Undercover Agnostic (Update 23): Discussions About Charismatic Christianity and Unintentional Double Meanings

(Pentecostal televangelist Benny Hinn)

This Sunday, at Sunday School, my Sunday School teacher "Jason", a regular in the Undercover Agnostic   series, said that his sister "Kelly" was gone because she was visiting their aunt and uncle in the town of Jacksonville in west central Illinois. He said Kelly was a wondering what she would be seeing this week since they are what is known as "Charismatic" Christians, (extreme Pentecostals), and she attends church with them when she visits.    


This had started a conversation on the entire Pentecostal movement, and it brought to mind my days in the Assembly of God denomination as a young boy, which is likely more moderate than the church that Kelly will be visiting, but still Pentecostal and fundamentalist none the less. Some time ago, I wrote a guest post titled Subconscious Phone Conversations with God about my first speaking in tongues experience on the blog Leaving Fundamentalism.

Jason talked about how his uncle was a big enthusiast of Biblical prophecy, the book of Revelation, and various theological debates surrounding the end times (Will we be raptured up before or after the Tribulation? etc.). I remember those days well, and just how popular that kind of theology was, and related fiction too, like the popular Left Behind series in the 90's and early 2000's.

I had a Sunday School teacher then I'll call "Jack", who was a big fan of such theology, and he had a very interesting life story. He grew up in a town in central England, was a solider in the final years of World War II, and met his wife, a German citizen, in the war.

His stories of coming from a rather rowdy British family were quite amusing. His family had the reputation of being some of the tougher people in the neighborhood, especially his mother and brothers. He once told the story of how in England, much like it was in the US at the time, people wouldn't hesitate to scold (or sometimes even punish) other people's children, or if they did something mischievous. Sometimes, they would practically drag them to their parents, explain the situation, and the child would have hell to pay from their own parents once they got in the door.

Once, he did something a neighborhood father didn't approve of, and the man thought nothing of it to spank him for it. His mother didn't approve of such societal norms, and was furious. She went to confront the neighbor, and asked him why he did this and he said he was "chastising" young Jack. His mother supposedly told him, "Oh yes? Well let me 'chastise' you!", and despite the fact that she was a foot shorter than him, punched him in the face.