It is described as the art of using movement, music and mimicking. Recently this ancient entertainment phenomenon has subtly found a place in our worship services as an expression of worship or as a tool used to portray the gospel. One self-proclaimed pantomime ministry website states, “Ministering mime is interpreting gospel music, using illustrations and non-verbal methods to all the congregation to understand what you are doing just like Ezekiel demonstrated in the Old Testament. But what is really interesting according to the pastors ministry bio,“While listening to a gospel tape by Larnell Harris and praying, she saw a vision of a person doing creative movements to a gospel song with a white painted face, flowing black clothing loosely fitting and white gloves. She also saw a spotlight shining upon the person. This was the vision for the mime ministry…”
this article is written to provide additional information and insight on the origin of pantomime. This information is not foreign, Pastor Lewis covered some this in TBHH5 . The term pantomime is describe as the art of acting without words (facial expressions, gestures, body language) In pantomime the actor conveys only action, often work with imaginary objects, no sounds and based on reality involving a specific action.
Mime conveys a theme, the body can become part or all of an imaginary object, non-verbal sounds are allowed, can go beyond reality as the actor expresses an idea. [Hoover Theatre Drama One-Study Guide Chp 1] by definition pantomime or “pantomimus” is literally translates to “imitating all.” In ancient Greece it was accompanied by sung narrative and instrumental music which was often played on the flute. However, they both(pantomime & mime) are one in the same. The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece and Rome. Like theatre, it encompassed the genres of comedy, tragedy and sex. They both struggled to survive, partly because the genre was looked down upon and shunned by the literary elite. In a speech during the late 1st century AD the orator Aelius Aristides (117 AD-189 AD) a Greek rhetorician and a priest of Zeus condemned pantomime for its erotic content and the effeminacy of its dancing. After the death of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (a Roman philosopher, play writer and advisor of Nero) serious dramatic (literature or art) in Rome ceased, and the newly erected stone theatres erected stone theatres were taken over by pantomime as the level of public taste and moral code steadily fell.
This genre was very diverse but full of controversy. Most often they were indecent burlesques unto the god Dionysus in which female performers also took part in sexual performances. They featured dialogue, acrobatics, songs, and slapstick routines. During the persecution of the Christian under Nero and Domitian, mimes were used to ridicule the Christian faith on stage. They mock the Christian faith and their God.
[Sidenote]: It is recorded in Acts 17:22-31 Dionysus was the god who inspired joyful worship, ecstasy and festivals. At these festivals and celebrations mimes, actors and a myriad of entertainment filled the theaters. On the north side of the hill is where Apostle Paul preached the gospel on Mars Hill. Paul was vexed at the sight of false idols and pagan worship that went on in the temple theatre. “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Pantomime is an age old art that has been around since Apostle Paul was preaching. During the middle age era pantomimes manage to resurface as jesters, jongleurs, bands, and acrobats. In the year 791, an English priest Alcuin (Alcuin of York) wrote a warning to a friend stating, “The man who brings actors and mimes and dancers to his house knows not what a bevy of unclean spirits follow them.”
Since, pantomime has transcended throughout Europe to the United States and today American (mime) combines acting, play-writing and dancing courtesy of Paul J. Curtis founder of the art form known as American Mime in 1952. Never was this practice a part of our worship services until now:
Pantomime
“Ministering mime is interpreting gospel music, using illustrations and non-verbal methods to all the congregation to understand what you are doing just like Ezekiel demonstrated in the Old Testament.”
In response to the above statement: If pantomime ministry is based on the kind of gospel song you choice to play then according today’s standards we are in trouble. Especially from an industry that is own and operated by godless people. It’s all about the music! If you take away the music, you are left with evil white clown faces, and effeminate dancers swing and kicking in the air. (A kung-fu flick) Listen people pantomime is not worship or ministry
Besides you can’t just take what you want and stand before a holy God and worship as you please. Art is entertainment; it’s about the flesh and how you feel. Besides folks are more focus on the song and being entertained than anything else. They’re clapping, crying and getting emotion over music that’s often unscriptural and without doctrine. Most gospel music today is just sensual. My question is who inspired this idea of bring all this stuff into the church? Especially the African American Church community, we are like that 70’s “Mikey like it” Life Cereal commercial. The taste test dummy.
We’ll just eat anything, whatever the big Bishops do at their conferences we are going to do in our services. “Bring in the mime, the man on the flying trapeze, the hip-hopper, the stripper poles, we just want to have fun too…” Come on church it’s so dangerous when ministry follows popular culture!! after In Ezekiel Chapter 40 God judged the Levites for taking musical talent from the Canaanites.
They took what belong to the heathens and recruited their practices, talents, and they even welcomed individuals to come into the Temple and worship with them. (Ezekiel 44:12-13 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity (perversion) therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, said the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.) In summary, pantomime is just simply entertainment. But is it acceptable worship unto the one and true and living God? Arts and entertainment manipulate and engineer a counterfeit worship, a soulish emotional response. We often worship music more than the creator. Pleasure and entertainment has more value than discipleship, sound doctrine and biblical teaching. Since when was following popular culture and all forms of entertainment a prerequisite for ministry. Have you ever wondered if anyone ever checks with the Holy Spirit anymore about what He wants?
Sonia Kong “I don’t think most people really understand it; that’s why it’s interesting,” Kong said. “Back then in the Roman times they used to do things homosexually with miming and it wasn’t a good thing for the church.
23 responses to “The origin of Pantomime (mime): It’s not worship it’s entertainment!”
Keith Butler
June 2nd, 2011 at 02:07
Interesting history. I appreciate you taking the time to educate a willfully ignorant “body of believers”. Honestly, it is extremely sad that so much of the world has taken hold of the church and if anyone speaks against it, they are the ones that are damned……………..We as as people (African Americans) are in a bad place……………………Heaven help us!
brenda
December 16th, 2013 at 06:22
I just don’t understand why anyone would voluntarily put on white-face anyway. If you think of the context it’s been used in film, comically, I see no reason for it to find a home in churches.
M Williams
March 24th, 2014 at 14:53
Thank you for the history and enlighten ment thereof.The Church I attend sometime use this mime expression. However. I was uncomfortable with it. I see it as entertainment and not worship. In the book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 , there is a time and place for everything.
Cora
May 25th, 2014 at 12:35
I agree. I am a dance minister atnmy church and mime dancing doesn’t set right with my spirit but I am not the Pastor but I pray God opens his spiritual eyes very soon
Mt
June 15th, 2014 at 00:53
I know this is old article, however, I’m
Still going to comment, the ? Shld be with this and a lot of other foolishness that goes on in the church, is not can you ? But why would u? Does the bibld not say come out from among them, and be ye separate ? Why do churches, esp black ones just pull anything they got from the world and bring in church and try to make it holy? Whyyy? Does any pastor go to God before they do this, do they research stuff? Honestly if they have the Holy Ghost , they shldnt evn have to pray about it, I just had a feeling years ago after I got saved that miming did not belong in church, if it came from world it’s common sense, I thought , then one day I decided to look it up , I knew it was wrong but ddnt knw why, and there it was, it came from false god worship, we must worship him in spirit and in truth, if there’s a false god present , the real God ain’t there, both can’t be there , it’s not in bible, those faces are scary, and we r to avoid the appearance of evil. Nobody has gotten saved thru this, Jesus said if I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men unto me, why do we have to go beyond what the bible said and try to take Gods place , we r to be fishers of men, we catch them, God cleans them , we have got to do things Gods way, not our way, when they did that in the bible ppl died, like the handwriting on the wall, the putting things on a new cart, Ppl are still dying Becuz we wanna put stuff on a new cart, pls stop!!!!
Vee
July 31st, 2014 at 19:57
I agree, I am a worship leader and I feel the same way about songs. You can’t bring worldly music in the church and put Jesus or God to it. My people with the lack of knowledge. Much pray!!!!!
Desoraje
August 5th, 2014 at 15:27
Our issue is simple. If we prayed for guidance, the Holy Spirit will simply let us know what is and is not acceptable. As far as mime or anything else is concerned, I believe a pastor should always serve in his role as spiritual shepherd. If he allows anything to come into the church, he should allow there to be a study at large so that the entire congregation grows spiritually. That way, everyone is on on accord. We are not studying as a people and as a corporate body, as a result…..any and everything goes. I’m not against any form of “worship” as long as it’s biblically based and Holy Spirit approved. After all, the bible does say that the Holy Spirit will guide us into ALL truth!
A Child of God
November 8th, 2014 at 20:02
Amen, now this is by far the best reply and advise I’ve read.
stephanie brown
January 5th, 2015 at 03:33
In my lifetime, I have visited churches of different denominations and\or cultures. But, what seems to stick in my memory the most is how most black churches promote or indulge in this type of worship. Whatever happened to speaking life by preaching or teaching the truth, going forth and making disciples like Jesus commanded? ‘Let there be light,’ is what God spoke. He didn’t mime the world into existence and since man was created in God’s image, shouldn’t we follow His example by speaking life to others?
