Holier Than Thou
Taking piety to a whole new level.
“It’s becoming increasingly common to hear people say things like, ‘It’s all about the Kingdom. The church stinks. The church is old and outdated … it’s convoluted and unnecessary. We don’t need it”.
“Viola presents the “church” of the first century as ideal – it was not. This premise is what his entire movement is based upon: ‘we do things the way the early Christians did it.’ This is the thinking of exclusive sects who think they are the only ones REALLY doing it correctly. These kinds of arrogant and ignorant comments shows that Viola sees his brand of faith as superior to that of everyone else.” R.A Baker Ph.D.
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In a previous blog we explored the emotive language of christian influencer Frank Viola. From where I stand, he perfectly embodies the definition of a charlatan. He claims to be privy to what God’s plan for humanity has been since the beginning of time. His (made up) stories of God’s eternal plan remind me of another such religious man who made similar claims. All that’s missing from Viola’s teachings are the golden plates.
Even though I no longer call myself a christian, I could easily see through Viola’s “special knowledge” and was not moved by his emotive language. This blog was initially intended to expose Viola’s faulty theology and historical inaccuracies (of which there are many). However, while researching the topic I discovered a number of blogs written by christians (some of them with Ph.Ds.) who were also questioning Viola. Seems I wasn’t the only one who was concerned about Viola’s causal (and many times faulty) relationship with theology, history, and scholarship.
After reading their reviews, I realized that Viola’s ability to hoodwink christians is a family affair. As an apostate, who is no longer aligned with christianity, this is not my battle. It’s not my job as an outsider to expose the falsehoods of a charlatan like Viola. What christian would listen to me anyway? The only people with any chance of effectively refuting Viola’s falsehoods are other christians.
Of the many books that Viola has authored the one that has drawn the most attention is a book entitled Pegan Christianity. Let’s see what christians are saying about that book.
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“It appears that the major theme and conclusion of the book is that current churches are unbiblical. The author has concluded that the church cannot adopt any form of worship that is not specifically stated in scripture. His message is that the church is currently shallow, hollow, and dead. This has occurred because we are following pagan customs in our churches.” neverthirsty.org
“If you’ve never heard of the book, I’ll warn you right now that it is one of the most controversial, I have come across in quite a while, and for good reason. The book makes some very bold accusations and statements that need to be inspected and evaluated very carefully.”
“The premise of the book is that much of the way we ‘do church’ today (according to Viola) was not birthed from logical interpretation of the scripture but was borrowed from pagan religions and culture. Viola mentions that nearly everything associated with church today… we are doing wrong. What’s more, he claims that things have been wrong for at least a thousand years.” Brandon Collins.
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So, let’s see what some of those “wrong” things are.
The “church building”: Its use of light, color, and excessive height cause people to regard it as a “sacred space.” Gothic cathedrals foster a sense of mystery, transcendence, and awe and sends a message that God is “transcendent and unreachable.” Chairs and pile carpets have no biblical support.
The order of institutional church services: Sunday morning services are shamefully boring, without variety or spontaneity and they do not lead to spiritual growth.
Sermons: They discourage active participation and interruptions by the audience, and also “creates an excessive and pathological dependence on the clergy.
Pastors and other trained clergy: Far too many of them are either insufficiently educated or take on too much work or both. Having pastors divides the congregation into first- and second-class christians where parishioners become muted spectators. A specially attired clergy is an affront to the spiritual principles that govern the house of God, because it separates God’s people into two classes: professional and nonprofessional.
Dressing up in your Sunday best for church: Dressing up for church is a leftover from paganism and hypocritical for Christians. Yet, if you can dress well with pure motives, you ought to do so.
Church choirs: Everybody should be allowed to sing, not just a special group, and parishioners should write their own songs and bring them in.
Tithing: Is completely unbiblical and now serves to prop up the unbiblical institutionalized church and the salaries of unbiblical clergy.
The Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper have been coopted by pagan mysticism.
Christian education: Sunday School is ineffective. As are Bible colleges and seminaries. Seminary graduates have no real-life experience to handle a church. In addition, highly educated christian who study scripture methodically and logically are seen as above other christians. Logic is a secular construct and is not from God.
It’s Just Human Nature
Before we get into what makes Viola’s ideas so remarkable and extraordinary, we need to spend a minute talking about human nature. Stay with me here. It is a basic human trait to look down our noses at people who we feel are inferior to us. This feeling of superiority seems to be a uniquely human trait. We don’t see other members of the animal kingdom practicing such behavior, (with the possible exception of French Poodles and cats).
You could probably come up with tons of examples on your own, but I’ll give you some anyway. Nationalities look down on other nationalities. As do people of differing races. Economics seems to be a big reason to look down on others. There’s always somebody worse off or better off than we are who deserves our contempt. Generational gaps give good reasons for people to feel a sense of superiority. Us baby boomers feel a bit of superiority to the generations that followed us. We didn’t spend our lives attached to some device like they do now. We went outdoors and actually lived our lives. When we were growing up, the whole neighborhood would play hide-and-go-seek together. That doesn’t happen anymore. My children, who are millennials, look down on Gen Xers. Gen Xers look down on those from Gen Y and all of them look down on those entitled Gen Zers. (By the way, what comes next? Do we start over again at Gen A? Maybe the next generation will be called Gen A-eye.)
The point is that seeing others as inferior is a common human trait. Although they might want to think that they are exempt from this, christians have not escaped this practice. In fact, Christians like (love) to look down on other people. Most christians have no qualms about looking down on non-believers, especially apostates like me. But it doesn’t stop there.
Even though they are supposedly part of the same Body of Christ (as they would say) the different denominations don’t really like each other very much. Catholics look down on Protestants. Protestants look down on Catholics. Most christians look down Mormonism. Mormons believe that Joseph Smith created the one true church, so it’s only right that they look down on non-LDS christians. Jehovah Witnesses look down on everyone who is not JW. Evangelicals, (especially Baptists) look down on other denominations because they’re too liberal. Fundamental evangelicals look down other evangelicals, for the same reason.
This kind of christian piety will certainly never end, and as we shall see, Viola has taken it to a whole new level.
Coming Next:
We’ll explore the real reason why Viola’s ideas are so extraordinary. Remarkably, he has managed to move the goalpost for what used to be considered acceptable christian behavior. Going to church is no longer the christian thing to do. Viola’s followers have placed themselves on top of the christian totem pole by saying that they, and they only, are doing christianity right.
From Where I Stand
Jan. 1, 2026
Dale Crum