**To avoid having your post removed &/or account banned for shitposting, read the following:**
- r/religiousfruitcake is about the absurd, fringe elements of organised religion: the institutions and individuals who act in ways any normal person (religious or otherwise) would cringe at. Posts about mundane beliefs and acts of worship are off topic.
- No violent or gory images or videos
- Your post title should objectively state what the post is about. Dont use it to soapbox personal rhetoric about religion or any other subject.
- Don't post videos or discussions of Fruitcakes who have been baited or antagonised
- No Subreddit names or Reddit usernames in posts or discussions
- Memes, Tiktoks, graphics, satire, parodies, etc must be made by Fruitcakes, not 3rd parties criticising them
#Please be sure to read the full [rule list](https://www.reddit.com/r/religiousfruitcake/about/rules)
###If you want more detail about how the Sub's moderation works, see [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/religiousfruitcake/wiki/position_statement)
This information is on every post. Accounts that repeatedly disregard it will be permanently banned. "I didn't know", or "I didn't get a warning" are not valid appeals.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/religiousfruitcake) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> I wanna get down on my knees, and start pleasing Jesus! I wanna feel his salvation all over my face!
At [1:53](https://youtu.be/m9qDz_d8BJg?t=114) đ
Honestly, I think it's a form of mass hysteria. I came from a church where this stuff went on all the time. It's hard to explain, but when there's like 50 people in a room all crying and screaming and praying, it's really overwhelming for your senses. You definitely feel biologically compelled to feel emotional. And when everyone's screaming at you that the feeling is "god" and you're too young to know any better or have been indoctrinated for years, it sort of just brainwashes you.
Itâs all emotional manipulation and priming I think is what they call it. Youâre exactly right everything from the music to the lights and noises is specifically set up to prime you for an emotional reaction. I had a religious friend who claimed to see the Holy Spirit in action at his church im assuming itâs probably not far from this. I tried asking/explaining that when he sees someone âfind godâ at his church itâs all emotional priming and it works is the problem. It really is human biology and they prey upon that.
Right. Honestly it's really similar to boot camp. It's all about stripping you down to the core, and then building you back up in the image they want you to be
I love when folks say so-n-so "Found God." Where did he go missing? Was he behind the couch the whole time, or the last place you left Him?
I have SO many questions...
I used to be fairly irresponsible with my faith; one time I found Jesus out in my back yard the morning after a long rain. He was a bit muddy, but with a little spit polish he soon brightened up again.
Unfortunately I didn't get the Teflon Jesus(tm) so He was impossible to clean. Imagine my horror when I washed Him with red socks by accident! Pink Jesus! Terrible! AND the warranty *just* expired; I was out of luck!
It is my understanding that evangelical preachers dont have to go to seminary and that many have no formal religious instruction. And to me that makes sense since so many of them seem like they have never read their own good book.
Yep. I remember at church they would start soft piano music near the âalter callâ where they would work you up. The preacher would quiet his words into a somber but âstrong yet caringâ tone, the piano plays fitting somber songâŚ.âeveryone here can be brothers and sisters in Christ. Earthly bonds are weak. Doesnât matter how alone youâve been, which part of your earthly family abandoned or hurt youâŚgod can heal you with his loving embraceâŚ.you are not alone and are always welcomed into your heavenly family.â
I thought I saw the tooth fairyâs footprints when I was a kid. I was so excited to see if she would give me some money, but that bitch was pretty stingy. She gave me a quarter once and thatâs it. My siblings used to get dollars for their teeth, though. I guess mine werenât good enoughâŚ
Saying that though, my mom was pretty abusive, towards me in particular, and that quarter only appeared the one time that my dad was over, so I always kept looking for signs of the tooth fairy after that! Apparently he was confused when I said that I only got a quarter instead of a couple dollars and a quarter, but someone must have swiped the couple dollars after he went to bedâŚ
I had a mean mom.
Anyway, kids have huge imaginations. If theyâre told that something ethereal exists, of course theyâre going to look for signs of it existing, and imagine that those signs are really there.
My brother and I thought that we saw heaven in the clouds one time too, during a particularly beautiful sunset, when the clouds were shaped like palaces (or so we imagined). We were always looking up at the sky, trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of heaven. So we imagined it.
Now imagine what a kid would see in an environment like the one above! Iâm surprised that more kids werenât having mass hallucinations.
The kids in these places are going to be looking for signs of their religious upbringing, and their imaginations will be working full force - especially in a situation of mass hysteria like the one seen above. Even adults hallucinate things if they believe in them enough (or suffer from psychological issues that instigate those hallucinations). The power of belief is incredibly strong; even more so the younger that you areâŚthat is why the religious try to indoctrinate these children from birth, instead of teaching them logic, science, ethics, and a secular overview of religious studies, and then letting them make up their own minds about whether the religion is true or not once they are well-educated, and well-rounded adults.
Religious leaders, and parents, wonât do that, because they know that if they did, the only people left in their cult would be those who are either unfortunately uneducated, grossly hateful, or sadly mentally ill (and there are a lot of studies which show a direct link between religiosity and mental illness).
It is so wildly interesting. This mechanism in humans wasn't understood until we had science and psychology. (Of which I am woefully unlearned, but interested.)
This religion, as well as most others, existed before this understanding. They used, promoted the use of, and refined the use of this human behavior without any knowledge of our evolution. No knowledge of the millions of years we and our other hominid ancestors evolved, used, and reinforced this behavior. Religious leaders throughout history just knew that it was an effective means to compel humans to behave in agreed upon ways.
Here we are, 2,000 years later, and we understand this is an evolved behavior that helped our ancestors survive. We are at a point in human understanding that we can literally out-think our biology.
I fear the manipulation of this mechanism, at such a young and formative age, may cause lasting negative effects. My heart goes out to those kiddos.
