Seattlest: Like Church, But With Tattoos And Stuff

bq Mackintosh

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:46:10 -0800

gary

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:16:11 -0800

Church sucks.

agentisis

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 13:28:09 -0800

From the Salon article: "'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.'" How can anyone who has sat in traffic on a Friday evening, or paid any attention to the massive Artic icecaps breaking free and the increase in hurricanes look around and say that what the world needs is more people?

ws blog

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 06:55:17 -0800

Interested observers may wish to note that MH is NOT just a "Ballard" megachurch. It's expanding, with a Shoreline location and a soon-to-open (as we've been following on WS Blog) West Seattle location.

Todd

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:55:07 -0800

The whole part about "we have to do our best to repopulate our city with Christians" is pretty scary. Hopefully those kids will do what kids do best ... rebel against their parents and question their world rather than accept it wholeheartedly like a robot.

D's advocate

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:11:07 -0800

I was pretty suspicious of the Salon article; it smacked of sensationalism. But based on the comments above, perhaps it's not far from the truth. I dunno, I guess you just expect a church pressuring its members like that to exist somewhere in West Texas, not Ballard.

Carrie

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:50:23 -0800

Yeah, I've been to service at Mars Hill. I went a few times and then it started getting weird. The person I went with stopped talking to me when I stopped going. I am very wary about that church.

Dan

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:12:48 -0800

This is from one of wikipedia's many definitions of "cult": "A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g. isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgement, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of [consequences of] leaving it, etc) designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community." And the way the Salon.com portrays Mars Hill in this article seems reminiscient of that, particularly with regards to the isolation of the faithfull from the non.

D's advocate

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:50:19 -0800

Consumerism and corporatism indeed: you have to click on an Acura advert just to read the damn Salon article. Mars Hill, sign me up! (just kidding) Seriously though, I fail to see how Christians having tatoos and the like equate with "cultural imposterism." People from all walks of life have been drawn to organized religion; this is nothing new. Perhaps you were being tongue-in-cheek, but it's also unfair to pigeonhole a whole church as a cult because of one attendee's life choices (that whole non-secular book thing is pretty creepy). If Mars Hill wouldn't let the lady leave the church, that would be a cult.

Seth

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:42:24 -0800

Oooh--I went on a date with a girl who was in this thing. She said it was a cult and they tried to get you to stop talking to your friends. Weird!

COMTE

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:16:33 -0800

Oh, yeah. That sounds like a recipe for long-term success. Unfortunately, it probably won't be until she pops out the third or fourth kid in five or six years time that she really starts getting in touch with that niggling little voice in the back of her head that keeps telling her maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.