Trying to learn

Shieldmaiden4Christ said:

My mother is a die hard Methodist who dabbles in Fundamentalism. She's very big into all of the "End Times" stuff that Evangelical and Fundamentalist quarters churn out, which for whatever reason she doesn't see as at odds with Wesleyan theology. She also signs up for every Bible study that her church does on the Book of Revelation. It's a very weird situation, and we've butted heads on the issue before.

Mom: "Jesus is returning soon! All of the signs are there! Natural disasters, Damascus is in ruins, there's strife in the Middle East, and the Jews are being persecuted!"
Me: "Uh ... yes, he'll return eventually, and it's better not to speculate on it past being mindful. That's what the Bible says."
Mom: "But Jesus is coming soon! The signs are there! We need to be prepared!"
Me: *walks away*

Yes, be prepared, but living a Christian life already prepares you for it. There's no reason or need to speculate or obsess over it. It's very odd to me, but I guess her UMC is big on eschatology. I've just never understood the obsession with it.

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It is unusual to see a UMC parish so concerned with this subject matter.

Wgw said:

It is unusual to see a UMC parish so concerned with this subject matter.

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I agree, but her Bible studies are always on the Book of Revelation.

Shieldmaiden4Christ said:

I agree, but her Bible studies are always on the Book of Revelation.

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Strange. I believe you of course.

There are certain aspects of modern Protestantism that seem to transcend traditional denominational boundaries, probably via the growth and influence of a new style of Evangelicalism starting in the 1960s ("Evangelicalism" proper, as shorthand for particular doctrinal positions on faith and salvation, does fit traditional Protestant denominations to a T, as you would expect, since they're the ones who came up with those doctrinal positions in the first place). For instance, I was raised Presbyterian, which is one of the "mainline" churches that likely would not have engaged in a lot of the hoopla now associated with Evangelicalism, and yet I can distinctly remember a certain point when the particular community in which I was raised came under the sway of a slick, younger preacher who suddenly brought in things like Benny Hinn-style "healing by the name of the Holy Spirit" type stuff, which some people certainly responded to and others were not happy about. This led to a split in that community which, as far as I know, has remained with that flashy Evangelical style since then while the more traditional members were forced to seek out other alternatives. Nevertheless, the sign on the door remains the same, so any visitor who might know Christian history would probably be confused upon first entering. It's certainly not traditional Presbyterianism (I guess you'd have to go to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for that), but it is common enough in parts of the West where Protestantism as a thing is so mixed up and so infused with this sort of popular Evangelicalism that there is very little to distinguish, say, a Methodist from an Episcopalian, or a Presbyterian from a Baptist, or whatever. In actual practice, you may find certain beliefs and behaviors that cut across denominational lines that you would have never found in the churches in question prior to the late 1800s/early 1900s, if not even later.

Not to get too far off topic, but I think this is one of the many, many reasons why Western Christianity is dying. It's just this vague morass of different "stuff" that whoever happens to be leading a given congregation at a particular point picked up here and there and formed into some kind of slapdash theology (I was going to say "and practice", but such people usually don't care about practice, since they're pietists at best), and so you will find these pockets of otherwise traditional (well, Protestant traditional) churches that have these very odd concerns and ways of being, relative to what their denomination might still be like in its homeland (though in a lot of cases the pockets are the traditional ones while the majority of the church is not traditional at all).

Traditional:


Wacky American Elevator Music That Mentions Jesus, Sort Of:


(And yeah, the above comparison is way obvious, but since we're all Orthodox here [or going to be, God willing, in Shieldmaiden's case], we know that these differences aren't a matter of preferring traditional or new "worship styles" -- barf -- but reflect the mindset of the people embracing them.)

Wgw said:

Strange. I believe you of course.

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In think it might be because it's a large UMC in a small Southern town surrounded by a lot of Evangelical and/or Fundamentalist churches. Maybe it's a competing for the "flocks" of these other churches.