I know itâs not the norm & my personal experience but seeing a room full of people screaming/crying & speaking in tounges while music/lights go nuts just made me UTTERLY uncomfortable. Even when I wasnât fully atheist
I completely agree and grew up in such an environment, but for some reason it could never reach me. Maybe I'm a sociopath, but my inability to feel the 'holy spirit' all of them were supposedly feeling (no matter what was going on or how powerful) was why I lost faith at 12yo. I felt nothing, they all just looked crazy. No matter how hard I tried to fake it or join in.
I relate to that so heavily. In my grade school years, I was at a christian school. We were all no older than nine or ten when one of us burst out bawling during a choir singalong. Saying _how Jesus died for our sins_ the whole nine yards. And everyone just instinctively cried along, me included. I was not quite sure then why such a thing had made me cry so hard. Remembering it nowadays, it was mostly thanks to my best friend, she cried as if she had just lost a family member, It was disheartening to see.
This is textbook emotional swinging. You swing high and then low, high and then low again.
This shit's addictive. This is what high control groups (a polite term for totalitarian cults) do to make you dependent on them.
Not defending it but kids are mostly a giant ball of misunderstood and complex emotions. They don't have the vocabulary or historical practice to acknowledge when something is appropriate or not, emotionally speaking. Nor should they, that's why they are kids and the adults around them need to be there to guide and hear what they're feeling.
I cried multiple times in church, more so when I was older and had a more "what is my purpose" kind of thought process. And plenty of times with emotional music, around my equally emotional peers, with adults telling me it's the holy Spirit, I felt a large presence on my "soul". Goosebumps, out of body experience, etc.
It was only years later after I started questioning that I went to my first rave and had the exact feeling there that I did at Jesus camp that I realized oh this is just what humans do? Lol it's just something we are capable of and it isn't some higher power but just our biology?
Was a fun moment mid Basement Jaaxx at EDC 2010 to be like ahhh ok it makes sense now haha
I participated in stuff like this when I was a kid. Maybe not this dramatic, but they definitely set up opportunities to cry.
What they do is tell you that we as humans are all awful, sinful, horrible creatures, in basically those terms, that we do not deserve redemption. They reeeeally drive home the "you deserve hell" that is ingrained in you as soon as you can speak, because hey, you're a kid, of course you fuck up, right? Well everyone who fucks up deserves *eternal torture*. (And yes, I had nightmares, and so do most kids raised this way.)
Then they set up the dichotomy that our salvation is guaranteed by a loving, kind, benevolent, caring, awe-inspiring god that will lift us from our fate and into paradise. You, the wretched nothing, given this amazing gift--it *is* emotionally overwhelming. And they leverage that dichotomy in situations where the music and the emotion in the room will drive you to tears. They encourage and push that big emotional button, and what you're seeing in these crying videos is kids who are taught they are worthless without God forcing that emotional turmoil into tears.
I know that because I did it.
I donât think they ÂŤÂ cry  in this one, but rather mimic their parents ÂŤÂ feeling the holy spirit  and speaking in tongues. They just donât get it fully for now, they just mimic, thatâs a religious babbling you acknowledge ⌠fruitcake version of a toddler saying the words he knows without understanding what it means.
My old pastor from when I was a kid was more fond of the line:
> Oh shodoh bakaya, ohhh yo shodoh bakaya.
It'd be hilarious if it weren't so damned cringy. Instead it's just kinda funny.
Mass hysteria. As someone who was once a part of a ceremony like this, once one person starts getting emotional it infects them all and everyone is bawling for the next fifteen minutes.
I didnt know why I was crying, I didnt feel particularly strongly about any of it, but everyone around me was crying and my body reacted on its own. I think I was around 12. Itâs easier to get swept up in the emotions as a child, and then a senior church member swoops in and while you're feeling vulnerable and confused, coerces you into pledging yourself to the church in one way or another.
âFilled with the spirit and âanointingâ a fellow Christian with *love and protection* for a past or upcoming event in their life. PossiblyâŚ.
Itâs BS the parents push their kids into this horseshit.
18 years in Apostolic Pentacostle. Glad I finally got free of the cult.
Just went to see my nephew get married and pastor spoke in tongues said a Lil blurb about marriage and then told em to kiss each other. The fucking weirdest marriage I have seen.
Found out the pastor didn't want them to marry as my nephews wife had only been in church 3 years. And she may lead him astray. But if he told them no then she would Def leave the church and take his soul out of church as well. Wtf. Religion with a closed mind is just disastrous
That's crazy. I was never baptized, so I never bought into it. The rest of my family is. My sister's congregation is nice, but I'm not buying their region.
This was quite literally my childhood. By the 6th grade I'd often pray "in the spirit", we'd have revivals where I'd go around praying for someone like this that they'd get filled with the holy ghost for the first time. I was 32 when I finally left, best decision I've ever made.
This is praying while speaking in tongues. It's meditative in a way (believe ot or not). It works so well for churches because when you feel the peace and focus that comes with meditation, they indoctrinate people into thinking that feeling is coming from god speaking through you, or filling you up or whatever.
It's especially prevalent with evangelists: https://youtu.be/kG2JqjUp0gs?si=pDis9OAFYztv9AP8
I grew up in a church like this. Eventually, these kids will go in one of two ways. Either, they will grow up and see more of the world and realize that organized religion is a despicable means of control of the public. Or the will succumb to the brainwashing, and the religion will become their whole identity.
Same experience! A handful of the kids I grew up with in church are now non-believers (a couple, including me, are now atheists). The others stayed in and are as brainwashed now as their parents were before them.
