Soldiers of Christ

Must read: Jeff Sharlet's Harper's article, now posted online. Long, and worth it. For anyone who thinks I exaggerate the backward and increasingly war-like rhetoric of modern Christianity in my documentary The God Who Wasn't There, this article should serve as a nice wake-up call.

Pastor Ted wore a black suit and a red tie. Earlier in the week, at a staff meeting, he had announced that he would use the wedding as an illustration, and to that end he delivered a lengthy prenuptial presentation with slides, in which he laid out a fractal-like repeating pattern of relations, shrinking and expanding: that of God to man, reflected in that of man to wife, which is in turn a model for a godly society. Just as we conform ourselves to God’s will, so, said Ted, must “the Woman.” The Woman must take on her man’s calling, her man’s desire.

“Mmm-hmmm,” murmured Linda, eyes closed.

In return, Pastor Ted continued, the Woman gets the Man’s love; authority just wants to serve. “Total surrender!” he called. “True or false?”

“TRUE!” answered the 8,000 assembled.

The Man is the Christ; the Woman is the Body. He is coming; she is the church; she must open her doors. United, they are the Kingdom, ready for battle. “The Christian home,” preached Pastor Ted, “is to be in a constant state of war.” This made many so happy they put their hands in the air, antennae for spirit transmissions. “Massive warfare!” Ted cried out.

This isn't some tiny, inconsequential church. This is the face of Christianity today, partly because, as Sharlet points out in his note at the Revealer, the Christians who don't want this to be the face of Christianity are too timid to oppose it. I think they imagine that they can ride this wave to where it seems sure to take them--to enormous political power--and then they can work on rubbing down some of those sharp edges.

But it ain't gonna work that way.

UPDATE: Another view of the same church. To those who keep telling me to leave Christianity alone: By what standard is this stuff benign?