Schuller's sad saga

Robert Schuller came along with the right idea at the right time and place. His California drive-in church grew into a famous   mega-church. It worked.. That was then, this is now. Times changed and he didn't. The once cutting edge Crystal Cathedral has become a dull blade, beset with family squabbles and a million dollar debt, yet still convinced that "possibility thinking" will heal it.

Spring Lake Church Does it Again

A big church in the West Michigan village of Spring Lake seems bent (I resist saying hell-bent) on making news. Christ Community Church, once a member of the Reformed Church in America, is no more. They took down their 65 foot cross and changed their name to 3C Exchange. They are thinking of putting a heart, a globe and the word “exchange” on the wall where the cross used to be. It would be a symbol of one love for all people. The church, loved by religious Liberals and condemned to hell by Evangelicals, is on Exchange Street and it's promoted as a haven for the exchange of diverse ideas. Back in 1996, when they split from the parent denomination over theological and social issues and had a big fuss about who owns the church property, they made national headlines. The then pastor was censured as a heretic. The story was covered by the New York Times, quoting a denominational official as saying "the meeting ran amok" and order collapsed as other ministers charged into the debate.
If anybody cares, I'm not in either camp, Liberal or Evangelical, but someplace between those poles and always a fascinated observer of church goofiness wherever it appears. Liberals believe the whole religion thing is a man made fairy tale but they go to church anyway just for the hell of it. Evangelicals believe the Bible is literally true except for the parts they don't agree with.
This latest goofiness appears to be Spring Lake, Michgan's claim to fame. It looks like the Spring Lakers need something to get excited about. They had to cancel their July village council meeting because there were not enough items on the agenda to meet about.

Hugging in Church

I guess hugging in church can be a heavenly, spiritual experience.
Or it can get you in a whole lot of hellish earthly trouble.

The Church of Clifton

I think I will get me one of those ten dollar online ordinations and start my own church. Building a congregation of adoring fans will be a snap. All it takes is a "seeker sensitive service." P. T. Barnum was right, there's a seeker born every minute.

James Dobson

James Dobson, the Christian Psychologist, say some OK stuff when he doesn't go way off the deep end on the Right. But if he wants to preach, let him get ordained and call himself Reverend. He did say a pretty wise thing to a woman about to marry a seldom-talking introvert. Don't do it and try to change him. He is what he is. I like that.

The Bishop and I

Bishop John Spong is full of it and full of himself. But so am I. We share that. He is famous. I am not.

Hipper Handles for Churches!

Just when you think church stuff is as goofy as it can get, new heights (or depths) of goofiness pop up. The former New Life Church, in a rural township not far from here, decided it needed a "hipper handle" to attract young customers, compete with other churches and eliminate any appearance of being an "old, stuffy,fuddy duddy" congregation. "New Life" is getting old and lots of churches are using it. So that newly hip church shall henceforth be ... are you ready for this? .the point. That's right. "dot, the point." All lower case. Oh boy, how contemporary can you get. The associate pastor says the new handle is a visual metaphor.
Just around the corner from me is what used to be a Baptist Church. Now it's The Bridge Bible Church. I suppose "bridge" is a twenty-first century updating of what we fuddy duddys called reconciliation. Or that totally archaic word from your great grandpappy's church, "propitiation."
Does the plural of "duddy" become "duddies?" I will ask someone from .the point. I'm sure they have a grammatically and theologically hip answer.

Glenn WHO?

I am no follower of Glenn Beck. I took a dim view of social action churches before I ever heard of him. Why? Simple. I don't want church or clergy telling me who to vote for or what socio-political issues I should care about. I don't want sermons, either pro or con, right or left, about rights issues, abortion,environment, health care, economy, etc. etc. I'm capable of making up my own mind about all that, thank you. I am so old fashioned and out of touch that I actually want to hear clergy talk about God. I don't even mind if they mention Jesus once in a while.

Here's where I am

I doubt that anybody gives a rodent's rear about where I am on church stuff. Should there be such a one someplace, it's pretty simple. I remain a most interested, maybe even fascinated observer of what's happening in the churches ... all of them ... but I feel no need to be an active participant in any of them.

New Word for God?

Give me a break! What most bugs me about John Spong and his followers: The idea that those goofy questions and his answers are some hot, new, cutting edge thinking. We have been searching for new ways to talk about religion as long as language has existed.

Buddhist Joke

From Garrison Keillor's religious jokes: What did the Zen Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor? "Make me one with everything." Get it??

Are sin and guilt all bad?

For a long time I was very involved in one of those churches that doesn't believe in sin and guilt, heavily populated by escapees from churches that piled it on and made them feel lousy. I never quite bought deleting all reference to sin and guilt. Seems like a little guilt is good for you if it keeps you from making the same destructive mistakes over and over.

Religious Jokes

Mr. Keillor might have been replaced by David Sedaris as America's greatest humorist but the aging guy from Lake Wobegon with the face made for radio reigns as our finest religious humorist. He gets away with things on Public Radio that would get him kicked off of commercial media. I love it. From one of his early annual joke shows: What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness and a Unitarian? Someone who goes around knocking on doors for no particular reason." "As nervous as a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I got in trouble when I quoted that one in my column in a local paper. A member of that body was not amused, said followers of Mrs. Eddy do not get nervous about things like that.

Church Words

I love church words. They give people with too much time on their hands something to fuss about. OK,let's say we take friend Dadderzvan's thought and just call each other brothers and sisters rather than some denominational label. Oops, did I just hear, "Wait a minute. 'Sisters' has to come first because the church has been so unfair to women." Here we go again.

More about the D Word

Maybe another reason why denominations have fallen into disfavor is the mistaken notion that they stand for narrow, exclusivist provincialism, a bad thing in today's interfaith world. Oh yeah, there's plenty of that. But most of the so called mainline churches were never like that. I grew up a Methodist, never heard a preacher say we had the only right answers, and we were one of the first to merge with other groups and become the United Methodist Church.

The Dreaded "D" Word

Denomination has become a dirty word. Everybody wants to go to a non-denominational church. A new one pops up every day, competing for customers. I guess that's because the "D" word equals tradition and that's not a popular word, either. Sounds too much like your grandfather's church. Which leaves old grandpappy with no place to go. I remember when we cherished the particular church group we "belonged" to. That's another dirty word. You don't join a church and become a committed member. You're a congregant, part of the audience. Sorry to sound like such an old fart. We are what we are.