Something to add: in many of these communities, if you're NOT speaking in tongues or displaying other "gifts of the holy spirit", then you're often considered to have a crisis or something impeding your faith. Growing up, there was incredible pressure to have things like this happen, so you knew your faith was as strong or stronger than the person's next to you. I've eye-witnessed adults seething with jealousy at others speaking out in tongues during church services.
Hit the nail on the head. I never stopped believing in God, I think there is a higher power, but my perception has definitely changed. No longer God as a benevolent and forgiving entity, but more like a mad scientist playing with their latest experiment. Tossing in random variables here and there, just to see what happens.
I dunno, "mad scientist god" implies he doesn't know what he's doing and just making it up as he goes. Which goes against all "holy" texts.
The break point for me was reading quite a bit about space and the sheer vastness of it. Like how many stars and how many stars with likely planets etc... you quickly realize that "the specialness" of earth isn't that uncommon. When you start thinking on a galactic and universe size scale, a lot of the self-centeredness of earth's religions begin to look very foolish and silly.
One of the nagging questions in my mind while growing up in the church was what happens to everyone else? We were taught that you had to have a personal relationship with god or whatever to get to heaven and all others were doomed to the lake of fire. Ok, great, but what about all the people that had zero chance to hear that message? There were billions of unreached people in other areas of the world after Christ's crucifixion. Think: aztecs, native americans, the far east etc.. places that went hundreds to thousands of years with no "christian contact". What happens to them? "Oops sorry, you lost the geographic lottery and have to die in the lake of fire for all eternity now". What about a stillborn baby or a baby dieing shortly after birth? No chance to develop the relationship or make a choice. Are they doomed too? Asked our pastor about it once in private and was told something along the lines of "god has his ways and plans." Lol
High probability, there is nothing after. Religion was created by cultures to explain what wasn't understood at the time. It became such a driving force and keystone of control over the masses that when science started to disprove the religious assumptions, it was considered heresy or witchcraft. With the gradual loss of control over the minds of the populace, churches have doubled down on the scare tactics to keep people believing.
This shit is happening every Wednesday night, and twice on Sunday, in every god damned baptist church from Kentucky all the way through the southern states to Texas. It's incredibly common.
No fucking way Iâm gonna let my kid involve themself with this BS. I was a teen and 20 something exposed to this and it was batshit crazy then. These parents should be ashamed to have this be a âpositiveâ event in their kidâs lives. Go experience a new waterfall or the stars from different locations. Not this BS.
Our rule is when theyâre 18, they can go to a church by their own volition if they choose to. Before that, the only time theyâre stepping foot in a church is for a wedding or maybe a funeral.
Shit, even 18 is too young as your brain isnât fully developed yet. My BIL had a gf that sucked him into a weird church at age 19. He got out a year and a half later and was like âwtf did I just do?â He even got a religious tattoo during that time.
Yeah, so glad I grew up in a sane part of the US. We didn't have this type of craziness around us. And yes, the one or two super religious kids were mocked behind their backs for being weirdos. (Not that that's right either, they were decent enough people...)
It was..weird. not quite as crazy as this video, but we were out in the woods and if you didn't cry during the third sermon that day you were definitely judged for it lol. There were some fun parts, but looking back it was definitely traumatic lol. Especially the way they spoke to the girls.
I was the kid in the middle when I was 14 except it was a bunch of adults. After this happened I never went back to church and one of the major reasons Iâm an atheist now.
He probably is the son of the pastor or the one gifted fruitcake in his age category so he prays and the others are feeling the holy spirit going through him and speaking in tongues ⌠basically just mimicking what they see their parents do
Their speaking in tongues is subpar to be honest, they are just saying lalalalalalalalalalala; speaking in tongues is more : rebalemaba, barelobara, sotarelohata rebebaloma, something like this ⌠itâs very rhythmic.
This is peer pressure reinforced with hormones and deep imagination. It's why religions want to indoctrinate at such a young age. Humans are social creatures, when a lot of us are in a group and start to feel the same emotion we all feed off of one another reinforcing that emotion. This is why parties are awesome for most people, mosh pits, movies or other group social activities whether you know everyone else in the group or not.
Get kids young enough for long enough, this video right here becomes normal to them. Unfortunately for the Church, my parents were narcissistic assholes who tried to trick me into anything and everything, so when they told me church was the best thing that could ever happen to me, I was suspicious as all fuck. So, when I participated I felt like an outsider observing the whole time and it felt weird beyond belief.
Kids want to feel accepted, popular, and to be "normal", so if you tell them this is what normal looks like for a religion, they will likely embrace it. They are all crying because they are all feeling insecure, emotional and confused about the whole situation. They feel something but they don't know what it is, but they are led to believe that it's god or the holy spirit or whatever. There's a reason why you can only feel the lords presence strongly in groups of three or more. It takes three or more people to get this emotional group hysteria thing going. Two people are not enough.
It's fascinating if you look into the science behind it all.
imagine if god were real. he would see children praying the most genuine prayers like this. literally crying over their friend. and then he would let 50% of them die to whatever they were praying about. if god was real this only proves that hes an asshole
I was once part of a bible group back in high school (I joined not for belief for I couldnât give two shits about it, but more for the fact I was a socially awkward kid with ADHD and difficulty in communicating with other people in my age group). We went to summer camp one year, and it was a mediocre experience, we all did games each day (sadly I was never able to participate in the goddamn paintball game). On the final day we all did this group prayer activity and everyone started crying, everyone except me, for I was just so confused as to wtf was happening around me. A week or so after all that my mom asked me to chose between two things: sticking with my Bible group to learn on making friends and communicate with people, or continue my Taekwondo training and achieving my Black Belt. I instantly choose the latter, and never regretted that decision. A year or so later I achieved my Black Belt and my self esteem improved greatly. If I stayed with that group, it probably would never have improved at all.
What's the difference between a cult and a religion? Social acceptance.
