Duke Memorial United Methodist Church of Durham, North Carolina, recently hosted a “scream night” to express their frustrations with life in general and Covid-19 in particular. “Rev.” Laura Crosskey, event organizer and a licensed psychologist, said, “We wanted to provide people with a space to let it out with the intention of knowing that they were not alone in their struggles or in their efforts to heal” (“North Carolina church hosts ‘scream night,’” Christian Post, Feb. 8, 2022). Pastor Crosskey led the congregation in five scream sessions: a regular scream; a scream combined with cursing; a vehement, pointed scream (e.g., “My partner is driving me crazy” or “I hate Covid”); and a scream competition. Finally, Pastor Crosskey “invited people to get quiet, to notice how the scream resonated in our bodies.” This is what professing Christians do when they are not born again and lack the wonderful supernatural spiritual resources of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. Having turned away their ears from the truth of God’s Word, they heap to themselves teachers who scratch their itching ears with fables such as scream therapy. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
(Friday Church News Notes, February 18, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)