One day last week, I stumbled across the website of a man who pastored the church I grew up in from the time I was a baby until I was about eight or nine years old. Noticing he had the audio for one sermon up for promotion, I decided to give it a listen. And as hard as it was to listen to an angry old man yell for an hour, I made it to the end.

In one especially peculiar interpretation, one that I can’t see coming from any place other than a Western, “civilized” culture, he repeated a mantra I remember hearing growing up, that “God does things decently and in order.”

But what really caught my ear was his description of the Holy Spirit as a magic genie. Of course, he didn’t use those exact words, but his description left little doubt about what he was selling. Continue reading →