To prevent further misinterpretation and misunderstanding, and also as a means of educating those who are less intelligent in the understanding how Christians worship, I would like to explain the different ways and methods practised by the Christians.
The most common method is to kneel down, put our hands together, bow our heads and pray. This can be done individually or in groups. In groups we may join hands, or place our hands on the shoulders or heads of the person or persons we are praying for. Sometimes a priest may end the prayer by making the sign of the cross with his hands.
This was probably what happened at the controversial pastor meeting held in Penang and was misinterpreted by ignorant people to mean conspiracy.
Those who are more charismatic would raise their hands in adoration and thanksgiving while singing, praying and even dancing. It is immaterial whether you raise one hand or both hands, or whether it is the left hand or right hand. You move as the Holy Spirit directs.
And as the Holy Spirit moves, some may even end up speaking in tongues (continued uttering of words and sounds). To an uneducated, this may seem eerie as if the person is drunk and gone mad. But rest assured, this is normal, and a sign that the the person speaking in tongue has reached a level whereby the Holy Spirit is interceding on his behalf. Sometime at the end of the session, the person may collapse and become unconscious.
So please don't ever interprete this as a ritual of conspiracy to evoke our God to rise up in arms.
Then we have the less popular ministry known as the Holy Laughter ministry which began in upstate New York, under the ministry of a South African missionary named Rodney Howard-Brown. This worship results in the manifestations of laughter, drunkenness, and running round in the church. However this form of worship is rarely seen or heard of in Malaysia.
But to the less informed, the worshipers are not drunk or gone mad, and are not performing any rituals to do evil like taking over a country. In Christian language, the Holy Spirit has taken over control and they are in another level of the spiritual realm.
We reiterate that we Christians in Malaysia have not an iota of intention to take over Putrajaya or conspire to make a Christian the Prime Minister. Let's be realistic. We are only 10% of the population. Those guys who hatched this conspiracy theory and the ministers who even entertain such a theory must have their heads examined. Who controls the government? the army? the police? the air force? the judiciary and even the royalty?
We just want to left alone to practise what we have been allowed to practise since even before Independence, and according to what is guaranteed in the constitution. And finally, as our God has instructed us, we forgive those who have wrongly accused us of wrong doings and evil intention. We will leave it to our God to do the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment