to enjoy it and that men are all sexual predators who need God to stay in line, because without god we are empty, worthless, creatures. I learned that the only way to find happiness is to accept God as your master and then he gives you a fancy collar. Overall I found the experience entertaining and a bit scary. The most terrifying thing to me is that they have a private school next door and they send missions everywhere. I feel that these are harmful messages they are sending out. despite all that I found the service enjoyable and it kept my attention.
Tune in next week when I explore one of the oldest Christian faiths in the world, the Catholic Church.
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