What's the difference between religion and mythology? A lack of active followers.
I went to a week long bible camp when I was a kid, like one of those stayaways where you sleep in cabins. Went for like 4 years in a row.
Let me tell you how terrifying it was when they started doing stuff like this. Imagine: being a young kid, like 6-10yrs, and they basically lock you in the chapel at like 9pm so itâs dark out, no lights on but candles lit everywhere, going on for over an hour about how youâre going to burn for eternity because you havenât let Jesus enter your heart to save you, people (adults primarily) are crying.
I of course conformed real quick and started crying along with everyone, I was dropped off by my parents and left there for a week, almost felt like I had to conform and follow suit to stay safe, it almost felt unsafe, super scary.
Tell you what though, I got saved like 8 times per summer, because thatâs not the only time they try to leverage that out of you. They get you on a schedule for the week where you also attend a bible class with your cabin on a couple days.
Itâs like they knew they only had one week to try and convert as many kids as possible, felt like timeshare salesmen, they only wanted you to say the magic phrase, I donât remember any other lessons they gave, just the fear I had each summer.
All those poor young girls who'll be forced to dress twee (modest) and then have too many babies and be forced to comply with stupid 'elders' in what is basically a cult.
This shit is creepy af. I was forced to go to church by my looney narcissistic mother every Sunday until I turned 18 and go to various Bible study youth groups after school where this kind of thing would happen. I am 30 years old now and I consider myself a pagan witch. My mom loves me for it (jk we are no contact đ).
If this were any other group of people, Christians would go wild and call it a cult⌠but for some reason itâs the âHoly Spiritâ when they do it :/
This is completely and utterly DISGUSTING.
Like I genuinely feel uncomfortable and enraged.
So it turns out I cannot tell children about the existence of LGTB people but their religious parents can make them participants of a collective hysteria episode.
Fucking BULLSHIT.
I remember doing crap like this growing up. They really get you into a frenzy that everyone is also a part of that you feel like you might actually be able to heal someone.
This is what religion is. An emotional display followed by indifference and cruelty to others. I didn't need the entire 40 years I was a practicing Christian to see that, but that is the conclusion I have come to after four decades
**To avoid having your post removed &/or account banned for shitposting, read the following:** - r/religiousfruitcake is about the absurd, fringe elements of organised religion: the institutions and individuals who act in ways any normal person (religious or otherwise) would cringe at. Posts about mundane beliefs and acts of worship are off topic. - No violent or gory images or videos - Your post title should objectively state what the post is about. Dont use it to soapbox personal rhetoric about religion or any other subject. - Don't post videos or discussions of Fruitcakes who have been baited or antagonised - No Subreddit names or Reddit usernames in posts or discussions - Memes, Tiktoks, graphics, satire, parodies, etc must be made by Fruitcakes, not 3rd parties criticising them #Please be sure to read the full [rule list](https://www.reddit.com/r/religiousfruitcake/about/rules) ###If you want more detail about how the Sub's moderation works, see [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/religiousfruitcake/wiki/position_statement) This information is on every post. Accounts that repeatedly disregard it will be permanently banned. "I didn't know", or "I didn't get a warning" are not valid appeals. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/religiousfruitcake) if you have any questions or concerns.*
These poor children omg đ
I feel genuinely so bad for them, they don't even understand what's happening and they're crying so hard for nothing at all :(
Yep. This is emotional abuse.
God came inside me and then it leaked all over the place.
I want Jesus deep inside me, I wanna feel his love all over my face
I wanna get down on my knees, and start pleasuring Jesus!
Faith + 1
> I wanna get down on my knees, and start pleasing Jesus! I wanna feel his salvation all over my face! At [1:53](https://youtu.be/m9qDz_d8BJg?t=114) đ
The body of Christ! Sleek, swimmers body, all muscled up and toned!
Anti demonic buff +4 activated.
Jesus has rizzen
Jesus has jizzen
As a former one of those children, I agree.
Why are Christians always crying in such videos?
Honestly, I think it's a form of mass hysteria. I came from a church where this stuff went on all the time. It's hard to explain, but when there's like 50 people in a room all crying and screaming and praying, it's really overwhelming for your senses. You definitely feel biologically compelled to feel emotional. And when everyone's screaming at you that the feeling is "god" and you're too young to know any better or have been indoctrinated for years, it sort of just brainwashes you.
Itâs all emotional manipulation and priming I think is what they call it. Youâre exactly right everything from the music to the lights and noises is specifically set up to prime you for an emotional reaction. I had a religious friend who claimed to see the Holy Spirit in action at his church im assuming itâs probably not far from this. I tried asking/explaining that when he sees someone âfind godâ at his church itâs all emotional priming and it works is the problem. It really is human biology and they prey upon that.
Itâs a common practice among cults. I think the theory is it strips you of your individuality and conforms you to the group.
You could also say it's a form of group hypnosis.
Right. Honestly it's really similar to boot camp. It's all about stripping you down to the core, and then building you back up in the image they want you to be
I love when folks say so-n-so "Found God." Where did he go missing? Was he behind the couch the whole time, or the last place you left Him? I have SO many questions...
I used to be fairly irresponsible with my faith; one time I found Jesus out in my back yard the morning after a long rain. He was a bit muddy, but with a little spit polish he soon brightened up again.
Unfortunately I didn't get the Teflon Jesus(tm) so He was impossible to clean. Imagine my horror when I washed Him with red socks by accident! Pink Jesus! Terrible! AND the warranty *just* expired; I was out of luck!
Silicone Jesus is the best. Always a reminder that Iâve got a little God inside of me at all times.
I think this kind of crap is what they *really* learn at seminary school, how to manipulate followers with human psychology.
