I am not one to write inflammatory, hyperbolic headlines, but for this post, it will be clear to readers that the chosen post title is not unfair nor does it misdescribe the subject matter. The following video features Sean Feucht, a, uh, a, well, I am not sure what to call him. Let’s go with Trump-supporting Fundamentalist Charismatic preacher and worship leader with deep ties to Bethel Church in Redding, California. (Please see Bethel Redding, a Dangerous Evangelical Cult and Do You Really Have to Ask if Bethel Redding is a Cult?) Feucht describes himself as a:
…. missionary, artist, speaker, author, activist, and the founder of multiple worldwide movements.
According to Feucht’s website, he currently operates three ministries:
- Burn 24-7 — a global worship and prayer movement launched out of Sean’s dorm room in college, now spanning 6 continents and more than 250 cities.
- Light A Candle — a global missions and compassion movement bringing light, hope, healing, and tangible love to the hardest, darkest, and some of the most isolated places of the earth.
- Hold the Line — a political activist movement seeking to rally the global church to engage in their civic duty, to vote, and stand up for causes of righteousness and justice in the governmental arena.
Currently, Feucht is traveling the country holding “spontaneous” rallies. (The rallies are, in fact, quite organized.) Hundreds and thousands of primarily white Evangelical Christians flock to Feucht’s rallies. What follows is a video of Feucht’s latest rally in Little Rock, Arkansas. The video is six minutes long. PLEASE take the time to watch all of it. If you do so, you will understand why I chose the title I did for this post.
Here’s a link to a recent rally Feucht held in Springfield, Missouri.
Feucht is a rabid anti-masker, so it should come as no surprise that none of the rally attendees is wearing a mask. Every rally Feucht holds is a super spreader event, yet thanks to warped interpretations of the separation of church and state and the First Amendment, he and his merry band of minstrels are exempt from state health mandates. Truly, with God all things are possible.
What troubles me is the religious hysteria shown in the video. Using rock music and psychological manipulation, Feucht and other rally leaders whip the crowd into a frenzy. While some Evangelicals might suggest that the behavior of rally attendees is fueled by Charismatic beliefs and practice, not True “Biblical” Christianity, I have witnessed similar insanity during Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) conferences and camp meetings. The root issue is psychological and emotional manipulation. The very same techniques that Feucht uses were used to foment the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The people in the aforementioned video are not, for the most part, uneducated, ignorant hillbillies. These people are educated, working-class people, people who have good jobs, own their own homes, and drive nice automobiles. If the Insurrection taught us anything, it is this: smart, educated, financially secure people can behave in ways that look a lot like the scenes from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. When people gather together in like-minded tribes, it is easy for the Sean Feuchts of the world to manipulate them psychologically. I was a pastor for twenty-five years. I was, by all accounts, a well-spoken orator. I knew how to use the Bible, religious verbiage, and stories to deliver sermons that moved people to action. As I look back on the 4,000+ sermons I preached, it is hard not to conclude that I manipulated people to achieve a religious objective — be it salvation, getting right with God, winning the lost, fulfilling my agenda, or filling the church’s coffers. I may have thought, at the time, that I was doing God’s work, that my motives were holy and pure, but the fact remains that through my words (and behavior) I “led” people to do things they might not do otherwise.
What I found most disturbing in this video was clips of children being overcome with emotionalism. While Feucht and his defenders will claim that what is witnessed on the video is “God,” it is clear, at least to me, that these poor children were whipped into an emotional frenzy by an expert modern-day Elmer Gantry.
I should note, in passing, Feucht’s (and his crew’s) crass, manipulative appropriation of Native American (called First Nation People in the video) culture. I wanted to scream when I watched indigenous people wrapped in what are commonly called Indian blankets. Feucht is evidently unaware of the history Indigenous people have with Christianity, including blankets given to them infected with diseases such as smallpox.
