Max Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 My Dad always loved a "good fire & brimstone preacher." The more doom the guy predicted, the better. The more he derided you, the more he "laid it on the line." So long as he could convince you the future was bleak, you sucked, and the world was lost, the sermon was worthwhile. He'd always say afterwards, "Boy, he really told them!" I could never understand what he found to be inspiring in all this rot. I think maybe that it was the preachers were talking to everyone else but him. And he liked the idea that everyone he disliked would suffer someday. Has anyone else ever gained any insight on this phenomenon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 My Dad always loved a "good fire & brimstone preacher." The more doom the guy predicted, the better. The more he derided you, the more he "laid it on the line." So long as he could convince you the future was bleak, you sucked, and the world was lost, the sermon was worthwhile. He'd always say afterwards, "Boy, he really told them!" I could never understand what he found to be inspiring in all this rot. I think maybe that it was the preachers were talking to everyone else but him. And he liked the idea that everyone he disliked would suffer someday. Has anyone else ever gained any insight on this phenomenon? I think that he said, "Boy, he really told them" gives us a clue... some people are attracted to this worldview because it allows them to place "them" in a separate category, worthy of eternal punishment. To some, "they" are gays, others, drug addicts... etc. etc.. so yeah, I see that you basically said the same thing. I don't have any insights as to why someone might actually believe that fire and brimstone is waiting for them... it is obviously due to emotional and psychological manipulation, but WHY people willingly believe this about themselves, I have no clue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitchu Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 My dad was evidently a fearsome fire and brimstone preacher (I have no memory of it). He left the ministry, ostensibly, because what he wanted to do was just to help folks live better with one another, but the congregation made it clear that they wanted the excellent fire and brimstone. I don't think, in the entirety of the rest of his life, he ever figured it out either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 The fire and brimstone types, to me, just get their rocks off on telling everyone else how to live, and those who like such preachers like to follow strict authority and believe the world needs iron-fisted guidance or else they run amok like whackjobs. It appeals to the lust for power some people have, and to others the desire to be seen as "special" since they themselves don't deserve this horrible fate that is set forth for all those who are not like them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenjaminHaag Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Eccchh...I haven't had the "anthropological experience," as my girlfriend calls it, of sitting through a traditional fire-and-brimstone sermon in my 36 years, but I think it comes from the same place as some of the attitudes I've seen after, of all things, a tragedy. On one particular and especially conservative web site (I won't mention that it's http://www.crosswalk.com), after 9/11, the tsunami disaster, and Katrina, respectively, there was easily at least one "Maybe this was God's judgement..." or, worse, "Well, they got theirs, maybe Vegas is next!!!" posting for every seemingly sincere expression of empathy, or horror, or sadness for what happened. It's a combination of unaldulterated manipulation and, I think, perverse self-empowerment, playing on people's perhaps natural fear in the face of a powerful unkown -- be it the god they believe in or, hell, nature -- to get, whatever; rapt attention, overflowing offering plates, asses in the pews. That, and a sort of impotent glee in the come-uppance of the "sinners" who dare to either openly defy what you believe in, or think for themselves. That being said, <cathartically profane rant in 10...9...8...> WHAT THE FUCK...???!! "God's judgement?" Oh, right...an omnipotent, all-knowing god (of love), who can create the universe and every Starbucks in it in 7 days, who can flood the fucker with a wave of His hand, has to, er, hire terrorists to take out the WTC and the Pentagon to punish...the military-industrial complex? The dreaded gay population? Joe Investment Banker, who burned to death 80 floors above the ground? Hedonistic Pagan Tourists on vacation? Impoverished families in the poorest part of New Orleans? Oh, wait, they do VOODOO there, so fuck 'em, bring on their fetid watery end, and hallelujah, pass the sacramental Kool-Aid! How far up your ass, exactly, do you have to cram your skull to not only think this hate-bestrewn ignorant-ass drivel, but take the time to type it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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