A fall from a height
I am in Colorado Springs today, where famous evangelical pastor Ted Haggard's fall dominates the news.
Frankly, to borrow the name of a better-known blog, I just don't "get" his kind of religion. A 14,000-member megachurch? Why? So you can sit on your butt and be preached at and sung at among a huge crowd of strangers?
My dislike for Haggard's approach is more than theological. It is partly aesthetic--the whole megamall megachurch entertainment thing. And it's partly because of the way that New Lifers regarded the most interesting parts of Colorado Springs (such as the Old North End and Tejon Street) as controlled by Satan or something. I wrote elsewhere that they do not understand the gods of the city, only the gods of the suburban shopping mall.
One excerpt: "[Jeff] Sharlet makes a good case for New Lifers as exurban parasites, taking the services that the city provides but being unwilling to pay for them, either financially or psychically."
Anyway, he is toast now, although there will probably be some sort of public-repentence-as-career move. From a Christian perspective, LaShawn Barber's coverage is about the best.
And that's the news from "Fort God."
Frankly, to borrow the name of a better-known blog, I just don't "get" his kind of religion. A 14,000-member megachurch? Why? So you can sit on your butt and be preached at and sung at among a huge crowd of strangers?
My dislike for Haggard's approach is more than theological. It is partly aesthetic--the whole megamall megachurch entertainment thing. And it's partly because of the way that New Lifers regarded the most interesting parts of Colorado Springs (such as the Old North End and Tejon Street) as controlled by Satan or something. I wrote elsewhere that they do not understand the gods of the city, only the gods of the suburban shopping mall.
One excerpt: "[Jeff] Sharlet makes a good case for New Lifers as exurban parasites, taking the services that the city provides but being unwilling to pay for them, either financially or psychically."
Anyway, he is toast now, although there will probably be some sort of public-repentence-as-career move. From a Christian perspective, LaShawn Barber's coverage is about the best.
And that's the news from "Fort God."
Labels: American religion, Christianity, Paganism, publishing, scholarship, Scotland, shamanism, travel
posted by Chas S. Clifton at 12:01 PM Permalink
6 Comments:
I shy away from "bigtime" preachers. I prefer a different kind of spirituality.
Why? So you can sit on your butt and be preached at and sung at among a huge crowd of strangers?
I have read some work by people who have studied the megachurch movement, and the general impression I have is that bigness is part of the appeal, not just for the sake of bigness but for the economies of scale that it makes possible - many people want to be part of a religious institution that is large enough economically to effect real change in the social arena.
Also, in a church that large a new member may actually have more opportunity to participate and contribute in a meaningful way than in a small church - because the church has so many groups and projects going, any given one is likely to have more room for them to enter than in a church where the boundaries are entrenched and the resourcese limited, and also the resources are sufficient to more easily permit a new initiative if a member sees an opportunity to create a new group or project to meet a need that is not being met already.
Erik,
You are right, I am sure, about the megachurch having more "ecological niches." But it was the essential passivity of the religious experience that always turned me off to that kind of religion, along with all the other problems of what Harvey Whitehouse calls "the doctrinal mode of religiosity" -- that which is generally unembodied.
Chas, I think you are missing the importance of the recent concept of "cell churches," which is a fast-growing movement.
Haggard's church has 1300 "cells," small affinity groups set up to be more intimate. These might compare with the intimacy of a coven structure that is subordinate to a larger tradition. It's the domesticated, hierarchal version of those small groups of Christians worshipping together in their houses. The cells can have their intimacy, but also can take advantage of the variety and range of resources that a large church can offer.
Carol Maltby
Chas, I think you are missing the importance of the recent concept of "cell churches," which is a fast-growing movement.
Haggard's church has 1300 "cells," small affinity groups set up to be more intimate. These might compare with the intimacy of a coven structure that is subordinate to a larger tradition. It's the domesticated, hierarchal version of those small groups of Christians worshipping together in their houses. The cells can have their intimacy, but also can take advantage of the variety and range of resources that a large church can offer.
Carol Maltby
Carol (x2)
I'm aware of the "cell churches," "house churches," and other movements away from bigness.
Still, with megachurches, the emphasis does seem to be on the "mega," on the one-stop shopping, Wal-Mart-style model.
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