Gaming the Gospel

I've been slowly working on various projects that will hopefully turn out to eventually be video series, blog posts series or maybe even some kind of ebook. I decided to post here because I thought it would make a good discussion and maybe give me a few extra insights and thoughts (I already have a lot to do the series).


Gaming the Gospel
How abusive and manipulative personalities use Christianity for their own ends. In particular how they like to selectively quote Bible passages, and refer to certain concepts like Agape love to further their own agenda and objectives.

topher694 said:

In fact I'd say that many who eagerly point out such behavior often fall into the trap of engaging in the same behavior, just in a different area.

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Yes I understand the psychodynamics of the issue. AKA people often become what they hate or hate what they are (defense mechanism of projection).

I've got a lot of much broader topics that I want to handle, but its hard to get the motivation. I'm in the low numbers on readership and viewership and I find that demotivates me (Where I don't think I get enough results to sometimes warrant the work I put in on a project. This tends to make me a times a bit depressed or frustrated, even though I'm trying to use my various God given talents, and spiritual gifts). This project I think could be a good pilot to launch two other ones I have in mind that are much broader in scope. (I think it could be hot as in something people actually search for on youtube etc.)


Interesting enough, I did see that sort of thing especially when Pentecostals spoke about traditional church leadership, like speaking of the older clergy tradition (bishops, priests etc.) in terms of "the deeds of the Nicolatians". (These people preached against "people conquering" vigorously but they were much more heavy handed in their dealing with people than the actual priests and bishops I've met in various Communions and denominations who are often quite reticent and circumspect when dealing with congregants).

topher694 said:

I can respond in more detail later, but yes it is quite common.

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Yes I would like that.

ChicanaRose said:

Is this a term you coined?

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yes I took it from the saying of "Gaming the System". It's essentially that only your doing it specifically with Christianity. I like the alliteration and always looking for snappy sounding titles for projects.

TraceMalin said:

Hasn't the Church been gaming the gospel from the beginning? What part of John 3:16 do they not understand? Fear has been weaponized to control believers. The good news is we don't have to be afraid.

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Sort of. There are churches that do that, but in the NT there are justifiable reasons for bringing up things like Hell. What I'm trying to get at in the thread is abusive people and con-men trying to use Bible verses and concepts like Agape to maintain abusive and exploitative relationships.

ChicanaRose said:

I see. That's creative. So it works like a click-bait, right?

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Maybe a little, but so far that hasn't been the case demoing it in this thread. I actually forgot about this thread and even forgot I had posted it until you responded to it a day or two ago.


Anyway the thread was inspired by some real life examples I've seen that caused me to reflect on dysfunctional relationships in Christianity. I've seen one sided relationships where ministers can do things like chew people out in public, or even threaten people with the judgement of God if they are not tithing or giving enough to the ministers ministry etc. Meanwhile if the minister is called out for such over the line behavior they quote the "go to your brother in secret" verse to try to counter the criticism that they already did in public. Many people however can be taken in by this kind of a guilt trip (I really believe why we have many good people preaching etc. there are many people with personality disorders and other problems that use scripture and other concepts like agape to guilt your average healthy person who is prone to second guess themselves while pathological people are invulnerable to such criticism no matter how detailed and thorough it is).


Anyway I suggest some basic principles to help people. In this case, I talk about something called "The Law of Reciprocity" in psychology. The tendency of humans to do things like return favors and to seek some kind of mutual beneficial egalitarian relationship. In the gospels we are cautioned against things like revenge etc. when it comes to that law that things can spiral out of control aka "turning the other cheek". But it still is there nevertheless. And even Jesus actually seems to follow it!

When I was younger and studying the martial arts and doing sparring there was something I called "the rule of the dojo" basically an unofficial rule that we all instinctively did. Some people loved to spar and wanted to be pushed. They tended to throw out some pretty hard punches and kicks and really wanted you to do the same to them. Other people were just the opposite. Actually most of the women that belonged to the dojo. They wanted the spar to be as gentle and non damaging as possible. And there were people like myself who were in the middle on that. Anyway like the rule of the dojo, Jesus does seem to meet people with the same kind of energy and demeanor in the Gospels. He's very nice and sweet to the shy people, but when he runs across the hard nosed Pharisees trying to bully people he pretty much gives it back to them!


Anyway what I'm advocating is for people to be aware and analytical when they encounter these kinds of situations. There is always a problem of people cherry picking scriptures and do so in a one sided way. They want you to be accountable but will claim or assume some kind of special privileged where they are not. One of the basic foundation principles in the Bible is that of Covenant and that is a two sided relationship.

A second major point on the topic I was going to address is motive questioning. I see lots of people do this as a Red Herring deflection tactic. If you actually are making good points on why something is questionable and start quoting bible passages etc. they try to make a last ditch effort to throw you off that. And yes I've seen this happen a number of times when it comes to ministers defending questionable or even indefensible things. They basically try to switch the topic of the conversation since most people have trouble against a charge against "being judgmental" etc. as a Christian. The interesting thing is saint Paul in 1 Philippians actually gives a ready made rebuttal to this tactic.