What do you think of this video? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I took a gander at this video. It was magnificent! Everybody was involved. I’ve seen similar videos at Nazi rallies, Heavy Metal concerts, the lift-off of the first Falcon Heavy, Sports events. Yes. People go crazy. Sometimes it’s an enormous relief from everyday stress [especially when things are going deep south in your life). It’s a family affair, so children are going to be involved. But here’s my question.
Why aren’t WE there?!?
I look at this event the way Joseph Goebbels would. I found it exciting to watch. It gives me great clarity. I see how in every way, that this could be just as effective with a secular audience. We need to hold rallies and they need to be powerful. I sometimes think that a lot of secular people actually believe they aren’t human. They are like logic computers. We think we have a higher I.Q. This is not the case. We should pay more attention to our inherent but unrealized E.Q. to be able to survive this. We’re already there but choose NOT to exploit it.
This is a big problem with the secular crowd. I believe the right people are yet to come to the helm. Not religion bashers. Just people who know how to stir up the secular masses.
Just saying ……….
Oh wow, you’re right with your allusion to Nazi Germany. I can’t bring myself to watch the whole video but it opened with a crowd screaming what sounded like ‘Sieg Heil’.
Bruce, your are on target with your comments. I’ve been there there; done that too. All this rock ‘n roll/pep rally model they use is an effective one. Of course, all the jumping, shouting and music gets lots of mind-blessing endorphins in the brain to be released and is a real, physical high, which these people have been taught to interpret as evidence of The Holy Spirit himself! In my years in the charismatic and pentecostal movements, I saw lots of personalities like Feucht, who is a master showman & master of ceremonies. But over the years I’ve seen lots of these same type of music ministers eventually crash and burn from all this fired up exuberance! And naturally, rallies like this attracts all kinds of people who are not wrapped very well but they come for the magic solutions they are offered. Evangelicalism is getting more and more dumbed down during the Trump era. They use to make a pretense of being thoughtful and intellectual but that all seems to have evaporated.
Elcondro: “But over the years I’ve seen lots of these same type of music ministers eventually crash and burn from all this fired up exuberance!” Can you come up with some names? Seems like there oughta be a book about them.
I know of a number of preachers, worship leaders, and the like who became addicted to the “ministry.” When everyone praises you and it “seems” God is using you in a mighty way, it is easy to think you are special/unique/anointed. Alas, such religious drug highs do not last, and one day you find baking powder, not cocaine in your drug baggie. Reality sets in (along with withdrawals), and then the high is gone. I speak from firsthand experience. 😢
The video made me physically ill. The whipped-up emotional frenzy, the appropriation of the Native American culture, and most sadly, the children crying who will grow up to see this as normal and good.
A con of the most dangerous degree.
That’s vintage Redding for you ! That place is chock full of nutty church leaders and congregation members. For Redding and similar areas( Deep South)this behavior is normal, believe me. I lived up there a long time ago. Even went to Bethel a few months. The worst people I ever met were in that town ! Just hearing the name ” Redding ” might give me nightmares,lol.💀💀
In reference to religious fanatics, I personally know of three people, locals who ” minister to the homeless,” while looking down their long noses at them, many of who are seniors, by the way. They serve up watery, greasy, salty glop a dog might ignore. The coyotes patrolling the railroad tracks might go for that stuff though. Two women, and some disheveled,geeky guy drive around handing out this crap while sneakily trying to to record the homeless they encounter. I say, don’t bother with food if you’re going to ruin it. The authoritarian manner and histrionics is very off-putting, and it’s disgusting how they lie to reporters about what they put in the food, no produce in sight, old 🍞 bread,etc. Donations and racking up converts. Of course, they’re Trumpeters, and oppose affordable housing being built in town for seniors and disabled people !!😆
My experience is that this is the sort of Christianity that young adult Christians (late teens to early 20s) are enjoying. I have no idea what to make of it, is it better or worse? Honestly maybe it’s better because it is so low on doctrine so it’s got to be more inclusive.
Maybe for the younger generation it’s just an excuse to go to a festival and hopefully pick up a partner.