If regressive and defensive behaviors reflect a threatening and disintegrating social environment, then Lauren’s take on the scope and spread of Mars Hill as ominous may be right on.

Religion evolved largely as means for a patriarchy to control behavior, especially the reproductive/sexual behavior of women, as Mars Hill is regressively recapitulating. Another primary function is to allow individuals to avoid moral development, that is to avoid the anxiety associated with moral choice. Mars Hill provides this escape from fear of choice – and the possible rejection by a group for non-conforming behavior – by establishing a strict moral code by authority. To some extent this is a feature of all religions, but what is remarkable is the stifling of autonomy in the Mars Hill age group.

The author’s characterization of church member Ted Dietz illustrates a basic psychological need served by Mars Hill, and the internal seed of its failure. Dietz’s choices and behaviors are clearly morally compromised: endangering others by running a red light, subjugating and mistreating others based on their gender or lack of conformity to his beliefs, disregarding social injustice (a Bush supporter). He defensively projects his own “tyranny” onto others. To protect himself from the resulting internal dissonance and anxiety, he constructs himself as moral entirely by virtue of his membership in the church, where he can go to be named “godly” by his pastor. Salvation not by works, but by symbolism alone.

As many letter-writers have noted, the Mars Hill phenomenon can be analyzed as fear-based, regressive, misogynist, not-for-us. OK, so what then?

We all have a need for relatedness and security, just as Mars Hill members do. Mars Hill helps us see that real community can never be based on fear, enforced conformity, need for control, or conditional acceptance. That is, never on religion but quite possibly on the ideals that religions destroy. Like Lennon said.

Weird as hell. Totally pixallated. Strange American religio-freako bizzairity. Nutball. The perfect American goulash of cultish nonsense this time around flowing from the the empty faltulence of consummerism that has turned everything in the universe into a product, especially God. This is the result of human brains being formed in a total market culture. Kool-Aid line forming to the right.

Better watch out for that Cool-Aid!

>My heart goes out to the woman who put aside her life as a freewheeling, successful marketer to become a submissive Stepford wife baby-hatcher.<

Hers is an old, old story. Her problem is that she hasn't figured out _what_ she believes in and what to dedicate her life to. People who go from one extreme lifestyle to another are looking to the outside to tell them who they are instead of figuring it out themselves. It's a shame she's now thrown kids (that she doesn't want and obviously dislikes) into the mix. And rest assured her husband and her church will make sure she stays so busy breeding she'll never have a chance to find out who she is (which, of course, is the whole point of this kind of "women do nothing but have kids" stuff.)

These people are the enemy. The last thing young women need is some Jim Jones wannabe telling them to submit to their male partners or husbands. Thid dude, Driscoll, is a con and I hope that no matter how many free fences get built, people realize the price is too damn high.

All of this stuff about "fact checking" the number of coffee shops versus churches in Ballard? Just a little crazy. Yes, there are drive-in espresso places in the area, and in fact, there is one right across the street from the Mars Hill church on Leary Way. Maybe not as many as the author would suggest, but still... is a ratio really worth arguing over? Leave it at poetic license, and move on.

This issue has received a fair amount of coverage from The Stranger, the local weekly newspaper in Seattle. Although this article touches on some of the main points, I'd encourage readers to check their site to read a more local perspective on churches such as these in Seattle.

But from a devil's advocate perspective...

I've had the chance to meet several people that attend the Mars Hill church (you might call them my favourite Martians, perhaps?) and to be quite honest, a nicer group of people you will never meet. Readers comparing them to "American Taliban", "Kool-Aid drinkers" and the like are not only inaccurate, but the whole metaphor is really quite disgusting. There are many people in this church that are quite honest and open in what they believe, and largely not a part of the argumentative, "fire and brimstone" Bible-thumping crowd. (They're a little too chipper for my tastes at times, but no one's perfect.) To suggest that they are morally compromised, simply because they choose to follow strict codes in their daily life or because they have decided to focus on their community smacks of elitist self-righteousness and a distinct lack of respect for a group with differing views.

Although one may have the opinion that their religious beliefs are quite disturbing and retrogressive, they have the right to pray whatever way they want within their church and their home. Regardless of whether their pastor is a misogynist (as many are in other religions, too!), the people of the church still deserve that level of respect, period. I don't care who you are and what god you pray to, but as long as you don't impose your beliefs on me, that is your business.

Something that all readers should also keep in mind is that this is not a cult in which people are being forced to do anything against their will. They have plans to expand across the street and into West Seattle, and this is not because they are kidnapping committed secular atheists and brainwashing them into becoming new members. They are also not recruiting exclusively amongst people that are lonely and directionless and looking to belong to any group, whatever the type. At no point in this article did the author even hint at the idea that conversion was involuntary or that these people were prevented from leaving the church, and they are definitely not isolated on some compound out in the middle of the woods. These are people around us in our society that have chosen to follow this kind of path with their religious beliefs, and that has to be respected.

The idea of a dark conspiracy dedicated to taking over the entire world through prayer groups and sing-alongs, though, honestly appears to be indicative of deep-seated insecurities on our part. It implicitly assumes that everyone must conform to a liberal religious or agnostic/atheist perspective on notions on community, and that is wrong. At some point, adults are quite willing to choose this lifestyle for themselves, and this church is meeting an unfulfilled need within the community for many of these people. We may not like it, but we have no right to challenge their choices in matters like this.

I truly feel sorry that Sarah's not getting her master's degree and that Judy has to deal with a whining baby and that their lives are so much harder with these responsibilities. However, it is a choice that *they* made. *They* decided to become part of that community and agreed to follow their message, and that's all that there is to it. They may lament the path not taken and chafe at the responsibilities that they have today, but how is that different from anyone else? There are no assurances that they would have been more fulfilled if they hadn’t taken this path in their lives. Interpreting these stories as lives lived in quiet desperation may be a bit too overreaching, especially if extended from these individual case studies to the entire community.

Anyway, until they: a.) break the law or encourage others to break the law, or b.) impose their beliefs on anyone that does not wish to follow those beliefs, they must be free to do what they like. That is the price to pay for living in our society, no matter what we think of their message. We should fight them when they try to influence secular government policy, and we can come down on them hard if they break the law.

But otherwise? Just leave them alone. Not everyone can or should think in the same way in a multicultural society.

bma