Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

Jesus wouldn’t join any political party. Though he was more tolerant of Rome than Jerusalem. But liberals align with the teachings of Christ, conservatives do not.

 

Anybody listening to this podcast from Christianity Today - “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”? I’ve been surprised how deep into this stuff they’re willing to go. (This was the first church Mark Driscoll founded and the leader in the aggressive Bro Christianity culture that peaked in the Aughts.) Five episodes in it has been a pretty methodical takedown.

 

What happened at that church is heartbreaking. Culture of personality - and fear. “Church of cool.”

 

Not the first church to become a cult of personality. Won’t be the last.

 

OK, I had to look that up. Mars Hill is a town and small church-affiliated private university in western North Carolina.
When I read @dixiehack's post, I did a double take and had to search what it was about.

 

The thing I remembered about Mars Hill, N.C., was that was where US 23 finally went back to four lanes on the way to Asheville from the Tri Cities.

But no this was something altogether different. Like I know we tend to roll our eyes when @Alma references the “cool church” but that was absolutely the vibe they were going for at this place. They wanted to be edgy beer drinkers who talked about enjoying (married) sex a lot, while at the same time upholding a quite strict Calvinist outlook (even if Driscoll rejects the label.)

Episodes 2 and 3 especially go deep beyond Mars Hill into examining the rise of the mega church in general and how Mars Hill drew deeply from that template even as it was started as a sort of backlash to it. It’s not really a straight line to “this is how we got Trump” but it helps connect a lot of dots. I recommend throwing it into your podcast rotation.

 

Same here. We had our high school football preseason camp there. Nice little town and school.

 

Touched all the bases except the one about the feminized Jesus worshipped by libruhls.

 

Why do you assume we are at a kind of moral order? There’s been more atrocities upon more people than any kind of moral order

 

I've never understood the "transactional" nature of Christianity. I don't need a promise of an afterlife to make me want to be a good person. Though I am a practicing Catholic, whether I "win" at the end doesn't matter to me at all. Really, if the only thing motivating you to "love your brother as yourself" is wanting to live forever - the message is kind of lost, isn't it?