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20130112

Baptists Scare the BeJesus Out of Me

About a couple years ago, I used to go to a Baptist Church, attending a 12-Step program for Christians.

WHat scared me away was that the devil kept talking through a couple of church ladies to tempt me to attend Sunday service by bribing me with a free guitar. Also an ex-junkie told mehis life story to get me attend service, which had the opposite effect. Perhaps I'm too judgmental, but then I'm a Buddhist.

Now, that was mind blowing to have those kinds of experiences.

Though it did confirm one thing to me: churches where fear of the devil being preached usually has a good chance of the devil talking through any church member than a Korean Pentecostal church where the pastor has a history of exorcises.

That's because in pagan times, before the Christian missionaries appeared, Korea had shamans who did a lot of exorcisms. IMO that's probably how the Catholic Church got into the exorcism business, as it actually predates Christianity.

Except, in pre-Christian times, the shaman would either capture the evil spirit or be the receptacle for it, which was less dangerous to a shaman than an ordinary person plagued by such spirits.

And the odds that the shaman was no different from a schizphrenic person today was pretty high, since much of what a shaman trains for, you'd have to be fearless to go through.

The average person, being untrained, most likely would go nuts. However, the properly trained crazy shaman would have a ritual to perform as self-exorcism.

Did the pastor ever go an exorcism at this Baptist church? Hell no! That sort of thing is only popular in certain Pentacoastal circuits. This is a Baptist church, for God's sake.

My only regret is, I couldn't be the good Christian my ex-girlfriend was expecting to sweep her off her feet.

You could say, the devil in that congregation is what chased me away.

In short, in my eyes, the devil protected the Buddha for me. If my Buddha can do that to the devil, then I have all the spiritual protection I need!

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