Christianity is full of religious rituals

In all my years of attending churches and going through many denominations, there were many things they all had in common; rituals that most of them conducted, or at least many conducted. I conducted them myself.

As soon as you step into the door, the religious rituals start. You’re greeted at the door with a handshake. When you enter the auditorium, the band is playing gentle music to enhance the atmosphere and create a hypnotic state. Chances are you sit in the same area each week, normally with the same people. Just the fact you are there every week on a Sunday morning is a religious ritual in itself.

Then the service religiously progresses in a typical order. Firstly, the ritual of the opening prayer where just about everyone bows their heads and closes their eyes. There will often be mutterings of “amen” and “hallelujah” by members of the congregation.

Then comes praise songs… the type that gets everybody properly woken up and into it. They are songs sung to Jesus, in the form of musical mantras, often repeating the same words over and over, e.g., “God is great”, “We are victorious”, and “He is the King of Kings”. If you repeat these mantras enough times you start to believe them.

In Pentecostal type churches, you even get speaking in tongues. The praise session usually involves the entire congregation standing and singing together. Often Christians will raise their hands into the air and/or close their eyes. Ritualistic clapping usually goes along with the musical mantras.  

Once the praise session is done, then comes the worship session. This usually involves the raising of hands and closing of eyes as people stand together. If you are in a Pentecostal church then there again may be the ritual of speaking in tongues.

Usually during the worship session, there will be a period where people are free to pray, read out bible verses or give words from God.

Prayer, when you think about it is classic religious ritual. The Muslims bow to face Mecca and pray. Christians don’t face Mecca, but they are still just as religious when it comes to prayer. Sometimes it involves getting down on your knees or putting your hands together. It usually involves closing your eyes. Prayer will be used as a religious ritual at meal times, used as a mantra each day.

Often in a church people will gather together with the symbolic laying on of hands to pray for people. Sometimes prayer will be done holding hands. In some churches there is the utterance of the Lord’s Prayer. Then there could very well be the “Sinner’s” prayer, when a new convert bows before God and enters a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Communion is usually done each week. Every church I ever attended in my life, this cannibalistic ritual was conducted on a regular basis. The bread represents the abused flesh of Christ, while the wine represents his blood. The flesh is always consumed first before the blood. It is always considered a serious ritual and sometimes the host will warn the congregation that if you take communion without putting your life right with Christ first, you will be in big trouble with the almighty!

Baptism is another thing you might get in a church service. It is the ultimate religious ritual and every Christian is expected to be baptised at some stage in their Christian walk. It is a symbolic act. After all being dunked under water doesn’t just miraculously cleanse you of sin or make you a new person.

Through churches, I saw other religious rituals too that were not so common, like anointing with oil. When the 1980s arrived there came the more controversial spiritual warfare, i.e., people shouting and screaming in an attempt to cast out demons. People believing they had the spirit of discernment and believing God was telling them the types of demons to cast out.

‘Come out spirit of witchcraft!’

‘Come out, spirit of homosexuality!’

Even though it turned out to be a fad, this sort of silliness still goes on in churches some times. Occasionally you hear about it in the paper when something goes drastically wrong and someone doesn’t get the mental or medical treatment they should have had from psychiatrists or doctors.

Once the worship time ends, then comes the ritual of the sermon where someone stands up front and preaches. It is never interrupted and some people will religiously take notes as the sermon progresses. Due to the praise and worship beforehand, the congregation are in a hypnotic state and are open to suggestion. You will normally find that as the speaker winds up his sermon, music is being played to help enhance his words and to enable that hypnotic atmosphere to return so that the speaker can plant suggestions into the minds of the congregation.  

This is often followed by the ritualistic ‘Altar call’ where people can come up for prayer or blessings.  Again, you will see many religious rituals observed. You’ll see more laying on of hands in prayer, people raising their hands, closing their eyes and speaking in tongues. Then there may be people being “Slain in the spirit”. This being a type of hypnotic state where people believe the Holy Spirit has come upon them and they fall backwards – ironically encouraged by a sudden push to the head by the one praying.

Finally comes the ritual of closing the service in prayer before everyone goes out to yet another ritual, that of the tea, coffee and fellowship, plus if you’re lucky some chocolate biscuits.

Yes, church is full of religion so makes it like any other religion.  Some churches are just slightly less religious than others are.

For more on the religiosity of prayer see: 

Why is prayer so silly?

Reason 9: Demons were not fleeing in the name of Jesus

Reason 11: The Bible God sees women as possessions