Pick a church, any church...

Another very quick one-link post for you today, this time from the Seattle newspaper The Stranger. The paper, noticing that Seattle is not renowned for its religiosity, sent 31 reporters off to various places of worship on a single Sunday (and a Saturday in the case of the lone Jewish service) to describe what they found.

The article largely speaks for itself, so I'm not going to analyse it at all, but I will reproduce here a couple of points that I thought were particularly relevant or striking.

When attending Christian Faith Center, a megachurch preaching prosperity gospel:

"If you're thinking of attending a church, I beg you not to attend the CFC—find one that understands humility and grace and charity. I'm an atheist, but the CFC brings Bible imagery to my mind. Standing in all the gaudy sound and tacky fury, all I can think of is the perverted temple that Jesus Christ ripped to pieces with his bare f***ing hands."

Church on the Hill:

"I've heard this is a conservative, Fundamentalist church, but in the hour and a half I spent there, it didn't show. The members just seemed really into Jesus."

Beacon United Methodist:

"The music was typical of 'praise' music: formulaic pop-style love songs with 'girl' and 'baby' replaced by 'Jesus' and 'Lord.'"

Saint Joseph Catholic Church:

"On this Sunday, the Eucharist is, fittingly, the topic; the service is marked by humility, with discussion of feeding those in need, of spiritual hunger. The priest quotes Andre Dubus's Broken Vessels. The fundamental, communal acts of eating and drinking—body, blood—are consecrated. More than one person remains behind, watchful, possibly reverent, as the feast of Corpus Christi is enacted. If one feels like a trespasser, there is the sense that one's trespass is forgiven."

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral:

"In an era when Christianity is marketed as a sort of rock concert meets Gatorade commercial—with TV-screen preachers beamed into makeshift houses of worship in high-school gyms—St. Mark's splendor is awesome. I understand the populist impulse of the evangelicals, but God deserves some gentle beauty."

Quest Church:

"In today's emerging churches, you lift both hands up toward heaven, arms out, in what looks like a sort of double-armed fascist salute. It's a posture that screams, "Look at me, God! I'm praying! To you!" The more enthusiastic worshippers looked like toddlers reaching up for Daddy, anxious to be picked up and hugged past their comfort levels."