I know it’s the wrong theme song…But the old “Praise the Lord” theme music from Jim and Tammy Faye Baker just came on in my head… I always heard it on the weekends growing up and it was my cue to CHANGE THE CHANNEL ALREADY.

A TALE OF TWO CHURCHES…..There is the thoughts we share about Crystal Cathedral and the homophobic organisations regardless of whether they preach hate in a “religious” or “secular” fashion. That is ONE “Church” where I agree with you completely.
If however, you were raised Episcopal/Anglican, you might have been lucky to note that the Church includes men like Desmond Tutu and Gene Robinson in the episcopate, just to name two. As early as the Seventies, General Seminary Dean Norman Pittinger was out, as were other notable priests.
Yes, gay and gay-affirming Christians are part of the makeup of the LGBT community. They are married and raising children to know that love and not hate is the message of the Nazarene Carpenter.
The tent of the GAY HATERS may be bigoted and narrow, but the LGBT tent under the rainbow is a large and diverse one.

well wellNo on saw THAT coming.

“we know that God’s plans are good…”The actual rest of that quote:

…but our tax-free status is better.

Here’s a fundraiser possibility for the illegitimate money vortex:

Crystal meth from the Crystal Cathedral! Its for a good cause: Our own pockets!

No one will be truly free until the world is free from religion.

I believethere is some form of sentience propelling the universe, but I do not think that sentience has purposefully saved the Crystal Cathedral from earthquake, nor is this sentience going to give much thought about Chapter 11 accounting!  Godspeak is so weird.  

And yetMCC partnered with Schuller a few years ago for lessons in “congregation building” (i.e. maximizing profits).  They got a lot of criticism for it at the time, but most people seem to have forgotten.  The one thing all churches preach is $$$.

Whatever happened…To churches where the pastor knew and had an actual personal relationship with everyone there.  Since salvation is a person matter that does not require a church, the reason you have church is to help people be good Christians and good people in general, to support them, and correct them when they stray from the path.  How can this be accomplished in a giant stadium environment where nobody knows who you are.
I suspect that if Christ was walking around today he would be horrified by there industrial worship centers.

Schuller is very benign about LGBT issuescompared to most evangelicals, and I wish him well

Nope, Sorry…All religions suck.
You can’t have it both ways and you don’t need religion to worship.

Not that I care about such pastors, but…

Whatever happened… To churches where the pastor knew and had an actual personal relationship with everyone there.

They’re in the same place that hospitals and clinics where the doctors and nurses knew and had an actual personal relationship with everyone there…
the land of neo-make-believe.
All they are now are fairy tales that idle-rich christofascist plutocrats scare their in-bred spoiled brats to sleep with…

If that world ever reappears, I’ll only be able to afford to buy you five Maseratis for your junior-high graduation instead of the ten that I promised you.  Now, have sweet dreams where all the Democrats die and all of the disgusting poor people of the world realize that god meant for them to be our slaves.

George Carlin said it best

Religion convinced the world that there’s an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there’s 10 things he doesn’t want you to do or else you’ll go to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! …And he needs money! He’s all powerful, but he can’t handle money!

ALL RELIGIONS SUCK….Yes, at Pam’s place, all religions suck. All religions are money-grubbing, and they are no different than the ones who kill or enable the killing of faggots.
All real gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender Americans are atheists or severe agnostics one step from atheism. If they’re not, then will they leave the religion, all religions who oppress queers.
Christian faggots find no friends here. Hell, MCC is just like the rest, see…see…..same for Quakers, Episcopalians, UCC, or UU’s…all of them just do magic shows for the sky god. Right, at Pam’s Place, all glbt faggots need not join the party …oh, wait a minute, someone said something nice about Dr. Schuller? that was nice.
Let me get back to my theme here. Christian and other religious faggots should wake up and hate all magic shows and know that all churches are like Phelps…and Westboro.
Atheism should be the official faggot religion in America…Hail atheism…only atheism…goddam religions.

There are lots of themGo to Googlemaps, bring up any good sized American city to a scale where you can see the local streets, and enter “church” in the box at the top of the page.  The widow will light up with little dots.  Those churches are still out there.  Yes, there are mega churches, just like there are Walmarts and Targets, but the megachurches have actually been less effective at killing the small local congregations than Walmart has been at killing mom and pop businesses.  True, the megachurches are a successful, mass marketed business model (but not quite as successful as they used to be, judging from the headline of the story), and thanks to their size and media presence grab lots of attention.  However, for those people who want it, the smaller churches are still around.

oh, and by the wayThe ad at the top of this page, at least as I write this, is for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Fun with juxtaposition.
No complaint: I’m sure the Blend can spend the money just as beneficially, and they get to spread the Gospel, or at least the “In God We Trust” bit.

‘Well,’ said Lincoln…, ‘if you are going to put a Biblical tag on the greenback, I would suggest that of Peter and John: “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee.”‘
– Gore Vidal, Lincoln

That’s the most preposterous hyperbole I’ve ever read here.

Schuller has beencaught red-handed in various fraudulent fundraising schemes.  One I remember in particular involved his “Christian missionary work” in China; the pitch included a picture of him standing next to the Great Wall.  It later came out that the photo was of him standing in front of a picture of the Great Wall and was taken in his office, and that he hadn’t been to China in years.  
Granted, pro-LGBT snake oil is better than anti-LGBT snake oil.  But it’s still snake oil.

some on-point reading from LA TimesPerhaps one explanation as to why the churches are running out of suck– er, parishioners.
http://www.latimes.com/news/op…
People who live in glass churches shouldn’t throw stones.

no, you meant this songhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Praise the Lord and send me the money …

When you preach a prosperity gospel, and there is no prosperity…… you can expect that people will stop coming to hear the gospel.
The only surprise is that filing for bankrupcy has taken so long.

ROFLMAOROFLMAO….”hyberbole”   ROFLMAO

That’s quite OK.Learning new words can be a challenge.

ROFLMAOTry learning the word “hypocrite”, and “disingenuous”
Years of reading your commentary suggests they apply
My eight year old son knows how.
Again ROFLMAO – this blog is known in other venues as ATHEIST CENTRAL. Even Pam agrees.

Wow.So you admit you function on the level of an eight year old.  That’s good.  Self-awareness is the first step on the road to enlightenment.

Q SCRIBEAs always, you are nothing less than a bitchy broom jockey. You are the reason why many of my friends avoid your little coterie of bitchy queens to your own devices.
My sister, Orion 45, has more tolerance with your type than I do.
I showed the thread to friends, and they agree….some said that reading you regularly while lurking, they are not at all surprised.
PS. My eight year old son learns to be polite and respectful, something your parents neglected to do, or maybe you rejected, just like morals and ethics they tried to inculcate in you, too.
Pam Spaulding invited me to join, but I will write her and say that her veteran bloggers are in a word, vicious queers, and I will tell her thank you but no thank you.
Poor Pam, she has had to apologise for many of you often enough !!! You have monopolised the themes here for years.

Good riddance youracist fucktard.

“polite and respectful”???Yeah, sure, referring to gay people as “faggots,” as you did three times in one comment, is the very essence of politeness and respect.  So long, dearie.

Angry LGBTs? Yes. “Vicious Queers?” Not So MuchAnd you seem to be a bit of a reclkess provocateur, Sir

Actually…Part of why the “prosperity gospel” scam is so effective is that it convinces its targets to blame themselves for the failure of the scam to deliver on its promises.  It’s one of the premises: “If you’re still poor, it’s because you don’t have enough faith and aren’t giving enough to the church”.  People go completely broke listening to “prosperity gospel” scam artists, and still blame themselves.