When the weather is good, God gives him a wonderful day. He would never consider that there might be a flood somewhere else wiping out life and property. He truly believes that God somehow arranged the weather just to make him happy.
The desire for intimacy with God is basic human longing. Ultimately that is what Ned Flanders is after, yet intimacy with God seems to escape him. Flanders lives in charismaland; the theological wasteland, that leaves him ungrounded and disconnected from orthodoxy.
Overt religiousness is not a private problem. The religious addict affects everyone he comes in contact with; his family, friends, coworkers, even the stranger he meets down at the mall. Believing he is a representative of God; he tries to bring light to those who live in darkness. He can be an oppressive church leader, but most often he just makes people uncomfortable and embarrassed, for him, because of all his God-talk. According to Homer 'Ned is holier than Jesus'. His door bell plays Kumbaya or Onward Christian Soldier. He has Shroud of Turin beach towels and a Lot's Wife salt-shaker. He attends every possible church function to have his daily fix of ‘vitamin church’. He withdraws from friends and family who do not think like him. He is obsessed with the thought of not having done enough. Religion for him is an attempt to control his life (and God) by behaving a certain way. But the harder he tries the more depressed he becomes. His spiritual life is performance-oriented rather than the rest Jesus promised. "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
Symptoms of Charismata Addiction
• Faith is black and white
• Pursuit of friends and family to convert
• Isolation from those with different beliefs
• World, flesh is inherently evil
• Obsession with worship, Bible
• Addiction to praise music
• Getting messages from God
• Judging others
• God talk, quoting from Scripture
• Discourage thinking, questioning
• Inability to accept criticism
• Suffer depression and anxiety
• Going into trances
