(Tim) From the Guardian:
...popular evangelical Christianity is religiously vacuous. It is directed to secular ends, which, arguably, should be promoted by secular means. Saddleback is religion for people who don't like religion: transcendence is not on the menu. ...I was depressed by Saddleback. It seemed the butt-end of Christianity: stripped of history and iconography, wholly immersed in its secular surroundings, constructed according to a business model and promoted by motivational speakers, bland, cheerful, dull...
We drove away, past immaculate housing estates and strip malls iterating chain restaurants and shops, replicated in every suburb from coast to coast. I wondered why anyone would want to live in that charmless place, much less to get more of the same at church. (Read more...)
