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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
Religious Tourism8/28/2005 20:13:04I spent my weekend watching things and attempting prayer at the New Life Church complex in Colorado Springs, home of Pastor Ted Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals. When I go to foreign places of worship, my goal has always been to try to pray with them, to join in what they do at least as much as necessary to recognize the presence of great God in it. This weekend it feels like I failed. The best way possible to characterize this place and the movement it represents is successful. On a Sunday morning the place is packed full with people of all stripes who feel welcome and unified and comfortable. Driven, too! The grace of God? All the pastors read their verses from PDAs and effortlessly the Saturday night youth-oriented service raised $4,000 for an Indian lady's orphanage. But finally I realized I could speak and write only in fragments because my hand and my mind are trembling. The look in the man's eyes, an air force colonel, as he talked to me about being a soldier for Christ. And the young women dressed in black veils talking about how they pray for Saudi Arabia. And the group of men talking about Darwinism as devil-ideology. And the crowd of thousands laughing at Jesse Jackson on a screen, being "torn apart" on CNN by their pastor. Is this faith? Is this church? Finally what I had to recognize is that they would not do what I try to do, to see God in someone else's church. I drove to St. Mary's, a catholic church in the city. There was a bilingual mass and the spirit that made me shake. A big wide baptismal font and crying, playing children. An acceptable Jesus, one who is kind though on a cross. These may all be lies but I fear for the shadow of truth that lies behind them. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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