azurelunatic | The Greek+ chorus

So for reasons I have been lolling around in a Catholic hospital, and I noticed a thing.

(Everyone is not fully okay but it's not really my story to relate -- but things are rapidly improving and the outlook is basically, how soon will fully okay happen.)

So someone will say something like "My blood pressure is coming down, thank you Jesus," and then the seventeen family members/close friends/key co-workers and three nurses (judging from the volume of conversation) jammed into their side of the shared room will all spontaneously and yet well-rehearsedly say "God is good!" "Yeah, yeah, God is great!" "Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah..."

The whole praise chorus situation was dinging a very faint bell at the back of my head. Then it hit me.

"Fox Mulder*, amirite?"
"Oh God yes."
"He's abducted my heart."
"PREACH!"
(* Really, you can substitute any internet sexyman.)

... One and a half points to Dragonblast for correctly guessing which one I find wholesome and which I find creepy, in the pasta sense.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I find the former sort of behavior somewhat creepy, but my memories and early exposures to religion (which included pentacostal influences) led me to conclude that so much of it is performative and in-group signaling rather than from some deep well of faith. I don't think that's universally true, but I see it often carried out now in online spaces and it always looks and feels so empty.

Edited 2025-03-21 12:59 (UTC)