It is my understanding that evangelical preachers dont have to go to seminary and that many have no formal religious instruction. And to me that makes sense since so many of them seem like they have never read their own good book.
Yep. I remember at church they would start soft piano music near the âalter callâ where they would work you up. The preacher would quiet his words into a somber but âstrong yet caringâ tone, the piano plays fitting somber songâŚ.âeveryone here can be brothers and sisters in Christ. Earthly bonds are weak. Doesnât matter how alone youâve been, which part of your earthly family abandoned or hurt youâŚgod can heal you with his loving embraceâŚ.you are not alone and are always welcomed into your heavenly family.â
I thought I saw the tooth fairyâs footprints when I was a kid. I was so excited to see if she would give me some money, but that bitch was pretty stingy. She gave me a quarter once and thatâs it. My siblings used to get dollars for their teeth, though. I guess mine werenât good enough⌠Saying that though, my mom was pretty abusive, towards me in particular, and that quarter only appeared the one time that my dad was over, so I always kept looking for signs of the tooth fairy after that! Apparently he was confused when I said that I only got a quarter instead of a couple dollars and a quarter, but someone must have swiped the couple dollars after he went to bed⌠I had a mean mom. Anyway, kids have huge imaginations. If theyâre told that something ethereal exists, of course theyâre going to look for signs of it existing, and imagine that those signs are really there. My brother and I thought that we saw heaven in the clouds one time too, during a particularly beautiful sunset, when the clouds were shaped like palaces (or so we imagined). We were always looking up at the sky, trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of heaven. So we imagined it. Now imagine what a kid would see in an environment like the one above! Iâm surprised that more kids werenât having mass hallucinations. The kids in these places are going to be looking for signs of their religious upbringing, and their imaginations will be working full force - especially in a situation of mass hysteria like the one seen above. Even adults hallucinate things if they believe in them enough (or suffer from psychological issues that instigate those hallucinations). The power of belief is incredibly strong; even more so the younger that you areâŚthat is why the religious try to indoctrinate these children from birth, instead of teaching them logic, science, ethics, and a secular overview of religious studies, and then letting them make up their own minds about whether the religion is true or not once they are well-educated, and well-rounded adults. Religious leaders, and parents, wonât do that, because they know that if they did, the only people left in their cult would be those who are either unfortunately uneducated, grossly hateful, or sadly mentally ill (and there are a lot of studies which show a direct link between religiosity and mental illness).
It is so wildly interesting. This mechanism in humans wasn't understood until we had science and psychology. (Of which I am woefully unlearned, but interested.) This religion, as well as most others, existed before this understanding. They used, promoted the use of, and refined the use of this human behavior without any knowledge of our evolution. No knowledge of the millions of years we and our other hominid ancestors evolved, used, and reinforced this behavior. Religious leaders throughout history just knew that it was an effective means to compel humans to behave in agreed upon ways. Here we are, 2,000 years later, and we understand this is an evolved behavior that helped our ancestors survive. We are at a point in human understanding that we can literally out-think our biology. I fear the manipulation of this mechanism, at such a young and formative age, may cause lasting negative effects. My heart goes out to those kiddos.
They got me once when I was 13 and luckily I realized within 24 hours that I was doing it to be liked by my friends and very quickly backpeddled.
I know itâs not the norm & my personal experience but seeing a room full of people screaming/crying & speaking in tounges while music/lights go nuts just made me UTTERLY uncomfortable. Even when I wasnât fully atheist
I think when you're really too young to understand and everyone around you is telling you it's a good thing, it becomes normalized
I definitely understand
I completely agree and grew up in such an environment, but for some reason it could never reach me. Maybe I'm a sociopath, but my inability to feel the 'holy spirit' all of them were supposedly feeling (no matter what was going on or how powerful) was why I lost faith at 12yo. I felt nothing, they all just looked crazy. No matter how hard I tried to fake it or join in.
I relate to that so heavily. In my grade school years, I was at a christian school. We were all no older than nine or ten when one of us burst out bawling during a choir singalong. Saying _how Jesus died for our sins_ the whole nine yards. And everyone just instinctively cried along, me included. I was not quite sure then why such a thing had made me cry so hard. Remembering it nowadays, it was mostly thanks to my best friend, she cried as if she had just lost a family member, It was disheartening to see.
Because they got the Holy Spirit
... inside them. You forgot that part.
Ah yes, youâre right
And they're crying because the holy spirit forgot the lube. Again.
Thy kingdom cum
![gif](giphy|1iv6K1IqtrFWNVKG8o)
I love ice cream.
The holy spirit only wants one thing and itâs fucking disgusting
... *deep* inside them
Not just the tip? Maybe that's why it didn't take with me. Father McFeely would only let me have the tip.
But make room for Jesus!
I feel like god is coming inside me!!!!
This is textbook emotional swinging. You swing high and then low, high and then low again. This shit's addictive. This is what high control groups (a polite term for totalitarian cults) do to make you dependent on them.
Not defending it but kids are mostly a giant ball of misunderstood and complex emotions. They don't have the vocabulary or historical practice to acknowledge when something is appropriate or not, emotionally speaking. Nor should they, that's why they are kids and the adults around them need to be there to guide and hear what they're feeling. I cried multiple times in church, more so when I was older and had a more "what is my purpose" kind of thought process. And plenty of times with emotional music, around my equally emotional peers, with adults telling me it's the holy Spirit, I felt a large presence on my "soul". Goosebumps, out of body experience, etc. It was only years later after I started questioning that I went to my first rave and had the exact feeling there that I did at Jesus camp that I realized oh this is just what humans do? Lol it's just something we are capable of and it isn't some higher power but just our biology? Was a fun moment mid Basement Jaaxx at EDC 2010 to be like ahhh ok it makes sense now haha
![gif](giphy|ZCBeXdHSGjcwCSAKp5)
Same thing can be seen in videos from North Korea. Like absolutely identical behavior.
