(December 2, 2013 at 4:35 pm)pockystix Wrote: Pentecostal Christians (me being one) and being Pentecostal is one of the hardest things in the world. To say that it is easy to become one and easy to manipulate others while having that position is truly unfair. The work, the dedication, and the denial it takes to become one is truly impressive and something I could only dream of achieving. In order to preach a sermon in the manner that a Pentecostal does takes eloquence, faith, and patience that only God can grant.Smug pronouncements like yours are a true pain in the ass. You don't know what you are talking about. I was a Lutheran pastor (not Pentecostal or "charismatic") but I and most of my fellow Lutheran ministers worked as hard as any Pentecostal. I often put in 80+ hours a week on my ministry. I've been out for a long time (30+ years) and I am now in a group of former and current ministers who have given up supernatural beliefs. I can tell you it was hard for all of us, painful to give up beliefs we had held for decades, painful to leave friends, but we had no option. Once you really study the Bible honestly and thoroughly, the only conclusion is that it is bullshit, often evil bullshit. If you want Pentecostal, some of the members in this group are, and besides them Dan Barker was a very hard-working and successful Pentecostal minister but he is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Unless you have personal experiences with a Pentecostal Christian doing such a thing, please, do not make claims. Making such theoretical aims can produce false and unnecessary claims that only hurt yourself in the end.
However, if you have experienced such a thing, then that person was never truly a Christian.
I presume you were talking about the Pentecostal minister mentioned above who left because it wasn't true. Well, he was right. It isn't true. Don't talk about what you have not lived through, because you will make an ass of yourself.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people — House