Annoying Fundamediaist Christian Jargon. Part 1

Every interest group, academic discipline, political movement, etc. has its own jargon and technical terms. Terms like salvation, faith, trinity, baptism, etc. are central terms to the Christian religion and label key concepts in that religion’s theology and understanding of the human condition. There are other terms and expressions bandied about freely on fundamenalist and charismatic Christian media outlets that seem to be without clear theological meaning or content. Others are so  overused that they function more like shibboleths, characteristic phrases signifying belonging to a specific group, in this case, the sub-culture created by the  branch of commercial, mass media, charismatic Christianity, i.e. “fundamediaist”.

I will add to this list as I have time, but I will open up the discussion with one that really gets to me.
“Shift in the Heavenlies” So, what is a “heavenly”, and just what in a collective of them shifts?   Anyway, when it happens, it seems to be something good. To wit: “As the Illinois Strategic Prayer Network is rising up over the entire state, there is awareness throughout the intercessors’ leadership that there is already coming a shift in the heavenlies that is manifesting in many areas” (From here).

Now, these shifts seem to require some kind of elbowing or other form of assertive means of forcing one’s way through a crowd: “Baldwin said enthusiastically, ‘There’s something happening. There’s a shift in the heavenlies. I believe we’re moving angels and demons right now’” (from here). OK, so an angel or a demon may be a “heavenly”. But how does prayer “move” them? Presumably prayer shifts the angels and demons in different directions. Should one therefore not speak of “shifts”? Could this movement be explained in terms of the physical law that says “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”? Therefore, one could move an angel in one direction by pushing him/her/it with one arm and pushing a demon/demoness/demon-it in the opposite direction with the other arm leaving the shifter-person with a bit of breathing room in the middle.

On the other hand, the shift(s) can be for the worse. “If we do not fast and pray the shift in the heavenlies would be for evil, a very great darkness. Islam would rise” (from here). Well, I can see how that would shift their noses right out of sorts, but “heavenlies”? Oh, yeah, these people think Islam is Satanism. Anyway, shifts can and will take place without specific actions. Eek! Gotta get praying!

Shifting heavenlies seems to be a frequent claim among those who like to claim some kind of prophetic gift, or that biblical prophecy is coming true before their very eyes. Note this blatant “prosperity gospel” propaganda from several years ago:

At our International Gathering of Apostles and Prophets last October (2000), the Lord spoke through Prophet Chuck Pierce:

“Nine months of testing will no be upon My prophets, saith the Lord. Do not despise this testing, for this testing will produce an enlargement. These nine months of testing will not only create enlargement, but it will bring to birth that which I want to present to this world for the future…….As the birth comes in mid-July to the end of July, you will begin to be sent forth as reformers of lands, saith the Lord.”

• At the Watchman Intercessors Prophetic conference April 25-27, God led us to declare a SHIFT in the heavenlies for the Body of Christ. This marked the end of a period of divine frustration —- where God was allowing many to become dissatisfied with their present situation so they would press forward. Now that July has come, the season of testing is ending!  (Bold in original).

 I can think of a few heavenly bodies I’d like to see shifting around and this might lead to “enlargement” but I’m not sure that this is what is meant here.  So, some shifts just happen. The heavenlies can be considered stable until some self-declared prophet declares that an all-caps shift will occur. And so, the prophet can then duly note an improvement in God’s mood. Now, does God tell the prophet to declare the heavenlies get off their butts and shift in a way favourable to the body of Christ, or does the prophet actually tell God to stop being in such a bloody snitt and stick up for his crew of faithful? Is God not a heavenly?

It seems to me, however, this shifting heavenlies business is merely a rhetorical flourish to add some kind of metaphycal aspect to otherwise rather mundane affairs of the Church’s interactions with the rest of the world. It is used for legitimacy and to create a sense of drama and urgency. It is only one part of a whole vocabulary that imagines a supernatural world densly populated with various angels, demons, devils,  abstract forces and manifestations of God (i.e., “new glory that is unleased…” I will post on ‘glory’ later).  It suggests to me that the Christians who buy into this jargon and its ill-formed and ever-shifting cosmology are no less superstitious than the medieval folk who mixed Christian theology with beliefs in spirits, leprechauns, fairies, and magic of all sorts. It also strikes me as a way to access the same part of the human psyche that allows for belief in astrology: the part of us leads many to accept that events in the seemingly mundane world can be predicted in the pattern of the stars or other phenomena. Of course, one needs an astrologer, Magi, seer, or prophet to interpret it, and with that, comes power.