[Quix]

AGREED.

No. He doesn’t require all to be extroverts.

I agree with my teen AoG Pastor . . .

we don’t live by feelings, we walk by faith.

But Praise God for the feelings when they come.

There’s something wrong with a faith where the individual goes berzerk at loud volume with wild physical expressions at a ball game or watching a game on TV . . .

and yet can hardly be motivated to pray at all, or above a whisper—and certainly don’t expect anything MORE dramatic than that, when it comes to God.

There’s something wrong with that kind of spirituality.

Either GOD ALMIGHTY IS WORTHY some emotions and excitement, or he isn’t.

I haven’t found an introverted mother yet, who, rushing into the street to pick up her child hit by a car doesn’t get excited to find the child alive.

DEAD RELIGION IS DEAD RELIGION no matter how you slice it.

Weasel words don’t work for Proddys any more than they work for RC’s.

[RJR_fan]

Let me quote a concluding paragraph from my dissertation:

Unless religious people today also address issues of corporate structure, objective ethics, public identity, and the transmission of their values to future generations, they will suffer the fate of the losers in Atatürk's culture wars. A transcendent navel view will never suffice as a substitute for a world view, no matter how much it is feagued, overclocked and turbocharged. If people are unable to provide their offspring with explanations for life that are at least as big and comprehensive as all of life, their more thoughtful children will jump ship and join forces with ideologies that do seem to offer answers.

Feague is a legitimate, if archaic, verb that seems to rather precisely fit into our conversation here. Too many of us, I fear, are like the fabled narrow-gauge steam engine with a small boiler -- when it blew its whistle, it stopped moving!

[the_conscience]

I believe it’s dangerous to judge people based on the level of emotion shown in either direction.

My Dad hated Football (thus never screamed at the TV during a game) nor jumped around during church (though he loved to belt out hymns). Can we really make a judgment on his spirituality based on these factors?

What did Jesus say about the guy who prayed in his closet versus the loud-mouthed Pharisee?

Is Dead Religion measured by the level of emotions or the lack of gratitude?

What weasel words were you referring to?

[Cronos]

Well, I don't believe that was t_c's motive, but he has a good point -- God is for all personality types. God is for a David who sings and jumps with joy and yet also prays in silence, who also studies the ways of the Lord -- so room for a charismatic, an introvert, a scholar.

Let me give you a secular example of what I think tc is asking -- when I lived in England, I knew an Italian lady and I asked her "why are you staying in a dreary, wet and cold country with very dry people when you could live in a gorgeous country like Italy (she came from the Trentino area)"

And she told me that she as an introvert felt out of place in Italy (who are extroverted -- even their language and their gesticulations tell you that!).