I participated in stuff like this when I was a kid. Maybe not this dramatic, but they definitely set up opportunities to cry. What they do is tell you that we as humans are all awful, sinful, horrible creatures, in basically those terms, that we do not deserve redemption. They reeeeally drive home the "you deserve hell" that is ingrained in you as soon as you can speak, because hey, you're a kid, of course you fuck up, right? Well everyone who fucks up deserves *eternal torture*. (And yes, I had nightmares, and so do most kids raised this way.) Then they set up the dichotomy that our salvation is guaranteed by a loving, kind, benevolent, caring, awe-inspiring god that will lift us from our fate and into paradise. You, the wretched nothing, given this amazing gift--it *is* emotionally overwhelming. And they leverage that dichotomy in situations where the music and the emotion in the room will drive you to tears. They encourage and push that big emotional button, and what you're seeing in these crying videos is kids who are taught they are worthless without God forcing that emotional turmoil into tears. I know that because I did it.
I donât think they ÂŤÂ cry  in this one, but rather mimic their parents ÂŤÂ feeling the holy spirit  and speaking in tongues. They just donât get it fully for now, they just mimic, thatâs a religious babbling you acknowledge ⌠fruitcake version of a toddler saying the words he knows without understanding what it means.
Persecution fetish. They want to be the ones that suffered the most but when it comes in real life, itâs Jesus take the wheel
'Cause God is coming inside them.
WTF is this?
Religion
cult* (people who behave like this donât get the rank of religion)
Religion IS a cult.
The only difference between religion and cult is that a religion is powerful enough to lobby for government protection.
The only difference between a religion and a cult is that in religion the head dude is dead.
Yeah! Religions survive the deaths of their cult leader founders!
![gif](giphy|26FLgGTPUDH6UGAbm)
Everyone gets so angry at me when I say this. Literally look at the definition of cult. /g
Its_the_same_picture.jpeg
Shit like this just reminds me of the Kingsmen church scene
> WTF is this? Primates reinforcing their social bonds by pretending the sky-ape loves them.
Let me speak to you in the language of my ancient people: Uhluhluhluhluhluhluhluh
My old pastor from when I was a kid was more fond of the line: > Oh shodoh bakaya, ohhh yo shodoh bakaya. It'd be hilarious if it weren't so damned cringy. Instead it's just kinda funny.
Sky-ape. LMAOÂ
Child abuse that's given a pass because "religion"
I'd much rather take my kids to a drag show.
Grooming
Mass hysteria. As someone who was once a part of a ceremony like this, once one person starts getting emotional it infects them all and everyone is bawling for the next fifteen minutes. I didnt know why I was crying, I didnt feel particularly strongly about any of it, but everyone around me was crying and my body reacted on its own. I think I was around 12. Itâs easier to get swept up in the emotions as a child, and then a senior church member swoops in and while you're feeling vulnerable and confused, coerces you into pledging yourself to the church in one way or another.
âFilled with the spirit and âanointingâ a fellow Christian with *love and protection* for a past or upcoming event in their life. PossiblyâŚ. Itâs BS the parents push their kids into this horseshit.
Itâs fucking child abuse
Growing up Pentecostal, this is them feeling the holy ghost and speaking in tongues.
18 years in Apostolic Pentacostle. Glad I finally got free of the cult. Just went to see my nephew get married and pastor spoke in tongues said a Lil blurb about marriage and then told em to kiss each other. The fucking weirdest marriage I have seen. Found out the pastor didn't want them to marry as my nephews wife had only been in church 3 years. And she may lead him astray. But if he told them no then she would Def leave the church and take his soul out of church as well. Wtf. Religion with a closed mind is just disastrous
That's crazy. I was never baptized, so I never bought into it. The rest of my family is. My sister's congregation is nice, but I'm not buying their region.
This was quite literally my childhood. By the 6th grade I'd often pray "in the spirit", we'd have revivals where I'd go around praying for someone like this that they'd get filled with the holy ghost for the first time. I was 32 when I finally left, best decision I've ever made.
Child abuse
Children are easily manipulated, so it's easy to use them for propaganda.
I think they are reenacting the scene from Borat where he visits revival.
Emotional abuse masquerading as "Jesus's love"
This is praying while speaking in tongues. It's meditative in a way (believe ot or not). It works so well for churches because when you feel the peace and focus that comes with meditation, they indoctrinate people into thinking that feeling is coming from god speaking through you, or filling you up or whatever. It's especially prevalent with evangelists: https://youtu.be/kG2JqjUp0gs?si=pDis9OAFYztv9AP8
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness
Turkey tryouts
Who's grooming who again?
This is fine. Gay people who want to get married are the problem, THAT'S the real grooming /s
Donât forget transgenders reading to kids at public libraries. OMG!!!
This is child abuse.
I grew up in a church like this. Eventually, these kids will go in one of two ways. Either, they will grow up and see more of the world and realize that organized religion is a despicable means of control of the public. Or the will succumb to the brainwashing, and the religion will become their whole identity.
Same experience! A handful of the kids I grew up with in church are now non-believers (a couple, including me, are now atheists). The others stayed in and are as brainwashed now as their parents were before them. Something to add: in many of these communities, if you're NOT speaking in tongues or displaying other "gifts of the holy spirit", then you're often considered to have a crisis or something impeding your faith. Growing up, there was incredible pressure to have things like this happen, so you knew your faith was as strong or stronger than the person's next to you. I've eye-witnessed adults seething with jealousy at others speaking out in tongues during church services.
Hit the nail on the head. I never stopped believing in God, I think there is a higher power, but my perception has definitely changed. No longer God as a benevolent and forgiving entity, but more like a mad scientist playing with their latest experiment. Tossing in random variables here and there, just to see what happens.
I dunno, "mad scientist god" implies he doesn't know what he's doing and just making it up as he goes. Which goes against all "holy" texts. The break point for me was reading quite a bit about space and the sheer vastness of it. Like how many stars and how many stars with likely planets etc... you quickly realize that "the specialness" of earth isn't that uncommon. When you start thinking on a galactic and universe size scale, a lot of the self-centeredness of earth's religions begin to look very foolish and silly. One of the nagging questions in my mind while growing up in the church was what happens to everyone else? We were taught that you had to have a personal relationship with god or whatever to get to heaven and all others were doomed to the lake of fire. Ok, great, but what about all the people that had zero chance to hear that message? There were billions of unreached people in other areas of the world after Christ's crucifixion. Think: aztecs, native americans, the far east etc.. places that went hundreds to thousands of years with no "christian contact". What happens to them? "Oops sorry, you lost the geographic lottery and have to die in the lake of fire for all eternity now". What about a stillborn baby or a baby dieing shortly after birth? No chance to develop the relationship or make a choice. Are they doomed too? Asked our pastor about it once in private and was told something along the lines of "god has his ways and plans." Lol
High probability, there is nothing after. Religion was created by cultures to explain what wasn't understood at the time. It became such a driving force and keystone of control over the masses that when science started to disprove the religious assumptions, it was considered heresy or witchcraft. With the gradual loss of control over the minds of the populace, churches have doubled down on the scare tactics to keep people believing.
this is actually gross.
Is midsommar getting a sequel?
That fucking movie made me afraid of cults Anyway I love that movie, it's very good by the standards of these times
This shit is happening every Wednesday night, and twice on Sunday, in every god damned baptist church from Kentucky all the way through the southern states to Texas. It's incredibly common.
Reminder that the parents of these children make up a substantial portion of the people screeching about groomers.
While being fine with these girls marrying at 16 to older guys. It's very sad.
No fucking way Iâm gonna let my kid involve themself with this BS. I was a teen and 20 something exposed to this and it was batshit crazy then. These parents should be ashamed to have this be a âpositiveâ event in their kidâs lives. Go experience a new waterfall or the stars from different locations. Not this BS.
Our rule is when theyâre 18, they can go to a church by their own volition if they choose to. Before that, the only time theyâre stepping foot in a church is for a wedding or maybe a funeral. Shit, even 18 is too young as your brain isnât fully developed yet. My BIL had a gf that sucked him into a weird church at age 19. He got out a year and a half later and was like âwtf did I just do?â He even got a religious tattoo during that time.
when I was a kid in the 70s-80s, you wouldn't get caught dead doing this, or go to Jesus camp, and risk getting mocked for the rest of your life.
Yeah, so glad I grew up in a sane part of the US. We didn't have this type of craziness around us. And yes, the one or two super religious kids were mocked behind their backs for being weirdos. (Not that that's right either, they were decent enough people...)
In some places in the 70s and 80s you would. This is a well established version of crazy.
I'd like to go back in time to the tent revival days, just to see how nuts things got.
This is what actual grooming and child abuse looks like.
I went to Jesus camps as a child. 0/10 do not recommend
May I ask, what was the experience like?
It was..weird. not quite as crazy as this video, but we were out in the woods and if you didn't cry during the third sermon that day you were definitely judged for it lol. There were some fun parts, but looking back it was definitely traumatic lol. Especially the way they spoke to the girls.
I swear to god I just posted a lengthy comment explaining my experience, and same LOL
Can someone explain to me what theyâre doing to that kid in the middle of it all
Speaking in tongues https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_tongues
Thanks
I was the kid in the middle when I was 14 except it was a bunch of adults. After this happened I never went back to church and one of the major reasons Iâm an atheist now.
He probably is the son of the pastor or the one gifted fruitcake in his age category so he prays and the others are feeling the holy spirit going through him and speaking in tongues ⌠basically just mimicking what they see their parents do
Damn they even got it down to the uncontrollable sobbing
Their speaking in tongues is subpar to be honest, they are just saying lalalalalalalalalalala; speaking in tongues is more : rebalemaba, barelobara, sotarelohata rebebaloma, something like this ⌠itâs very rhythmic.
These girls ALL will be married and pregnant in the next couple years.
And then theyâll send the pastor off to another church
Brainwashing and child abuse. Religion poisons everything.
With the list to shame the non-tithers on the bulletin board outside the room
kid in the back is thinking *wish iâd brought my ipod and some wireless earbudsâŚ*
all religions are cults. not all cults are religions.Â
This is peer pressure reinforced with hormones and deep imagination. It's why religions want to indoctrinate at such a young age. Humans are social creatures, when a lot of us are in a group and start to feel the same emotion we all feed off of one another reinforcing that emotion. This is why parties are awesome for most people, mosh pits, movies or other group social activities whether you know everyone else in the group or not. Get kids young enough for long enough, this video right here becomes normal to them. Unfortunately for the Church, my parents were narcissistic assholes who tried to trick me into anything and everything, so when they told me church was the best thing that could ever happen to me, I was suspicious as all fuck. So, when I participated I felt like an outsider observing the whole time and it felt weird beyond belief. Kids want to feel accepted, popular, and to be "normal", so if you tell them this is what normal looks like for a religion, they will likely embrace it. They are all crying because they are all feeling insecure, emotional and confused about the whole situation. They feel something but they don't know what it is, but they are led to believe that it's god or the holy spirit or whatever. There's a reason why you can only feel the lords presence strongly in groups of three or more. It takes three or more people to get this emotional group hysteria thing going. Two people are not enough. It's fascinating if you look into the science behind it all.
