Interesting.....

[patgund]

aoniedesade mentioned this article on Salon about a very unusual "Megachurch" in Seattle, Mars Hill Church

Come as you are

"In a husky voice, the 35-year-old pastor prays for the continuous fertility of his congregation. "We are in a city with less children per capita than any city but San Francisco," he declares, "and we consider it our personal mission to turn that around."

The way Driscoll sees it, the more babies his conservative Christian congregation can produce in this child-poor city, the more they can redirect local politics, public education, and culture in one of the liberal capitals of the world. To complete his trifecta of indoctrinating, voting, and breeding, Driscoll has developed a community that dwarfs any living experiment of the '60s. To say that Mars Hill is just a church is to say that Woodstock was just a concert.

Mars Hill wrests future converts searching for identity and purpose from the dominion of available sex and drugs that still make post-grunge Seattle a countercultural destination. Driscoll promises his followers they don't have to reprogram their iTunes catalog along with their beliefs -- culture from outside the Christian fold isn't just tolerated here, it's cherished. Hipster culture is what sweetens the proverbial Kool-Aid, which parishioners here seem to gulp by the gallon. This is a land where housewives cradle babies in tattooed arms, where young men balance responsibilities as breadwinners in their families and lead guitarists in their local rock bands, and where biblical orthodoxy rules as strictly as in Hasidism or Opus Dei.

Following Driscoll's biblical reading of prescribed gender roles, women quit their jobs and try to have as many babies as possible. And these are no mere women who fear independence, who are looking to live by the simple tenets of fundamentalist credo, enforced by a commanding husband: many of the women of Mars Hill reluctantly abandon successful lives lived on their own terms to serve their husbands and their Lord.

Accountability and community is ballasted by intricately organized cells -- gender-isolated support groups that form a social life as warm and tight as swaddling clothes, or weekly coed sermon studies and family dinner parties that provide further insulation against the secular world. Parents share child care, realtors share clients, teachers share lesson plans, animé buffs share DVDs, and bands share songs."

Comments

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

Hopefully these women who reluctantly gave up their lives for babies, husbands and the Lord (embodied by hubby of course) will wake up and go, "Holy shit, what did I just DO?" and reclaim their lives. This is what bothers me most about these movements; women are out and out wasted as baby machines, with their breeding lauded as being so wonderful in an attempt to make up for their squandered lives.

As a movement...

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

When you look at the Emerging Church movement as a whole, Mars Hill stands out for its fundamental beliefs. While the article does highlight the childbearing aspects there is a lot more to the church then just that. It's just an easy target for that.

Re: As a movement...

[patgund.livejournal.com]

There's a lot about the Emerging Church concept that is attractive, (granted, this is speaking as a non-Christian). However, some of the ideas that Mars Hill seems to be spouting set my teeth on edge.

The pressure to produce children really sets off alarm bells. Much like the so-called "prosperity ministry, except the pressure is to have kids rather than gain wealth.

Re: As a movement...

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

I can see where the community aspect would be very, very attractive, as would be the fact that the church gives its members' lives *purpose*. But the limit for the purpose of the women is what chills my blood.

BTW, Hi, seattlejo, I'm a RL friend of Pat's. I'm also a practicing Catholic, was at mass this morning with americanstd. Seeing as you've become a massively important part of Pat's life, mind if I friend you? I post a lot of recipes and I saw you do too.

Re: As a movement...

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

Sure go for it. I don't post much church stuff here, most of it goes to my blog. I'm UCC with a taste for the emerging church movement.
:)

Re: As a movement...

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

I took a look at your church blog, actually. :) I really should get more active in my church (inner city, three cultural communities at least, and more interested in poverty and immigration issues than abortion, which I've never heard mentioned there yet).

[patgund.livejournal.com]

aoniedesade's comment was "I have better things to do than be an "EZ-Bake Baby Over for Jaysus".

Yeah, that is the part that really makes my skin crawl. If people want to have large numbers of children, fine, but groups like this dismiss EVERYTHING else these women can do in favour of being broodmares to outpopulate the heathens. The article even cites a woman that flatout SAYS that her kids set her teeth on edge, but that she has to do "her duty" to have them. :-(

[aoniedesade.livejournal.com]

According to their whole church-based doctrine, you can have as many piercings and tattoos as you want. You just have to make babies. For Jesus! No. Thank. You.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Basically a lot of Mars Hill looks like a synthesis. It takes a lot of the social aspects from the Emerging Church movement, a movement that tends to be more on the liberal side of evangelical Christianity. However, it also incorporates a theology and social exclusion attitude very simular to the "Megachurch" mode of the conservative evangelical movement.

It's much the same theology that produces the so-called "Prairie Muffins", but with a glossy post-modern trendy appearance.

[angelique69.livejournal.com]

I'd leave a comment but my mother always taught me, "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.". Blessed Be, Angelique