I have had the misfortune of working with several people from this religion over the last several years. The members that I personally know seem to have all of the pathologies found in the most rabid of TBMs. They seem to suffer from the problems caused by too much control, expectations of perfection, and too many people examining their lives. The passive-aggressive behavior, cliquishness, and intolerance hang in the air around these people like a toxic cloud.

The evangelical zeal and holier-than-thou attitude is also very difficult to swallow.

Perhaps it is just these few people but I feel like I am in TBM hell when around these clowns.

My best friend in college dated and married one of these guys. He went due to his parents and knew it was a bit out there compared to her Lutheran religion. She had some funny stories to tell. We would just laugh trying to see our friend sit there and listen to all that. Well, later on, decades later, my good friend died of cancer and this guy who I do like a lot became very religious..... More than ever when he was married. I think it may be that he is recalling his parents lives. He is not C of the N though.

I once paid a couple visits to a church that was even wackier (Pilgrim Holiness) because their music was superb. But I was enormously offput when I learned they were young earth creationists.

The pastor in his sermon said that if any of their members found them too conservative and were going to quit, that he recommended they look into attending a nearby Church of the Nazarene which was more liberal but still in the same "holiness tradition."

An ex-pastor of the Nazarenes I knew said that at their big conferences, they always scheduled the hymn, "I Stand Amazed in the Presence of Jesus the Nazarene" haha - kind of the equivalent of "Come, Come Ye Saints" for LDS or "A Mighty Fortress" for Lutherans.

The last time I visited, a lady came over to my pew before the service to gladhand me, and I commented to her that it was impressive to see a large turnout at an evening service the evening of Superbowl. Well, she went and reported me (a visitor!) to the pastor and in his sermon he reamed out anyone who would mention *television* (gasp) in the sanctuary. And he reprimanded to to my face in the foyer afterwards!

My husband grew up Nazarene and his dad was one semester away from finishing his M.Div at a Nazarene seminary. His dad is extremely judgmental and looks down on us for not attending a church that he approves of. He definitely has that "holier-than-thou attitude" you mentioned. Doesn't matter that we are very involved in our Lutheran church and in community service - since it's not his brand of Christianity it's not good enough.

He, and husband's mom, also try to passive aggressively try to "save" us all the time. Drives me crazy! And they wonder why I don't want to spend time with them!

The funny thing is that it's a big secret that my father-in-law didn't finish seminary. Everyone thinks he did. My husband only found out in college when his uncle said something about it. My father-in-law always acts like he finished his degree and that that makes him better than everyone else.

We had a Nazarene preacher and his wife as neighbors when I was little. In fact , I attended a few times. They were lovely people and good neighbors, but it was a very conservative church and very Fundie in many ways.

and thinking it had to do with some kind of new, exotic fruit. But now you say it's far from innocuous. More childhood perceptions dashed to pieces ... oh, well : )

Very much like the one my DH was inflicted with growing up.

I found Calvin's idea of God's pre-determining even before one was born,who would be saved and who would be tortured in an eternal "hell-fire", and Calvin's sadistic order of a torturous slow burning (for all to witness),a former friend, Michel Servitus, and I found Martin Luther's hatred toward the Jews (when he couldn't reform them), to be pathological behaviour.
Jacob Arminius and John Wesley laid the foundation for the understanding of free will and grace for all to be set apart as a people dedicated to love and forgiveness. I was raised Presbyterian and Lutheran. I am 75 years old and only recently found a new way to be happy. The Nazarenes seem to have the right foundation of Arminius and Wesley. However, I happen to be a Christian Universalist..which is a whole new ball-game.. I believe that eventually all will be saved even the unsanctified who died and refused to accept Christ before they died..I believe God will have them spend time being refined and purified until they do ...as it is written every knee shall bow and acknowledge that He is Lord.. of All so that all of God's human creation will return to Him eventually. Amen

My niece in the US attends this church, and I credit it with saving her life when she was younger, when through no fault of her own she was mistreated, abandoned and needed strict guidance to survive, and then thrive. I suppose any individual, focused, attention from caring others wold have done the same, but that's what she had, and so I am grateful those people were there when I could not be.

