We have become obsessed with spectacle. Everything is performative. Performative activism. Performative worship. Performative relationships. Spectacle. Some places will always be performative, that’s their purpose. But there’s certain spaces that I guess I always considered exempt from becoming a spectacle. I expected churches to be real. I also expected them to actually read and obey the laws they preach, someone should’ve curbed my expectations. I’m not scorning the church, not entirely. I do believe that it has a place in the world, but not in the way it’s presently operating. I’m watching worship services become about how many people stand up and hoot and holler. I’m watching leaders mistake human hype for His presence. I’m watching people manipulate the Bible to justify selfish, hurtful, hateful agendas. I am watching a spectacle. And there’s rules to the spectacle, you’re not supposed to call it what it is. Calling out the spectacle detracts from the Holy Spirit, or so they say. If you do call it out, you can’t do it publicly. God forbid your constructive criticism sows discord. I don’t remember when spiritual dress up became the norm. A new trend. It’s fashionable to put on your pretend prayer and accessorize it with fake compassion and imaginary righteousness. And everyone’s playing dress up: politicians, pastors, worship leaders, church-goers. They are all in their own play where they pretend to understand, where they pretend to care, where they pretend to disciple, where they pretend that this isn’t a spectacle. I watched a pastor call themselves pro-Israel in the earlier days of the conflict, and never explain why. They never expanded on the statement. They just made a claim, took a stance in a conflict they didn’t care to learn about and then continued into a copy-paste message to barely listening congregants. The messages are performative too. Who’s preaching on real issues? Who’s teaching and answering the very real questions their community has? Questions about war, infertility, genocide, sexual morality, poverty, depression. Who’s talking about reality? It’s a copy-and-paste spectacle. I miss when church was real. When the community wasn’t chasing praise and performance. When politicians weren’t perverting scripture. I miss who we were before we started chasing spectacle.