Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
We have reason to be suspicious of repetition as a tool of religious inculcation leading people to vanity. Maybe yes, maybe no; but at least we should be wary.
But even more, what should we think when the pattern of repetitive chanting or declaring is accompanied by phrases like, "Be simple, don't be hardened", and "Get out of your mind", and "Drop your concepts"? We were told "Touching Jesus is all that really matters", but what happens when "touching Jesus" comes with unrelieved hostility and judgmentalism towards all one's neighbours, a controlling atmosphere in which "fellowship" is needed in all decisions of life, with sins and failures of leaders being covered up, and especially with exercise of one's God-given faculties of reason and critical thought being suppressed as dangerous independence and even rebellion against God's specially-anointed?
What are we really touching, here? It gives every appearance of a man-made programme of charismania, or sensory overload, leading to surrender of the will and the submerging of one's identity to the group. Then the subject is fully open to manipulation and control.
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It is true that hollow chants in an environment of limited mental engagement is a tool for mind control or alteration. But the most sound worship of most of the history of Christianity was full of repetition. Seldom as uninterrupted as an Eastern religious chant or a rousing chorus of "Oh Lord Jesus" repeated over and over. Both have been sound and both have been hollow.
I note that Evangelical has declared just a post or two after yours that you can't pray the words of the Bible in vain. Pretty foolish. I would suggest that there are many who pray those "name it and claim it" prayers right out of the Bible. Out of context but right out of the Bible.
Rather that having a knee-jerk reaction that thinks repetition is likely to be vain or that using the words of the Bible will necessarily not be vain, we should be aware of our own hearts when we pray. When someone speaks something like "We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves" after which we declare "Christ have mercy on us," then another statement of our general tendency to sin, followed again by "Lord have mercy on us," we should not presume "vain repetition" or "hollow religion." Neither should we presume it is simply OK. The question is in the heart of the participant, not in the opinion of the observer. The observer that presumes negatively is clearly not engaged in worship of Christ, but in bickering with the household of faith.
It is probably better if we didn't worry about what we have been taught to think about any particular kind of worship and to instead be sure that when we worship we are not just going through the motions of whatever it is we do. Whether it is a centuries-old liturgy or a rousing chorus of "Oh Lord Jesus." Whether the prayers are impromptu and ad lib, or thoughtfully written down (even centuries before). If they are from the heart, it is prayer. If it is from religious duty with no heart, it is vain.
But it is wise to beware of anyone suggesting that we "clear our minds" in worship. To just repeat words (even good ones) over and over. Rather than clearing our minds, we should be setting them. We should be letting it wash over our thoughts and cares. It should be convicting us of our failures and encouraging us to walk by the Spirit.