I’m not sure I quite understand this poster, but they’re up and down Granville Street today. I’ve noticed similar advertisements at one time or another in the last few months, one of them a sandwich board with a guitar player rocking out, presumably for the lord.
This type of aggressive, testosterone fueled ministry is becoming increasingly popular – and seductive. I remember being in highschool and attending a few Pentecostal youth groups: doing super fun stuff, always totally free. Unfortunately, before and after there was always the requisite babbling in tongues and sobbing in ecstasy. I always felt a little bit left out, but hey, free bowling was free bowling.
Now that I’m a bit older, and a bit more concerned with the social consequences of organized religion, these types of churches really put me on edge. They wrap awful, hateful things in high-energy, positive language. And they have a focus on youth… Highschool kids are ripe for indoctrination because of that universal feeling of alienation they all seem to have.
Just to make sure that I wasn’t going to falsely accuse this specific church of holding morally suspect views, I double checked what they thought about some key issues:
- Homosexuality
- Abortion / Reproductive Rights
- Evolution / Creationism / Intelligent Design
They didn’t score too well. Turns out that Christian City Church Vancouver believes that being gay and terminating unwanted pregnancies are sins, and that Genesis is the literal truth. They have a nice little caveat about not judging, but I have a feeling that they aren’t going to be supporting same-sex marriage or pro-choice initiatives any time soon…
A lot of people want to defend this type of church for helping kids deal with highschool bummers, but I don’t think they’re offering a better alternative. Sure, you get the sense of community and inclusion, but you end up with all sorts of crazy ideas that end up making the world a worse place. Not just for you, but for everyone.
Bonus: Swedish band Familjen released a music video that remixes footage of Pentecostal ecstasies to make it look like they’re dancing to an electro song.
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April 7, 2008 at 4:52 pm
cwilcox007
The video was GREAT! The accordian player creeped me out a bit though. I would never expect a church to be pro choice or pro gay marriage for that matter. What I would expect all churchs to do is be forgiving and welcoming to anybody regardless of their past or current situation. Jesus didn’t hang out with Rabbi’s or the sadducee’s. He hung out with the adulterers, tax collectors, and thieves. Churchs today could learn a lot by following their leader.