More than anything, I'm disappointed by this article. I've read a bit about Mars Hill written by people involved with it, and everything I read managed to skip over the controversial bits of their doctrine. When you take that out, it sounds like a phenomenal and inspiring place -- they're right, there is a huge segment of the population that's hungry for something real and true, and religion can be a powerful force in these folks' lives.

BUT, I'm truly upset to hear that they're taking this energy, what could be a really strong force for some justice in this country, and directing it in unhealthy self-destructive ways. If these kids are so desperate for religion, let's bring them some progressive spirituality that will actually be good for them (especially the women...) and good for the country!

Well, I'm an atheist, as is everyone - even the most fervent believer chooses to reject hundreds of alternative gods and religions.

Anyway, it seems to me that the real "uniting" force behind this church (and others like it) is the sense of community shared by the members. Why don't secular groups form communities such as these? Is it impossible without the artificial social restraints of a shared religion? Maybe it really is better to live with others in denial and ignorance if it gets you through the day? I dunno.

Ah, hell - just read deborama's post.

"I doubt one of you would dare to say such things about a group of Muslims observing their religion peacefully and fervently"

Oh, did you mean those Muslims that don't consider a rape to be prosecutable unless four men witness it? I think plenty of people have issues with at least some Muslims and they are saying plenty about it on Broadsheet. I'll be the first to admit that fundamentalists with extreme and self-serving ideas come in all religions

...that religion is good for good people. This suggests that religion most helps those people who are capable of making decisions for themselves, understand the limits of religious knowledge (it would be helpful for the Mars Hill congregants recalled Galileo's admonition that "The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go"), have a well-developed sense of morality, and do not take their religious identity as a sign of their fundamental superiority. None of the previous admonitions seems to apply to the Mars Hill congregants; they have surrendered their will, their intellect, and their happiness to their religion. While trying to follow the Biblical example, their zealotry perverts the very thing that they revere the most.

Sandler included a line about drinking the Kool-Aid, which is remarkable appropriate. If you inserted a few sermons about the persecution of Christians, a secluded compound, and a charismatic personality, Mars Hill could very well be the next Jonestown.

As an aside, it was actually Flavor-Aid, a fact which is (amazingly!) not mentioned on the website.

One can readily see some of the good that can come out this. The people in this article infer that they ARE in fact happy. But its very easy to see what this truly is. This is sheer religious indoctrination being meted out in a compassionate guise to change Americans into automatons, who think alike (Right Wing Conservatism masked in the youth-large garb of Indie-Rock kids). Some suicidal punk kid in the suicide capital of the USA, who probably needs compassion and understanding will be tricked into joining this circus, believing that this is the only means to an out, that being suckered into changing everything you are, from changing the fundamentals of what it is you are and what you subscribe to, is the only way to God.

But what is the most troubling to me is the halting of the success for women. In America, the gender movement is taking such an assault from all sides, that it doesn't take very much insight to see what is going on. People like Dietz and Driscoll absolutely don't care about a woman's self worth outside of the home, and impregnating these women out of their professional and academic lives and work is more than insidious, in my opinion is purely hellish.

Driscoll and Dietz are nothing but henchmen of Pat Robertson.

As an Evangelical, I found myself wincing at Sandler's language, which described the doctrine of Mars Hill Church as "proverbial Kool-Aid" and classed, what I intuit to be Bible Studies as gender divided "cells." And yet, as I continued reading the article, I see that Sandler may not have been far off. While Driscoll and his motley crue maybe trying to live a new word, it still has the same old problems of gender discrimination and sexism. There is nothing wrong with a woman living a materially successful life or putting on pause the "fruit" of her loom in order to achieve her goals of career or education. Societies that perpetuate the belief that these women are living empty meaningless lives and thus, subject them to lives they never wanted are not making the world a better place but making it worse. Because while they may be filling the earth with voters, when those little voters grow up and see the havoc wrought on their mother's they are going to vote against that lifestyle of slavery.

I'm blown away by the intolerance and utter bigotry displayed by the lefties here. I doubt one of you would dare to say such things about a group of Muslims observing their religion peacefully and fervently. Why, that would be racist, wouldn't it? Intolerant? Bigoted? I guess it's OK to bash Christianity in liberal-land, but it's still sickening.

I love how evangelical Christians think it is their duty to multiply and inhabit the earth. Usually they point to a well-known passage where God tells Noah to "be fruitful and multiply." Never mind that Noah just survived a devastating worldwide flood where nearly everyone bit the dust except his family. Meanwhile, there are currently 6.6 billion people on the planet today and these Christians want to add more?

Unfortunately, for Christians eager to get hitched and do the nasty, there are just as many passages in the Bible advocating lifelong celibacy for Christians. After all, everyone knows the end is nigh and Jesus is coming back any day now, so what's the point in having children. Just check out Matthew 19:11 or Luke 17:26. 1 Corinthians 7.8 is another personal favorite. Paul compels his readers, "To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am." While these passages never rule out marriage in special cases where individuals cannot contain their passions, lifelong celibacy is apparently a superior state to "holy matrimony."