I would like to share with all my experience I had yesterday in visiting a “non-denominational” church in Juarez Mexico yesterday, at the insistence of a colleague of mine who is a psychologist.
We got there fifteen minutes late and we walked into a building with some three thousand people. On stage was a music group singing religious songs working the crowed into a state of emotionalism frenzy. I have to admit the group and singers were quite good. They had two large screens projecting the lyrics of the songs so the crowd could sing along. If you took away the religious words out of the songs this would be a concert. As I viewed the lyrics of the songs on the screens I started to detect the patterns of manipulation. These were mantras for these people of “not being worthy, giving all credit to God, self denial, being sinners, (which presupposes flaws), and the like.
I wondered what socio economic class this was; I assumed it was the blue-collar working class who needed this service to ameliorate their state of misery. As I looked around I saw by their dress and appearance all classes and ages of people. These were really into the singing many were having a catharsis of emotions even jumping on cue to the singers on stage. As I glanced out of the corner of my eye to my friend, I think she felt a little awkward with me being there and I think she held back from mirroring the rest.
This musical show lasted some forty-five minutes, by this time the crowd was in very receptive mood for what was to follow. As the musical group is singing a tune of bowing down to God as they are on their knees singing, an elderly Anglo man walks on stage and grabs the microphone. He starts to talk with the music faintly playing in the background. The content of his speech is just parroting what the singers were singing.
He then proceeds to work the crowd into a frenzy of how Juarez/El Paso is in need of “hunger for God”. They all chant in harmony not realizing how they are auto programming themselves to follow through on this man’s orders. He tells them they need to go and carry the gospel to all the schools, neighborhoods, families, etc. As he is speaking with very hypnotic intonation a person from the crowd goes on stage followed behind by an usher. The preacher touches his forehead and the man falls back into the arms of the usher. This scene is repeated about four more times. He then says the spirit has told him many in the audience have knee problems and he is going to perform a miracle for them so he tells all that need a healing of the knees to come in front of the stage.
Out from the crowd comes about fifty people and they all gather in front. It is clear this man is in a state of total self-empowerment. With the music glaring in the background and him now yelling out mantras of miracles happening here and now, he steps down to the crowd extorting the ushers to come forward to help him. He now proceeds to touch one and all and they all one by one fall into the arms of the ushers as they lay them down.
As some regain their composure he asks a select few to give their testimony. So he puts the microphone in their face and they all tell of how their pain is gone and how they felt the spirit come into their bodies. The crow is in awe of this man and the instant miracle.
He then continues with his sales pitch of healing all Juarez. He says he is now going to pray to make it happen and goes off into “speaking in tongues” the crowd joins in. Once he is done he invited his wife to come up. She is fluent in Spanish with a strong Anglo accent like her husband. She basically just goes on stage to remind the crowd to sell all the tickets to the up coming dinner to hear the visiting Anglo minister and his wife.
Next comes on stage a slick Mexican speaker. He now lays a strong sales pitch for the crowd to honor God with their actions and not just words. As you may guess he wants money. The pitch lasts for some 15 minutes and then a well-organized group of people walks around passing out white envelopes followed by plastic donation boxes. He then proceeds to ask all the visitors to raise their hands because they have a special gift for them. I reluctantly raise mine probably not to disappoint my psychologist colleague.
They hand me a bright red adhesive tag that reads Visitor, and a tri-fold pamphlet. The preacher tells the audience to welcome us new comers so I get love bombed by all in my immediate surroundings. I have to bite my lips to keep from chuckling. I open it and read it, what I get is that this non-church is acting as a church. I wonder if this church is following the same strategy the Watchtower followed in Mexico in years past to avoid the government regulations. They also detail how they have groups that meet weekly in homes. This is a very well organized army of people.
I get up and go to the bathroom as I take my tag off, boy does this remind me of being in the hall as a JW needing a break and making myself think I need to urinate just to stave the boredom. By now there are at least five thousand people in the audience, to me it looked like being at a circuit assembly. There were the security guys, (whom I used to be one of) the ushers, the crowd in a trance agreeing with all that was coming from the stage, the people walking in the back, the lines for the bathrooms. I walked past a table full of books and videotapes for sale. They also had a book room full of books and other products for sale.
When I returned to my seat two adolescents walked on stage a boy and girl, these are admonished to relate their success in spreading the word. They tell of how God is blessing them and their ministry to adolescents who are lost and needing God in their lives to overcome masturbation, drugs, violence, and other wickedness. Next the preacher asks the youths to say a prayer in behalf of all youths in Juarez.
Next on the show is the son of the Anglo preacher. He speaks Spanish with great fluency and no accent. This guy is very slick; he is the best hypnotist of them all. He is the star of the show. He goes into the Old Testament and pulls out a character to use as a metaphor for his pitch. The essence of his pitch is let’s make the church grow by being like this Bible character and avoid being a sinner so God can bless you and us.
As the program of three hours ends my friend greets some of her brothers and sisters and we leave. On the way out she asks me how I felt, I tell her to ask a different question. I tell her to ask me what I observed. She does, and I tell her they used a lot of hypnosis, post hypnotic suggestions and anchoring (stimulus response triggers) to manipulate states. I don’t think this was what she was expecting me to answer. We have a lengthy discussion that only leads us to agree to disagree.
On the way home I am really angry. As I do an introspection I want to know what is it that has me so pissed. If these people are being helped and their lives are better for it what should I care? If my friend needs this to give her a purpose in life so what? If this Anglo family is milking these people of their finances in exchange for emotinal therapy, what should I care? If this were a perfect world, what would need to change for me visit there and not walk away so angry?
Conclusions:
1. This Anglo family is running a huge multi level business masquerading as a church.
2. Rather than preaching self-sustenance, self-empowerment, and self-love they are preaching codependency, guilt, shame and fear.
3. My friend is under mind control and she wants me to join her.
4. Three hours of my time being spent in flawed group hypnosis equals to three years of my time being wasted.
5. This short term improvement of life for these people turns into living in a time warp that does not allow them to grow and make necessary adjustment in life.