St.Arbucks Coffeeshop Cartoonist.  KDS (Koinonia Deprivation Syndrome) is ubiquitous.  Sadly, it can be most evident in families (nuclear and extended) at seasonal times.  The classic Lennon-McCartney tune, 'Eleanor Rigby' ("...Ah, look at all the lonely people...") is also most evident on the faces of holiday church attendees who crowd into 'sanctuaries' under the illusion that they're going to find sincere love (Romans 12:9), empathy, rapport, and honest fellowship--only to be 'bombasted' with artificially-crafted, giant-screened, religious propaganda onstage.  (As always, '...there is no room in the Inn'.)

Dark Roast: TGI-Finished..!  If you find yourself relieved (for at least another glorious year) that you don't have to bear with narcissistic, (personality-disordered) in-laws listening to them boast about all the awards they've received (sadly, from toadies and bootlickers) for pharisaically giving their bleeding-heart alms in public, and doing their rhetorical ('sackcloth-n-ashes') prayers on street corners--you've saying some thank-god-it's-overs on your televangelist rosary..!

The Whole Fam Damily. If your 'fambly' get-togethers leave you with the self-loathing sycophancy and insincere flattery evokes in you, remember the comfort and liberation of the Holy Spirit is calling you to, 'Come out from among them,' and be spiritually liberated. (I tell folks in counseling, "Quit pretending you enjoy faux fellowship with the character-flawed and their fawning apple-polishers--or you'll end up turning your frustration and anger against yourself.")

The Left Foot of Fellowship.  I told a seminar audience in Carson City, Nevada years ago,"Why be afflicted with narcissistically-disordered 'outlaws' at seasonal gatherings or even 'narcissistic-contract' churches where 'your role' is to sheeple-clap and toss lotsa sheeple-money in the offering plate--and bear with some grinning (humor, insight, wisdom and judgment-impaired) idiot up on stage making a fool of himself?" (I was never invited back--heh-heh...and thank God.)

Nourishing vs. Toxic.  I know, of course, most folks (ruled by social and 'belonging-need' anxiousness) won't listen to therapeutic advice. Sadly, they keep forgetting, 'There is no fellowship between Light and Darkness,' between nourishing and toxic, between the charming sociopath and the sincere lover. Thus, 'nice folk' in America's Culture of Narcissism often live lives of quiet desperation....'in the midst of a wicked and perverse (2 Timothy 3) generation.'

The St.Arbucks Coffeeshop Cartoonist looks for nice folks with whom to enjoy coffee shop fellowship--sincere empathy, good rapport, and plenty of good satirical laughs. (Please, no toadies, pharisees, politicians...or sociopaths...heh-heh.)

The Culture of Narcissism

From Pretend Family to Pretend Church

Copyright © 2011-2012 by Philip.C. Brewer

All Rights Reserved

The Quality Critic At Large

A Necessary 'Stephen Ministry' in the Ecclesia.

Why aren't there more stouthearted godly men (honest men of childlike sincerity and like precious faith in Christ) addressing troublesome, disturbing, egregious behaviors, psycho-social sins, and violations of Christian Orthopraxy, Orthodoxy, and (discerning the Body of Christ) Koinonia among the Church at Large--and the quality of spiritual leadership in the community of the redeemed?

Blessed are the pure in heart doesn't fit the contemporary Church, it seems.

The raison d'etre of the Quality Critic at Large in Ecclesiology is to assess and evaluate occurences of Spiritual Abuse and even 'marking those who cause division amongst you',  looking prayerfully for the faux shepherds who 'lord it over their flocks'.

Yet, Toxic Faith, Toxic Religion, and Toxic Spiritual Leadership usually appear to slip through the fingers of Christian examination like greased pigs at a county fair contest.

Pastors with a diagnosable Paranoid Personality Disorder call out and castigate congregational scapegoats from their (literally) bullying pulpits (or call people who ask hard questions into their offices to intimidate, suspend, or fire them--while overlooking their staff associates' adulteries--or associates' porn addictions even viewed on church computers.

There is no Quality Control in the community of the redeemed.  All too often, the morally-insane are at the helm wearing The Emperor's New Clothes--with no childlike person of integrity to blow their cover.

Unbiblical gender-role violators and sodomites steeped in porneia are paid big salaries to lead choirs and orchestras because church administrators idolatrously worship the talent god.

Senior pastors grieve the Holy Spirit by snidely bragging about how they despise anyone over the age of 50--how they are sick of the older generation, the fuddy-duddies (the very folks the Holy Spirit would have them focus on primarily--as so-called pastor-shepherds).

Some golden calf leaders hawk a greed-n-coveting-based gospel founded in a fallacious quid pro quo (give to get) philosophy.

One senior pastor (who I believe is a misogynist) exercised meanness of spirit and I believe vicious coldness of heart by pointing out that a young bride standing before them (the sanctuary filled with her family, relatives, and friends) at the wedding ceremony "...is not a virgin," pontificating about how he is going against his principles by condescending to perform the ceremony.

These mockers and spiritually abusing bullies are often Emergent or mega-church wannabes, lusting (with the pride of life) to create their Hegelian dialectical-purpose-driven, undiscipled barnfull of spiritual orphans, and ecclesiastical versions of Hitler Youth or Mao's Red Guard--with no accountability or ministerial responsibility to mature saints--whom the Lord has there to stabilize, teach the young greenhorns, and look the pastor in the eye when he regresses to prancing around like a girlyman on stage batting for both sides.

Study the Bible regarding how to recognize false prophets and false teachers.  Study Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, James, Acts.  Look at their cronies--who they hang out with. Study the leprosy metaphors in Scripture analogous to spiritual uncleanness and the need for spiritual quarantine (cf. 1 Corinthians 5) in the epidemiology of sin and evil.  Examine, in biblical theology, the vital necessity for a sound Pneumatology and integrated ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ.

Start studying and thinking for yourself.  Don't feed the cancer by attending these places, kowtowing to the hubristic, and/or giving God's money to these arrogant faux ministers.

Religion is too often a haven for the psychopath (a.k.a. sociopath) who has the Simony-cleverness of charming you on the one hand--and the bullying personality to intimidate you on the other hand--the cunning cruelty to make an honest inquirer feel very uncomfortable who asks (John 16, Jude) questions prompted by The Spirit of Truth.

(Excerpt: Unpublished Work in Progress)

Wolves Wearing Wool

Copyright © 2011 by Philip C. Brewer

All Rights Reserved