Brainwashing 2

Church was different tonight, it was set out with round tables and candles and there was jazz playing as people came in. Rather than a full band, it was just acoustic guitar and a singer leading the worship.

A phrase that jumped out at me during the sermon was, "It's not brainwashing, it's a renewal of our minds." That reminded me of a Greek word my theology lecturer last year used constantly - metanoia, which means a complete transformation or renewal of our apperceptions. It's used throughout the New Testament (and, as far as I remember, in Matthew 16 - read on) but is normally translated as repentance.

Every judgement we make starts from a set of beliefs or assumptions or suppositions, which means that we're normally looking to ourselves to verify things. There's a famous maxim that was inscribed on the Sun god Apollo's Oracle of Delphi temple in Ancient Greece, "Know Thyself", the theory being this: "If thou knowest thyself well, thou art better and more praiseworthy before God, than if thou didst not know thyself."

Christianity is different. Instead of looking to ourselves or other sources for verification we can look to God. The story of Peter's confession of Christ in Matthew 16 demonstrates this. Jesus asks Peter who people said he is, and Peter answered "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus responded "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in heaven." As Christians, we can't verify our knowledge of God from what other people tell us or from our own thinking (although these are useful methods for perhaps consolidating belief), but from God. God changes all our prior knowledge and appreceptions so that our minds can be transformed in the knowledge of Him.

So back to brainwashing... "It's not brainwashing, it's a renewal of our minds." When I think of brainwashing, I think of big events where exhortations from the pulpit (or stage/whatever) or corporate worship or maybe even using music to set a mood can easily be misconstrued as mass brainwashing. I think the important thing to remember is that each person involved in those settings is on a personal journey, each person is in the process of having their mind renewed. SO in a way, it is brainwashing, but in a very literal sense - God is washing our minds and transforming us so we can be more like Jesus.

In a practical sense, I'm still not sure how this image can be avoided, or how our awareness of people's perception of Christianity as brainwashing should alter how we do things... eagerly awaiting Carl's explanation of his last comment! "IMO, brainwashing is a very real danger that we should be careful to avoid - I think your awareness of it should affect how you teach people the gospel, maybe."