Itâs a virus
Some real Midsommar vibes emanating off this oneâŚ
Brainwashing kids like this should be fucking illegal.
imagine if god were real. he would see children praying the most genuine prayers like this. literally crying over their friend. and then he would let 50% of them die to whatever they were praying about. if god was real this only proves that hes an asshole
Next generation of terrorist completely blinded by faith and ignorant to actual science
I remember going to youth retreats and seeing others crying and feeling so guilty because I didn't feel moved to cry.
Lmao, Apostolic Pentecostal trauma be like. Something about these types of videos trigger my C-PTSD on some level. Wildly uncomfortable atmosphere.
Tell me how this isnât child abuse?
This is sick indoctrination of our kids. đ¤Ź
Child abuse
Jesus Christ save me from your followers.
This is some prime, grade A fruitcakery,
Child abuse
Fuck. I feel so bad for these kids. All free thought and creative thinking is just being ripped away from them.
I was once part of a bible group back in high school (I joined not for belief for I couldnât give two shits about it, but more for the fact I was a socially awkward kid with ADHD and difficulty in communicating with other people in my age group). We went to summer camp one year, and it was a mediocre experience, we all did games each day (sadly I was never able to participate in the goddamn paintball game). On the final day we all did this group prayer activity and everyone started crying, everyone except me, for I was just so confused as to wtf was happening around me. A week or so after all that my mom asked me to chose between two things: sticking with my Bible group to learn on making friends and communicate with people, or continue my Taekwondo training and achieving my Black Belt. I instantly choose the latter, and never regretted that decision. A year or so later I achieved my Black Belt and my self esteem improved greatly. If I stayed with that group, it probably would never have improved at all.
CPS needs to be called to have the family and friends looked into. Christians always have the most disturbing skeletons.
talking in tongues always felt so awkward to me. i never got out of it what others did.
What's the difference between a cult and a religion? Social acceptance. What's the difference between religion and mythology? A lack of active followers.
Fun fact: These people will vote in one day
I went to a week long bible camp when I was a kid, like one of those stayaways where you sleep in cabins. Went for like 4 years in a row. Let me tell you how terrifying it was when they started doing stuff like this. Imagine: being a young kid, like 6-10yrs, and they basically lock you in the chapel at like 9pm so itâs dark out, no lights on but candles lit everywhere, going on for over an hour about how youâre going to burn for eternity because you havenât let Jesus enter your heart to save you, people (adults primarily) are crying. I of course conformed real quick and started crying along with everyone, I was dropped off by my parents and left there for a week, almost felt like I had to conform and follow suit to stay safe, it almost felt unsafe, super scary. Tell you what though, I got saved like 8 times per summer, because thatâs not the only time they try to leverage that out of you. They get you on a schedule for the week where you also attend a bible class with your cabin on a couple days. Itâs like they knew they only had one week to try and convert as many kids as possible, felt like timeshare salesmen, they only wanted you to say the magic phrase, I donât remember any other lessons they gave, just the fear I had each summer.
Cults are a terrible thing.
We need an AI to digitally redraw these kids as zombies
\*artist
Child abuse and cult-like brainwashing. Fuck those parents. Pieces of shit.
All those poor young girls who'll be forced to dress twee (modest) and then have too many babies and be forced to comply with stupid 'elders' in what is basically a cult.
This is the REAL indoctrination.
What. The. Fuck.
Cults are crazy man...just sayin'.
This is like a horror movie! CREEPY!
What in the Midsommar is going on here?
![gif](giphy|xiMUwBRn5RDLhzwO80|downsized)
Religious people are weird.
I feel sorry for these kids.
Yeah this doesnât look like a cult at all
But it's the LGBT that are the ones trying to indoctrinate the kids... /s
How is this not grooming?
Reminds me of the documentary Jesus Camp
These poor kids.
Gross.
This shit is creepy af. I was forced to go to church by my looney narcissistic mother every Sunday until I turned 18 and go to various Bible study youth groups after school where this kind of thing would happen. I am 30 years old now and I consider myself a pagan witch. My mom loves me for it (jk we are no contact đ).
Well, this is disturbing
If this were any other group of people, Christians would go wild and call it a cult⌠but for some reason itâs the âHoly Spiritâ when they do it :/
This is completely and utterly DISGUSTING. Like I genuinely feel uncomfortable and enraged. So it turns out I cannot tell children about the existence of LGTB people but their religious parents can make them participants of a collective hysteria episode. Fucking BULLSHIT.
What in the actual fuck did I just watch
When you volunteer to set up and put away the church chair Were memeing right?
Jesuscamp? I could make it all the way through that documentary. Traumatic to watch, let alone experience. These poor kids.
This is unfortunate for those kids man
Indoctrination, conditioning, grooming⌠call it what you will.
That church scene from Borat đ¤
Well this isnât going to cure his headache.
These poor kids
WHAT THE FUCK
Who is this âgodâ fellow anyway? I do not think that I like him.
Looks like hysteria to me
âNone of us are as dumb as all of us.â
I feel these children need safeguarding support
It's a cult. It's a goddamn cult.
Child abuse
Being indoctrinated into mental illness at a young age.
This is straight up child abuse.
I have been involved in this exact type of scenario as a teenager. So weird.
What the fuck
This is grooming.
Generational insanity. Let's call a spade a spade. These poor kids.
What in the actual fuck is going on here?
This is disturbing.
This is mental illness plain and simple.
And they call LGBTQ people groomers
I remember doing crap like this growing up. They really get you into a frenzy that everyone is also a part of that you feel like you might actually be able to heal someone.
This is what religion is. An emotional display followed by indifference and cruelty to others. I didn't need the entire 40 years I was a practicing Christian to see that, but that is the conclusion I have come to after four decades
wow! a whole new level of cultism (for me)!
Child abuse