Not Having Communion “Too Often”

eucharistIn many Christian traditions, the Eucharist is celebrated at least weekly. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, celebrate the Lord’s table with about the same frequency that they change their oil.

The basic idea behind these long spaces of time is the notion that having the Lord’s Supper too often will remove the specialness of it and cause Christians to treat it with the same flippancy as everything else they do during a normal church service. It is unclear whether the frequent repetition of other activities such as offerings, sermons, or telling your children you love them also makes them mundane and unappreciated.

There is some variance between different fundy churches in this matter. The frequency can vary between monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, and “Whenever the Pastor feels the Spirit move and gets a hankering for matzah and Welch’s.” Who needs all that self-examination and remembrance anyway?

If you believe that saying grace over every meal (including the bag of popcorn you consume while watching The Sound of Music) is always meaningful but also think that having Communion once a week will trivialize its practice — you might be a fundamentalist.

FWOTW: bible1611.com

bible1611 Once again, there’s simply too much on this month’s FWOTW to describe it all. Here are some highlights from bible1611.com.

A Primer on Betrothing. If it was good enough for Esau it’s good enough for you.

An End to Tongues when “That Which is Perfect” is come Of course we know that means the Authorized Version of 1611, or any edition, thereof (1613,1644, 1676, 1680, 1701, 1767). Wait…does that mean it was cool if people spoke in tongues in 1610 or earlier?

The ubiquitous modesty article in which is promoted a book by the title of (I’m not making this up) Cross-dressing By The Light Of Your Fire.

And there’s much, much more.

Standing For The Reading Of The Text

neh85

Nitpick warning: This post is going to be a nitpick about something that really doesn’t matter. It seriously doesn’t matter even a little bit. Probably even less than that. If you’re looking for a weighty discussion about deep things…what on earth are you doing here anyway??

Why do some fundy pastors have people stand for the text out of “respect for the word of God” (often citing Nehemiah in the process) but then let people sit for the rest of the Scripture passages?

If it’s necessary to stand for the text to avoid any disrespect, is it then allowed to disrespect verses that aren’t the text?

Of course, some fundamentalist pastors cleverly avoid this problem altogether by never reading any other Scripture during the sermon.

This has been a nitpicky post about something that really doesn’t matter. If you attempt to build a theological case about why it does matter, I will in all likelihood inform you that you really shouldn’t be on the Internet and instead should be hanging out in some place where everything is taken very, very seriously.

A silly blog dedicated to Independent Fundamental Baptists, their standards, their beliefs, and their craziness.