OBSTACLES & WEIRDNESS

Amy Welborn has a post on modern mega-churches that has generated some great comments from her readers. Take a look. In the article she is citing, a reverend is quoted as saying that

"We've tried to remove any obstacle, whether it be tradition or whatever, from the experience," he said. "We present Jesus Christ and the New and Old Testament as written but with no other obstacles in the way."

The music is "like what you'd hear on the radio," McDaniel said. "You don't have pipe organ music in your CDs. Why would you subject people to that on Sunday?"

I wish I had time to explore this commentary further, but will instead point you to the comments from Amy's readers. They are doing a great job. Among my favorites was this from Hieronymus:

The office-block, pop-music, megachurch is an effort to remove the weirdness from worship - to present a God whom we can fit inside our little human minds and little contemporay tastes. It's reflected in the arrogance of the pastor, who really seems to think he understands Jesus perfectly. Well, no. Implicit in the statement "Jesus is Lord" is the fact that we cannot understand Him perfectly.

Megachurchism isn't even religion. Without the weirdness, we will never understand God's transcendence and mystery. Traditional Catholicism has the weirdness. Orthodoxy has the weirdness. Buddhism and Islam and Hinduism and Paganism have the weirdness - which is why I agree with Amy that there is a greater temptation to become a Buddhist than an Evangelical Christian. The former act as if they believe in an awesome God, but don't, whereas the latter believe in an awesome God, but act as if they don't.