Blaming The Holy Ghost
For Our Moronic Preaching Culture
A buddy texted me today:
“I’m at a church and the guys hosting me here said that you said people who cry during their sermons are prideful.”
I nearly spit my Virgil’s Zero Root Beer all over my all-white iPad—would’ve been a tragedy, a sham, a mockery.
A tragishamockery.
I did not say that.
I wouldn’t be caught dead using the ReformedBro term “prideful”—the great sin of John Piper, apparently.
LOL.
If John Piper is “prideful,” then I’m a fat queer feminist communist living in Bushwick.
I would never say someone is prideful for crying during a sermon.
The exact quote—since we’re now fact-checking my alleged blasphemies—was this:
“I think it’s incredibly manipulative and douchey if you cry in every sermon you give.”
That’s my actual take. Still is.
Let’s think about this for a country second:
Have you ever seen someone cry during every sermon they give?
Not occasionally. Not moved by the Spirit. I mean every time.
At that point, it’s not just emotional instability—it’s a tool. A tactic.
And people aren’t dumb. They can smell it.
The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. You’re not being overtaken. You’re just leaning on tears as a rhetorical device.
I remember someone crying and shaking through an entire message at a conference once. Couldn’t even hold the mic still.
And of course, the charismatics in the room were eating it up—foaming at the mouth with affirmation.
“Oh wow, look—she’s out of control. That means she must be close to God. This sermon is literally coming from the throne room—I gotta get the recording, Harold.”
LOL.
That’s literally what they think.
And I’m over here like: I want to disappear.
It’s a ploy, dude.
And us charismatics need to be better.
Here’s four ways that Spirit-filled leader ought to conduct themselves onstage:
