It is how I grew up. Speaking in tongues, healing people by the laying on of hands, "falling out" in the spirit (a spiritually induced faint), prophesying (e.g., telling the future for people one-on-one), church 3 times a week if not more, no makeup or pants or short hair for women. More on the jump.
My roots are confusing and rife with contrast. I grew up as one of three children in a mixed marriage: my mother was Mexican, my father of mixed descent but very white. Mom was from a small copper mining town in Arizona, dad from very blue collar Oklahoma. Mom was Catholic, dad was Pentecostal Holiness. Dad was in the Air Force which is how he met mom. He was reportedly an alcoholic and abusive for part of their early marriage, but then he got saved.
Pentecostal Family Values = Be saved and everything's excused. In other words, hypocrisy, self-absorption and denial.
I remember my mother saying that he was easier to deal with when he was an alcoholic - after he got saved, he abandoned her and his family. At first, that abandonment was for his faith, but it didn't take long before he abandoned his family physically, moved back to Oklahoma and married an Assembly of God going woman who played the piano in church. This made my grandparents very happy - you see, my mother was Mexican and Catholic. She was going to hell, and they were worried she'd take my dad with her. I'm not making this up - the anti-Catholic, "Catholics are not Christians b/c they are not saved" conversations happened - scaring, scarring and alienating an 11 year old pretty easily. I was so afraid of the apocalypse I would have bad dreams and cry about my catholic family members going to hell and being tortured after "the rapture." The Kool-Aid was thick, bright red and effective where I was concerned. Family values? Yeah, tell it to someone who hasn't been part of it and knows better. There is no forgiveness for anyone, family or not, who doesn't believe as they do. They are quite comfortable thinking that family members will roast in hell. They may pray for their wayward relatives, but at the end of the day - they will never question the fact or a religion that says that indeed will happen. This point was the only "fight" I remember ever having with my pentecostal grandfather, who was truly a very generous man (dogmatism aside).
To be fair, generalizations are tough and there are people in all faiths who are irresponsible and don't represent those who are responsible. In my personal experience, the person I credit with making me a generous and more open minded (except where religion is concerned these days) person also grew up in that faith, my aunt, who escaped while young and left all Pentecostal business behind.
So that whole thing about Bristol Palin? She can have sex out of wedlock - as long as she repents and gets re-saved - it's cool. You see, being "born again" can happen repeatedly. I'm not sure how many unwed mothers there have been in my pentecostal family, a lot. But, it's alright - sex on Saturday night, repent on Sunday, rinse and repeat. The problem is not that it happens of course. Unlike these people, I am not concerned about people's sex lives. "It's the hypocrisy, stupid." I guess what is most important to me on all these values issues boils down to the fact that Pentecostals do believe in abortion - they abort true, Christ-like principles constantly.
It's about Fear.
What I recall about the Pentecostal Holiness experience is that it is fear-based. Punishment - whether by God, hell fire or parental - is the name of the game. Everything you do is done to avoid punishment. Granted, this comes from a strict reading of the OT. Their belief system is not about love, because there are so many prejudices that it's impossible to make that argument. It was very segregated - now this was a few decades ago, but I don't believe it's changed - black churches and white churches, and they don't mix much.
I'll never forget the terror of apocalyptic teachings. Of course, now, as an educated adult outside the pentecostal cult, I know that "the apocalypse" is something that Hebrew writers long before John, like Ezekiel, were describing in response to the socio-political situation around them and the unique conditions of an evolving cultural/religious landscape. Had anyone bothered to teach apocalypticism in a responsible manner, that is with true knowledge and research into its biblical roots and place, it would not be about fear, terror and doom. But the removal of those elements removes what the cults/fringe religions need most: control. hmmmm. Sound familiar?
Did someone say torture and anti-Semitism?
Think they care about torture and the United States living up to Geneva, particularly where Muslims are concerned? Nah, not so much.
Pentecostal Holiness (and cults of that ilk) believe that those of us who do not conform to their way of thinking - which is "god's way" - are going to be tortured and cast into everlasting damnation. Read the book of Revelation (chapters 8 & 9) - see what is prescribed for those of us "left behind".
And, sorry, Jews? Well, they will not be the "chosen" people (oh the irony), but some will be selected to "preach" to the others to bring them back to God (after they see things the Christian way). Here's a quote from the most ridiculous site I've read in a while (I'm not going to link to it because it pains me to give it traffic - but just google "rapture survival guide".)
The liberal, ungodly Jews who dominate Israel will be as lost when it comes to Biblical truth as the Gentiles of the world and will be deceived by his charisma, and more than likely, the desires of the world's media.
It's not about thinking.
Pentecostal Holiness and other radical Christian sects are anti-thought, they are anti-reality, they are delusional and stuck. They are a cult in the true sense of the word, and not unlike any other radical fringe group with outdated ideas. The frightening thing about these people is their sheeple like behavior and reluctance to research. What pastors and sunday school teachers say, goes. There is little beyond the "group think".
The mere idea of having someone who believes like this in a high office is so personal and repulsive to me, that I not only donated more money to the Obama campaign, but will get involved actively in some way.
I know what these people believe. I have lived it. Any one of them near the White House is not okay.