But she and all her friends and their parents, are definitely more critical, openly and rudely so, than some others in the same religious/doctrinal vein I encounter more frequently. I am much older than she, and I have seen a thing or two that she hasn't, but it is like trying to punch through a brick wall for her to acknowledge and respect that. It's the same with the sermons, when I attend her home church with her. "We're right, you are wrong, get over it or just don't come here, we don't want you."

I HATE that, where she doesn't even notice the tone, the arrogance, of these words.

However, compared to the snake-handling, tongues-speaking holy rollers in Kentucky (family) and Alabama (friends) that I know, Nazarenes are a relatively tame beast...

One of my best friends in HS was a Nazarene. He told me his grand mother said there were three things/people to hate in this life: The Devil, the Mormons, and the Catholics, but not necessarily in that order!! lol!

His churches chapel was about the size of a typical gospel doctrine/relief society room. When the preacher said something stupid, my friend would hold a hankey up near his nose and loudly sneeze "horseshit" into it, wipe his face, smile sweetly at the minister and put it away. The minister must have thought my friend was allergic to the chapel!!!! :D!

I went to one for a while, they tried to tell me I had to think the earth was 6,000 years old to be a Christian

creation just happened by accident just makes SO MUCH more sense. That just has to be the only explanation.

Just sayin'

Chuck

just writin'

You would have to be crazy to think the earth is 6,000 years old. I found the whole thing scary

or you would understand that evolution does NOT = "accident".

Moron.

I have extended family that are Noisey-renes. I have never found them to be judgemental towards the LDS members of the family. They are good people. Very conservative, yes, but not nearly annoying as the Baptists.

I've attended a few Nazarene services through the years and never really enjoyed it.

In fact, my Baptist family used to drag us to Christian concerts at the local Nazarene mega-church.
Like Baptists, they are evangelical and non-charismatic (no speaking in tongues). I have no idea what their theological differences might be.

According to my understanding (from my husband and his family), Baptists believe in the "once saved, always saved" thing while Nazerenes believe that you can lose your salvation. Not only can you lose it, but every time you sin you lose your salvation. Or at least that is how my husband was raised. This leads to lots of guilt and shame that is hard to shake even years later.

They are just as insane as mormons but more unstable and dangerous.

Isn't anecdotal evidence wonderful...just trot out those "personal" stories and blacken the name of a whole group of people in the process. Are you sure they don't have horns, too?

I must agree with you about Nazarenes. I fell into the mo while running from them. Strangely the issue of bearing witness in their testimony meetings is what drove me. The whole concept just gave me the creepy-crawlies. I was just 14 at the time. Before the end of that year I was doing it at the ward house and passing sacrament. That must qualify me for the "out of the frying pan and into the fire" award.

The Church of the Nazarene does not hold "testimony meetings".

Wellll. It was made very clear to me by a young man my age and confirmed by his father that at some point the congregation / minister would expect me to publically profess my faith and witness to the congregation. I didn't do it and I don't much think they called it "testimony meeting", however that is the experience that freaked me. I've heard of Nazarine congregations that are almost pentacostal in flavor as well as others that were much more baptism or methodist in flavor. The one I attended briefly was in Hermosa Beach, CA in 1954. The one I was told about is on University AVe in San Diego, CA. My mother had attended that one once or twice in the 1990s and reported her comfort level when I expressed my concern about her getting invovled with "pentacostals".

Note: No Nazarenes or Baptists or Methodists were intentionally maligned in this post.

Working with JW's is just as bad. Last place I was at was infested with these really mean nasty people.

friend from high school was one back in the 70's. What was odd was that they did not see movies. As in buy movie tickets to support an industry that purveyed titties and swearing.

And I mean all movies. Boycotted everything from Disney on up.

Had no problem watching same movies on tv, since they weren't paying for the privilege.

So with regards to the OP, yes, they came across as a little developmentally stunted. Like single adult marments sitting around watching Muppet movies.

I like your description.

Some accurate information for you. The Church of the Nazarene is founded on Wesleyan theology and in no way exhibits "pentecostal" characteristics. It is in no way a charismatic church. Nazarenes are not ever required to bear a "testimony" as a rite of membership and so-called "testimony" bearing is not generally evident in Nazarene services If you had a Nazarene pastor who insisted on such, he was out of line, and exercising his own preference. Some Nazarenes do not attend movies...it not not, however, a church mandate. I suggest you get up to date on the Church of the Nazarene and perhaps deal in the positives of the denomination, their outstanding work in building hospitals and educational facilities in third world countries, and their work with alcoholics in countries like Ukraine, instead of maligning them with anecdotal stories that perhaps reflect your own personal bias.

kentish Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some accurate information for you. The Church of
> the Nazarene is founded on Wesleyan theology and
> in no way exhibits "pentecostal" characteristics.
> It is in no way a charismatic church. Nazarenes
> are not ever required to bear a "testimony" as a
> rite of membership and so-called "testimony"
> bearing is not generally evident in Nazarene
> services If you had a Nazarene pastor who
> insisted on such, he was out of line, and
> exercising his own preference. Some Nazarenes do
> not attend movies...it not not, however, a church
> mandate. I suggest you get up to date on the
> Church of the Nazarene and perhaps deal in the
> positives of the denomination, their outstanding
> work in building hospitals and educational
> facilities in third world countries, and their
> work with alcoholics in countries like Ukraine,
> instead of maligning them with anecdotal stories
> that perhaps reflect your own personal bias.


Hmmmm...just like we should focus on the way that TSCC has a very well attended university system and provides support for its members? We should deal in the positives of TSCC, their outstanding working in building up BYU....instead of maligning them with anecdotal stories that perhaps reflect your own personal bias.

I don't malign with anecdotal stories. There are enough facts worth talking about without resorting to unsubstantiated he said/she said viewpoints. And yes, positives should be pointerd out when they occur...even within Mormonism.

I dated one when I was in my 20's for a red hot minute. He said you aren't saved unless you are baptized. I went to his church and the pews had little kneeling benches. He spent our dates preaching to me on why that religion is the right one. At the time I knew nothing of Mormonism or Nazarenes, but I knew it wasn't for me. And Mormonism WAS? I kick myself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2011 12:48PM by suckafoo.

Gotta admit, I've never seen a Nazarene hospital.

I was exposed to a lot of Pentacostal-type churches growing up, and the one thing that was pervasive to the point it made a deep impression on my brain, is that those of Pentacostal, Revivalist, Fundamental, Evangelical ilk are incredibly judgmental. And as a kid, my ears were filled that if you didn't believe in THEIR VERSION of being "saved" and follow the Jesus life as set down in stone by that version...

You were going to Hell.

I saw all the good people around me who didn't go to that church, and I grieved for them.

Another thing the Pentacostal, et al., types want their congregation to do is to witness for Christ. They literally want folks to take their Bibles with them "to the highways and the byways" and preach to the unsaved, and to bring those souls to Jesus.

I became Catholic, instead.

~VOW

I live near a very large Nazarene community called Bethany, Oklahoma. I associate with many Nazarenes and even have some clients who use me instead of the Nazarene's in the community.

They remind me very much of Mormons. They associate nearly exclusively with each other; the women seem to suffer from perfectionism like Mormon ladies; they believe their religion is the only way to Christ; they are judgmental of others and those who leave. They tend to be very conservative in their politics and assume everyone around them is too.

They are honest people and friendly but definitely they are Mormonlike in dealing with others.