ATLmalcontent

cap du jour, megachurch edition

I'm OK, you're OK, but minister/self-help guru Joel Osteen scares me.

(via Andrew Sullivan) 

"if i wanted to go that route i could just walk around the mall and think about jesus"

I'm confused: Is this Gwinnett megachurch worshipping Jesus, or Tony Robbins?

The new building for 12Stone Church on Buford Drive doesn't have a sanctuary. It has a worship experience center.

And a Starbuck's, natch. Perhaps Jeff Foxworthy will open a Cracker Barrel franchise out back.

"We wanted our building to have pace and peace," said Dave Ronne, 12Stone's director of redemptive arts, as the staff calls music and film.

Anyone got a euphemism for phony religious gathering? 

Ronne estimates that about 50 percent of those coming to 12Stone are likely "spiritually unresolved" people who never attended church as children or who stayed away for decades.

The semicircular auditorium has graduated staircases, said Ronne, so that no seat is too far from the stage or the primary communicator, as speakers are called.

Price tag: $30 million.

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

--Matthew 21:12

In Defense of Religious Bigotry

Christopher Hitchens makes a strong case:

I ask you now, does it seem likely that any article of the U.S. Constitution was specially written so that you could not publicly and freely and fearlessly say that you would most decidedly not vote for:

*A candidate who followed the "Rev." Jim Jones to a Kool-Aid resort in Guyana (don't forget that this did actually happen)

*A candidate who said that the pope could excommunicate other American candidates with whom he disagreed

*A candidate who said that the above-mentioned pope was the Antichrist

*A candidate who said that L. Ron Hubbard was a visionary

*A candidate who said that Joseph Smith was a visionary

*A candidate who said that any holy book was scripturally inerrant

*A candidate who was a member of Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood or the Nation of Islam

*A candidate who was a supporter or member of Lehi or the Jewish Defense League

*A candidate who was a member of the Aryan Nations, the KKK, or any other white Protestant "Christian Identity" faction

*A candidate who said that the Quran was dictated by the archangel Gabriel

"Endless Celestial Sex"

The origins of man, as interpreted by the Mormons, with production values seemingly borrowed from "Challenge of the Superfriends."

(via The Plank)

"They're Not Making Christianity Better, They're Making Politics Worse"

Check out GOP flavor of the month Mike Huckabee's new ad -- apparently being a "Christian leader" is paramount to Republican voters in Iowa.

Today's Must-Read

The Plank's Michelle Cottle sounds off on the war against intelligence.

On the way, I passed this United Methodist church with a sign out front boldly proclaiming:

Experts built the Titanic.

Amateurs Built the Ark.

Whatever your thoughts on biblical literalism, this is a tiresome sign of the times and, specifically, this culture's widespread antipathy toward expertise--an antipathy that a certain breed of bash-the-establishment politician has long promoted, and which the current administration has done everything it can to fuel. ...

When did our overabundance of attitude morph into some bizarre conviction that anyone with a specialized base of knowledge is automatically a buffoon and not to be trusted?

I just hope the church's minister remembers his love of amateurs the next time he needs a root canal.

God Save Dakota Fanning

The Hollywood Prayer Network isn't only lobbying for Britney's soul, but for potential Britneys like Hannah Montana and Conyers' own Miss Fanning.

Renfro, 49, also volunteers for the network's new Kids Prayer Calender. She targets a different child or teen star for prayer each day of the month.

Some are well-known (Miley Cyrus, Dakota Fanning, Daniel Radcliffe) but others, like pint-sized Rachel Covey of Disney's "Enchanted," are just entering the business. The goal is to swaddle these budding stars in prayer before they become the next Spears or Lindsay Lohan, she said.

"Some of them are little, little teeny kids," said Renfro, who labels them "Ones2Watch" on the prayer calendar. "It doesn't really matter if I think they'll be somebody big, because there's a value in praying for anybody who comes across this industry."

Diamonds On the Soles of Rudy's Shoes?

There must be -- why else is Pat Robertson endorsing him?

Rudy is pro-choice. Robertson compares abortion to the Holocaust. Rudy favors gay rights. Robertson thinks homosexuals were partly responsible for 9/11 (along with the "abortionists").

There must be something it it for Robertson, whose investment portfolio once led him to defend West African butcher Chares Taylor.

Washington Post religion reporter Alan Cooperman revealed in an article two years ago that Robertson --- who blamed the Liberian bloodbath on State Department opposition to Taylor --- had an $8 million agreement with the Baptist president to mine gold in his country. Operation Freedom Gold, he called it. Freedom for what, Robertson's debt?

Why, then, would anyone tout an endorsement from Robertson? How is he any different than the "MoveOn kooks" derided by Hannity and the like? A fringe figure is a fringe figure, left or right.

Megachurches are evil

These are the kind of people who lead them.

Christians on offense

Al Qaeda would be proud of this bit of fundamentalist propaganda (via Andrew Sullivan):