Corey
May 2nd, 2015 at 00:00
When it comes to us believers, we need to realize that we are not all the same. Yes, we are all Christian and worship the same God, but the way we do it is different depending on how we are raised, our culture, and church traditions. One thing we can’t do if we expect to continue to grow and experience God in different ways is to put a limit and block on how we can worship and praise him. A comment was made stating that the black church likes to take things that are “of the world” and make them holy. Let’s stop right there. Realize that a lot of churches/ministries do things that are found in the world but the two have different goals. Ex) Singers and dancers. The ones that are in the world sing and dance to 1) Please others 2) For Fame and fortune 3) Because they were forced by a parent 4) It’s the “cool” thing to do. On the other hand, a singer and dancer that does it to serve God has the goal of 1) Bringing people to Christ 2) Spreading the Gospel 3) Worship in praise in a way they can truly give their all to Him and completely let go 4) Save souls. Reading this and the comments kind of got me upset and I wasn’t going to respond but I had to. Being apart of mime ministry for six years now has given me the chance to fully understand what I am doing, be a true witness to people coming to Christ or activating their faith again by either seeing a ministration go forth OR joining a mime ministry themselves, and how mime ministry definitely has the POWER to do works in people and churches. Just because something was never a thing years ago, let’s not be quick to shut it down. Discernment is Key when it comes to ministries. New things come up in church that tend to cross the minds of older saints as “Not of God”, “Not spiritual”, “The devil’s work”. This may include spoken word/poetry, a different kind of gospel, stepping, miming, praise dance, Gospel rap, Christian plays, the list goes on. But it’s all about discernment: Not letting your flesh do the talking but letting the SPIRIT speak.
Julie
June 4th, 2015 at 23:30
To Corey,
The article speak on where Pantomime originated from. The writer is simply saying it originated from pagan worshippers. One thing any child of God don’t want to do is grieve the Holy Spirit. Anything originating from pagan worship is offensive to our God, the I Am that I Am God, the True & Wise God. 1) The churches that allow mime, perhaps they are ignorant of the nature of pantomime. 2) Possibly leadership approval of it due that he or she is not of God’s kingdom anyways and strategically placed in the church by Satan. Remember, wolves and tares are among the people of God. If someone enlightens us that’s the time to REPENT because it is not the Will of God for any man to perish. We are in end times. The question that was asked of Jesus. When should the end be? Jesus answered, except that be a falling away then shall the end be.
God Is Holy. Can you honestly say, God Is being Glorified with things that were made for worshipping other gods?
VOB
July 11th, 2016 at 09:09
Amen!
Jesus is Coming!
December 1st, 2015 at 05:34
God bless all. I just want to say thank you!! It’s about 12:15am and I am up looking for informacion on this subject for my leader, who asked me for it after he noticed that my family including my children have never taking part in miming. Now our church preaches and practice the sound doctrine and play santified music where the Holy Spirit of God is felt, BUT for the last 7 yrs or so, one member starting miming. Painting the face was never allowed, thank God, but as time went on they started wearing white gloves and one day they added the blue neon lights. Pastor greatly disagreed with glove and lights. But they still do the miming to music. I feel he knows its wrong but hasn’t taken it completely away because of the youth. But like i said, he asked me about it and I told him where it originally came from, but I want to show him proof. I feel like its the open door i been waiting for, because i brought it up in the past, many people were against me, although I aim to please God… I will present the info with fasting and know that God will do the rest!! If you have anymore info, email me.
THank you for the time and effort, may God bless you greatly
D
January 22nd, 2016 at 18:36
Have you found any research I want to bring this to my Pastor
Yttytee
January 23rd, 2016 at 14:21
Being a pastor, shouldn’t he have the Holy Ghost himself to convict him of this mess? Why should someone’s else have to research for him? We did ours via the Holy Ghost, now he should do his! We arent the pastor and have no time to do his job!
Jeanette M. Layne
May 12th, 2016 at 07:09
I am so upset about all this Junk going on in our churches! God help us all and especially our youth!
ElTee
June 21st, 2016 at 09:42
We got to do more research and not take all of this new stuff at face value…most of all we must rely on the Holy Spirit. . He leads us to Truth.
ElTee
June 21st, 2016 at 09:38
I appreciate this article and others like it. Too long have our people walked in ignorance and to do so today is inexcusable. ..so much info out here now, we are educated, been to college and all forms of learning institutions but we refuse tostudy and research. ..what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God. . to lead and guide us to truth…saints of God we got to step up…God says His people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge and the rejection of knowledge. ..we must not allow ourselves to be destroyed because we reject the knowledge, wisdom and the Spirit of God…God said man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. When do things the world’s way including miming, we’re partaking of the wrong bread. We can rationalize as much as we want but the truth stands…God’s truth.
Pastor Thomas
June 28th, 2016 at 02:10
Being a pastor now I am checking up on this before it ever reaches our ministry so I can “stand for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints” pray for us
Farah Caldwell
August 14th, 2016 at 06:16
How do I share this on Facebook?
readychurch
August 21st, 2016 at 19:39
Copy and paste this link into your status box
https://readychurch.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-origin-of-pantomime-mime-its-not-worship-its-entertainment/
Lyanne Castro
September 8th, 2016 at 18:12
tremendous! Many churches dont have power of God anymore so they “entertain” the souls. Lord have mercy
CPG
September 9th, 2016 at 15:43
Be a lover of the Lord and not of God. You cant serve two masters. It is not about how I feel about a situation. It ‘s about it is right before God. The scriptures is the source to rely on. Mines should not be a part of a worship service. We are living in the end times and Paul told Timothy that it would come a time when people would not endure sound doctrine.
Shalom