Good Article About The Charismatic Culture

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='23 November 2009 - 06:55 PM' timestamp='1259002505' post='2007987']
I agree. In my personal observations, a large segment of the 'born again' mentality involves one big emotional experience leading to accepting Jesus, followed by not a heck of a lot in terms of commitment. Maybe they'll finally kick a drug addiction or alcoholism or something, but this is an exterior thing. What's really changing? Is the mentality drastically transformed? I'm not sure. More importantly, I don't think it occurs to [many of] them that this is not as it should be. It's fine to say "I've accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour", and it's fine to go to a youth group or listen to some inspirational sermons, but a lot of it is about what you do and how it makes you feel. In that sense, it seems lot like just finding a new exciting hobby.

I'm rambling a bit; my thoughts on this aren't very organized.
[/quote]
No, I think I understand what you're saying. I know I felt like my salvation was in question because I hadn't had a huge emotional experience or anything. I had grown up knowing about all this, and after a while decided to be baptised. I don't have some single moment where I had an emotional conversion experience, though.

[scardella]

These youth rallies that he's putting down had a significant positive lasting impact in my life.

Directly, through a youth conference, my relationship with my sister was radically changed from a very antagonistic relationship to a deep friendship.

Indirectly, the group of friends that became my support in my fledgling faith had radical conversions thanks to these youth rallies.

I do admit that some of them have fallen away. However, for some, it was the spark that ignited a lasting flame. You cannot say that people falling away is evidence of the badness or illegitimacy of something like youth rallies or the charismatic movement. If you use that as your metric, then you'd condemn Jesus' preaching. After all, many left and returned to their former way of life.