If you made it past the first one, congratulations and welcome to Part Two on my (slow-going) essay series on the Fear of Choice. This deals with the power of choice and what it implies to the Pentecostal mindset. It will also meander into the Pentecostal Quest for Power in general.
First, let me start with the Pentecostalist mindset and the constant quest for power, based on my observations.
To not want power, Pentecostals seem to pray for it a damn lot. They want the power to overthrow their mean, mean boss who makes them work on Sundays, they want power to make their kids behave, they want the power to deliver a sermon, they want power to do this, power to do that...
But they refuse to realize that in choice, there is great power. In choice there is more power than any of them will know. While they love to pray for power from on high, they dislike the idea of having power as human beings. Not only do they dislike the idea of having any power themselves, they really seem to hate the idea of anyone else having any power.
Which brings us to how power and choice go hand in hand.
In being able to choose what is right and what is wrong, rather than believing that one is a human sockpuppet for God or Satan, there is power. There is great power in choice, and it is the one power that Fundamentalists in general and Pentecostals in particular are actually afraid of.
But, why?
The idea that sticks out most is that such people are afraid that if there isn't an outside source making choices for them, then there must not be a God at all. If God isn't in control, then he simply isn't there.
But, if God is real, if he exists and people were made in his image, then wouldn't such a being want people to worship him of their own free will? If such a being has to make people do good, if such a being has to make people worship him, then choosing to be a Christian or choosing to do good things aren't choices.
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