The May 1st issue of Rolling Stone had an amazing article in it by Matt Taibbi titled; ‘Jesus Made Me Puke‘. Matt has been ‘undercover’ at Cornerstone Church since late in 2006. Matt has a book coming out at some point documenting his entire experience.
The article in Rolling Stone is a segment from the forthcoming book about a spiritual retreat Matt went on with Cornerstone Church. It is an incredible look into the ‘freak show’ part of the Christian community that the media likes to focus on.
You may not agree with the idea of going undercover in a church for a magazine story. But the question we should ask is; What do we look like to non-believers? I think when a church is firing on all eight, seeking Christ and modeling the true New Testament church, it shouldn’t weird anyone out. I believe the church should not be creepy or awkward right out of the box. In fact people should be captivated by our love for each other.
Here’s an excerpt:
It was obvious that virtually everyone in the crowd was playacting to some degree or another. I was reminded of the Tolstoy story “The Kreutzer Sonata,” when the male narrator described marriage as being like the bearded-lady tent in a French circus he’d seen. You pay a few francs to go in, and when you come out, and the carnival barker shouts at you, “Was that not the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen, monsieur?” — well, you’re too ashamed to admit that you’ve been had, and so you nod your head and agree: Oui, monsieur, it was really something! That’s how people come to say marriage is a blessing, and that’s how you can get fifty-odd high school graduates puking demons into three-cent paper bags for a Deliverance.
Cruise by Rolling Stone and Check out Jesus Made Me Puke. It is full of truth that we can all take to heart, and it will probably make you laugh too.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
good link bro – on my way to read it!
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I nearly wet my pants when I read the part where he made up the story about his dad being an alcoholic clown. That was just plain awesome (sorry if anybody’s father was an alcoholic clown…I mean no offense).
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I read this a few weeks ago, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. You make some great points Vince about the church not weirding people out.
Honestly, I was kind of offended that someone would go “undercover” to write about what it was like inside a church. And that he accused everyone else of playacting too. I really didn’t find the article funny at all. I was also kind of weirded out about the church retreat too.
I don’t know why, but it really bothers me when the church gets bad press. And this was typical “sensation” journalism trying to get a reaction out of people.
I guess the article really just made me sad. Sad that someone could hate Christ’s church and the people in it so much, and sad at what appears to be going on in this church.
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@MondoRon yeah it is sad to see someone do this. But I think the truth that we can claim is that God’s church should be able to pass a test like this…ethical or not.
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Dude, thanks for link. I hadn’t seen that article but I’m definitely going to print that one out. We need to be reminded how much of the the church is just one big freak show to the world.
Brad Ruggles
http://www.bradruggles.com
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Definitely a article to share
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Wow. One of the most well-written articles I’ve read in a long time. Honestly, I loved it! Thanks, Vince!
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can’t wait for the book
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