WHY I RECENTLY CHANGED CHURCHES

These are the only reasons I (the page author) would ever change churches:

1. The church changed its doctrine away from the teachings of the Bible. (2)
2. Conditions in the church became incompatible with my physical wellbeing. (5)
3. I had to move away from the location of the church. (2)
4. The church ceased to exist. (0)

The numbers in parentheses are the number of times this happened to the page author.

The following are ways conditions in the church could affect my wellbeing:

1. Something I am violently allergic to is being used at the church. (1)
2. The sound at the church became loud enough to damage my hearing. (4)
3. Some other serious hazard was present. (0)

In the latest case, the sound in the church became loud enough to cause pain and damage hearing.

Several factors combined to cause this:

• The pastor decided that a church service should be like a rock concert. This is something that comes from the sinful nature, not from God's will. God would never cause harm to anyone worshiping Him.
• Adding insult to injury, the church provided earplugs for people who were bothered by the loud music, showing that they know their music can damage hearing. This is the ultimate in following the sinful nature.
• The sound equipment has a subharmonic generator that generates false tones one or two octaves below the original tones.
• 800 watts of amplification were applied to the subwoofer - too much for the room size.
• The sanctuary of that church has a triple standing wave at 5 Hz, enhancing that frequency.
• I (the page author) have stenosis of the helicotrema in both ears. It is probably congenital.

  This is a reduction or elimination of the helicotrema - the bypass port between the two main chambers in the cochlea. The effects of this condition are:

  1. An increase in the sensitivity to frequencies below 100 Hz by as much as 20 dB
  2. A change in the limit of low frequencies heard, from the normal 20 Hz to as low as 5 Hz
  3. A lowering of the energy needed to reach the threshold of damage and the threshold of pain by up to 20 dB
  4. Exceeding the threshold of damage with frequencies below 100 Hz causes damage to hearing in the 2 KHz region (high midrange), not the low bass.
  5. Repeated exposures increase the pain, rather than eliminating it.

  Under ordinary circumstances, this is not really a defect, but an enhancement of hearing. Unless an artificial enhancement of bass sounds occurs or extremely high amplification is used, this condition usually causes no trouble.

• Some other people attending the church complained of pain or ringing in their ears (a sign of hearing damage)
• The pastor, music director, and several other church officials had already damaged their hearing by attending loud concerts several years earlier.

Links about this problem:

• Why are so many churches playing music so loud?
• Facts about hearing loss from loud sounds