U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

Some interesting findings at the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life.

What a fantastic resource. What an immaculate website. If I weren't so un-enthralled by data sets, I would spend all day here. This is data design at its best. Crisp. Clear. Impeccably organized. Behold the elegance of the drop-down charts found here.

I'm made to think of Edward Tufte, who has some fine books on this stuff. I'm sure he'd approve.

False profits

So yesterday took a turn for the fortuitous. First, I encountered this Slate article by Hitchens, which got me thinking about the "sort of free pass" that secular white America gives to black religious contingents.

Hitchens says:

"Many other charlatans have benefited from the clerical racket, and the most notorious of them—Jerry Falwell, Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart—have been white. But there is something especially horrible about the way in which the black pulpit gets a sort of free pass, almost as if white society has assured itself that black Americans just love them some preaching. In this fog of ethnic condescension, it is much easier for mountebanks and demagogues to get away with it."

(A well elucidated point, I'd say. Something I've thought about but never put a finger on.)

That same evening I caught up with my friend Simon who happens to be reading God Is Not Great (and enjoying it, it sounds). In the book, Hitchens references a documentary: Marjoe. Simon watched it, said I might like it. He was right.

This film is somewhat mesmerizing. The title's namesake, Marjoe (a combination of the names Mary and Joseph), is a charismatic preacher, but a completely disingenuous one. Raised by professional evangelists who had him trained to spew the gospel at the ripe age of three (seriously, the results make Joe Jackson seem like a slouch), Marjoe went on to rebel and leave his life of church-itude behind, mixing instead with the free-spirited milieu of The Sixties. After some time, and after 'normalizing' to some extent, Marjoe returns to his life of preaching—only this time with a film crew.

Together they precede to dupe church honchos and followers alike, raking in ill-won donations, and exposing the ungodly art of religious charlatanism. It's really something to behold.

In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Marjoe gives a rousing (albeit characteristically canned) sermon at a mostly black Pentecostal church where the energy is downright effervescent. It's this scene that caused me to think back on the Hitchens article.

There's something so pure and genuine seeming—not about the preachers at black Pentecostal churches (at least not the ones featured in Marjoe)—but about the overall energy put forth by the congregation, the band, the gospel choir, the little old ladies with their little old lady hats and their hands in the air. It seems to defy the prejudices I have for other, stuffier, more stifling models of religious assemble, where instead of joyful outbursts you get solemn pageantry.

Now, I'm not excited about people continuing to delude themselves in either of these time-honored fashions. But for my money—or rather, had I to choose a church to preserve for posterity—I'd choose the Pentecostal faith for its sheer vitality and evident catharsis. What can I say, it plays on my sympathy. Part of what I think Hitchens was getting at.

Church improvements continue

Hey all. Sometimes I feel like a big jerk on this blog. Then other times I feel like so totally justified. These are growing pains people!

Anyways, onto the most recent improvements around the ol' church (for those who are curious).



Finally got that kitchen sink installed (actually, that got finished a couple weeks ago).

Just this past week however I managed to find a temporary home for six of the fourteen pews that have been congesting the nave (i.e., my living room) for the past month.



The eight remaining pews will at times be a burden, but will also come in handy in certain applications. A blessing and a curse, as I like to say.

I think I'd like to start another weblog to deal exclusively with the church project. A place where others can feel encouraged to share their stories of church rehab/reuse. I think it will be called xhurches. I think a coffee table book will eventually follow. Or a coffee table digital-data-display ebook download, or whatever it ends up being when I finally get around to it.

Consider this an open invite to share any knowledge of church adaptations. I think I'm aware of two others in town. Gonna follow up.

Go tell it on the Blogosphere! 9-out-of-10 Popes agree, Christianity marginalized!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11347073

Hitchens on Mortality

More Portland churches (Woodstock)

Nothin up top but a bucket and a mop...

Jaycob got himself well inside the hole in the ceiling of the pastor's office. No bucket or mop, or bird books, but there was a 5-gallon drum of cottonseed oil that looks antique-y. I asked the internet if it was, it didn't know.

Portland churches

So I was driving out to deep Southeast last Monday and I noticed an abundance of churches, which got me wondering; how many churches are there in Portland? A google search for "portland churches" yielded this chicken pocked portrait:


Since then I've seen some other cool ones around. Maybe I'll begin to document them. Here's a few I captured that day with my iPhone:






Also, this is off topic but that same day I encountered this blatant reuse of the Hollywood Video lettering: