June 20, 2011 | 2:49 pm

Crystal Cathedral’s Latino service may be saving the megachurch

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Yeah, Crystal Cathedral is in a lot of trouble. But the Los Angeles Times reports that one aspect of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s megachurch that is thriving. That would be the Latino service:

When the doors open for the 9:30 English-language service, the lines don’t budge. It isn’t for a lack of seats inside — so few people are there that cameramen have trouble finding crowd shots for the “Hour of Power” television program, which has been broadcast from the Garden Grove megachurch since 1970.

At 11, a second English service starts, also sparsely attended. The lines outside grow longer.

By the time that service ends, each line stretches the equivalent of a city block — people of all ages dressed in their Sunday best. Just before 1, the doors reopen and, row by row, the cathedral is filled.

As the Crystal Cathedral fights to survive its descent into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, this is its untold success story: a Spanish-language service led by a dynamic Argentine pastor, Dante Gebel, who inspires comparisons to the church’s founder, Robert H. Schuller.

Read the rest here.

June 20, 2011 | 10:13 am

Fake Obama jokes about Romney and polygamy

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I caught this in the gym this morning. Seems that an Obama impersonator was too inappropriate for the GOP folks who invited him to their convention. My suspicion is it had less to do with his racially charged remarks than it did with his ragging on Republican presidential candidates.

It was also a reminder of Mitt Romney’s “Mormon problem.” The Fake Obama, aka Reggie Brown, said he thought Romney would make a great president, and that his wife would be a great first lady ... and second lady ... and third lady.

Check out the video above.

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June 20, 2011 | 12:08 am

Fear of mass suicide as 2012 apocalypse approaches

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

We already figured out that the world was not ending in May 2011, and I didn’t think anyone seriously believed that the world would end in 2012. I mean, did you see that movie? Bleh.

But still, we have this report from CNN:

The specter of a mass suicide tied to the widely predicted end of the world in December 2012 has prompted a warning from a government official in France, where people are already gathering at a place believers predict may provide the only escape from the apocalypse.

Georges Fenech, president of French government agency Miviludes, which observes sect movements and warns the public of potential risks, told CNN that he had alerted French public authorities, including the prime minister, to the issue.

“We fear that this message of fear could have serious consequences on fragile members of the French population,” he said.

I thought the story was a hoax. But it doesn’t look like it. The Daily Mail and Reuters have more.

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June 19, 2011 | 6:33 pm

Lenin’s Jewish grandfather

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Anti-Semites see Jews everywhere, and for a long time they’ve claimed that Vladimir Lenin was a secret Jew. You know, just another part of the Elders of Zion’s plan for world domination.

Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky both were born Jewish. But until now any claims that Lenin was jewish were seem as part of the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish Bolshevism. No more.

Time reports:

This fascinating morsel of information, gleaned from declassified KGB files, is not a minor detail in a country where anti-Semitism was a recognized state doctrine for decades. Starting in the 1930s, the Soviet regime —spurred on by its leader Joseph Stalin — launched a violent discriminatory campaign against Jewish citizens.

Born in 1870, Lenin identified himself simply as Russian. His official biography mentions only his Russian, German and Swedish origins. But one of the exhibition’s priceless pieces adds a key new element to the official narrative.

In a letter to Stalin in 1932 — six years after Lenin’s death — Anna Ulyanova, Lenin’s older sister, wrote that their maternal grandfather “came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank.” Blank was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. In her letter, Ulyanova said her brother “had always thought highly of Jews.” She also urged Stalin to reveal Lenin’s Jewish background, concluding that “it would be wrong to hide it from the masses.”

Stalin, however, ordered Ulyanova to keep Lenin’s Jewish roots under wraps. A few years later, Stalin began to purge Jews from among the leaders of the revolution.

It is, of course, significant that neither Lenin’s mother nor Lenin were Jewish. So what does it matter that Lenin had Jewish ancestors?

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June 19, 2011 | 11:57 am

NY’s run at same-sex marriage

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The big news in New York this week is not Anthony Weiner. It’s a same-sex marriage bill that is teetering on the passage.

Here’s the story from the Associated Press:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was cautiously optimistic his gay marriage bill will soon become law as he held more one-on-one negotiations Friday with Senate Republicans. The Republicans who hold the critical votes say they worry Cuomo’s bill doesn’t adequately protect religious groups and churches that refuse to preside over same-sex weddings and other services.

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“There has been no decision — in fact that really was not the discussion — as to whether it will come out yet, who’s voting for it, who’s voting against it,” Majority Leader Dean Skelos said immediately after Friday’s two-hour conference.

The Long Island Republican said senators for and against gay marriage want to make the sure that if the bill gets a floor vote there won’t be “unintended consequences to this legislation” — a reference to religious protections.

As Cuomo says later in the story, the concern is with not imposing state action—the business of marriage ceremonies—on religious individuals who feel a religious to not officiate such same-sex weddings.

The bill seems to be moving pretty quickly, and it appears that NY legislatures want to resolve the religion issue quickly. One question, though, is whether passage of a law permitting same-sex marriage would lead to the short of voter revolt that California experienced in response to this court ruling—and the legal drama that has followed.

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June 19, 2011 | 10:19 am

Catholic University getting rid of coed dorms

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Catholic University is getting rid of its coed dorms. Seems the administration thinks this will “curtail the binge drinking and casual hookups of students.” But based on the restrictions Catholic already had—segregating men and women in coed dorms to separate floors or wings and enforcing “visiting hours”—I don’t really understand why they think separating men and women into entirely different buildings will make a difference.

The Washington Post reports:

“We just thought it was a more wholesome environment,” said John H. Garvey, who became president of Catholic last year. “A little separation is a healthy thing.”

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The coed vs. single-sex debate harkens back at least a generation, and today most colleges house female and male students under the same roof. Some schools even allow those students to be roommates. George Washington University is one of the latest campuses to offer “gender-neutral housing,” which allows students to live with anyone they choose.

But that’s not an option all students want, said Erwin Villanueva, a rising junior at Catholic.

“It was a big relief to my Mom” that Catholic offered single-sex housing, Villanueva said. “I guess she’s just old-fashioned. She’s more comfortable with this.”

Uh, call me cosmopolitan, but there’s something nice about being treated as an adult when you move away to college. I understand that my frame of reference is different. UCLA is a big public university. But kids have to grow up eventually—and if they don’t figure it out in college, they will when they graduate. I’m pretty sure all apartment buildings are coed.

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June 18, 2011 | 5:20 pm

Phoenix diocese to publish online list of pedophile priests

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s about time the entire U.S. Roman Catholic Church use a little digital media to protect its parishioners. For now, the Diocese of Phoenix is joining those that have taken the step.

The Arizona Republic reports:

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix says it will publish a comprehensive list identifying abusive clergy as part of its newly revised website.

Diocese spokesman Rob DeFrancesco said the transition to the new website, diocesephoenix .org, will include a determination of the best format for such a list.

The new site debuted a few weeks ago, but not all the pages have been reformatted. News of publication of the list comes as Catholic bishops gather this week in Seattle to consider revisions to their abuse policies.

When the diocese completes the work and actually puts the list online, it will become one of just 25 dioceses to provide the information, said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. There are 195 dioceses in the United States.

Hat tip: Sarah Pulliam Bailey

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June 18, 2011 | 3:12 pm

Westboro Baptist protests another church

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’ve seen Westboro Baptist take their protests to military funerals and synagogues and almost a 9-year-old’s funeral. But never to another church.

But this weekend Westboro rolled into Seattle to protest the teachings at Mars Hill Church. CNN’s Eric Marrapodi reports:

“This False Prophet and His Blind Lemmings Welcome You to Our Whore House for God’s Grace and Free Donuts,” Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle announced on his blog this week after learning that Westboro plans to picket one of his churches on Father’s Day.

Driscoll is a popular pastor in the Pacific Northwest. He heads a group of multisite churches that regularly draw 10,000 parishioners a week across 10 locations. He preaches live at one location, and his sermons are sent out by video to the other locations the following week, when the services are held with live music and another onsite pastor.

Driscoll, a popular author and speaker, is “Christian-famous,” which appears to have led to the protest.

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“They need Jesus too, maybe as bad as anyone on the Earth. As a church, we’re called to love people. They’re people, so they make the list.”

It’s nice to hear Driscoll not give the Westboro nuts a free pass just because they identify as a “church.” And they are a church—just a very, very misguided one.

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June 17, 2011 | 8:25 am

Baptists reaffirm that Hell is a really real place

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Did I miss something? Was there ever any doubt that Southern Baptists really believed in Hell as a really real and eternal place for those who reject God (and the Baptist way of following God)?

But I guess that the Southern Baptist Convention felt the need to restate its position after Rob Bell, who is not a Baptist, published “Love Wins,” which has been a little controversial.

RNS reports on the Baptist resolution reaffirming Hell:

Southern Baptists on Wednesday called hell an “eternal, conscious punishment” for those who do not accept Jesus, rebutting a controversial book from Michigan pastor Rob Bell that questions traditional views of hell.

Citing Bell’s book “Love Wins,” the resolution urges Southern Baptists “to proclaim faithfully the depth and gravity of sin against a holy God, the reality of hell, and the salvation of sinners by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.”
Several leaders during the Baptists’ two-day meeting in Phoenix coupled warnings about hell with pleas for evangelism—especially in areas where there are no churches or missionaries.

“Is hell real? Is hell forever? Did God really say sinners would perish in eternal torment forever and ever?” asked pastor and author David Platt of Birmingham, Ala. “Oh, readers of Rob Bell and others like him, listen very carefully be very cautious, when anyone says, `Did God
really say this?”’

Read the rest here.

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June 16, 2011 | 10:17 pm

Fiscally insolvent, Crystal Cathedral losing cultural relevance too

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The Crystal Cathedral is in a lot of trouble. Which makes this story from NPR about the church’s bankruptcy and sale of church property for apartment construction feel a lot like a retrospective on the life of a megachurch.

NPR’s Karen Grigsby Bates reports:

Scott Thumma, who teaches at the Hartford Seminary and is an expert on mega churches, says he isn’t shocked by the disclosure of this church’s recent financial troubles.

“The Crystal Cathedral has been having trouble for several years, and I figured it would be only a matter of time before it had to change its financial structure,” he said.

And it’s not just the money: Thumma says changing its style of worship and broadening the demographics — not only of Schuller’s congregation but the staff that serves it — is critical.

“Culture and society and worship styles have changed, but because his brand, in essence, was defined by TV for decades, it was very difficult to shift away from that,” he said.

The question is whether the Crystal Cathedral can change or whether its slow demise will continue, only now under bankruptcy protection.

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June 16, 2011 | 9:59 am

It’s the end for Rep. Anthony Weiner

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Five days. That is the answer to the question I asked Monday.

In the end, as expected, Weinergate proved too much for the New York Democrat to escape intact. From The Washington Post:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) has decided to resign, following the revelations that he exchanged sexually explicit messages and photographs of himself with women he met online, a Democratic source confirmed Thursday morning.

Weiner informed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, of his decision Wednesday night, a senior Democratic aide said.

His office said he would address reporters at 2 p.m., at a senior citizens center in Brooklyn.

Odd choice of venue for a public address. Maybe Weiner figured this would be a less raucous crowd to end his political career in front of.

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June 14, 2011 | 9:59 pm

Getting drunk with Captain America

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m really excited to see “Captain America.” The trailer looks like Marvel does “Inglourious Basterds,” which sounds pretty awesome. And so I was intrigued to read this GQ profile of Captain America himself, actor Chris Evans.

The “profile” was, to say the least, interesting. I was definitely engaged, and I learned a little about Evans. But I don’t know that I’d call it journalism. Here’s where writer Edith Zimmerman had had me furrowing my brow and looking over my glasses in that you-can’t-be-serious way:

Since we’re both single and roughly the same age, it was hard for me not to treat our interview as a sort of date. Surprisingly, Chris did the same, asking all about me, my family, my job, my most recent relationship. And from ten minutes into that first interview, when he reached across the table to punctuate a joke by putting his hand on top of mine, Chris kept up frequent hand holding and lower-back touching, palm kissing and knee squeezing. He’s an attractive movie star, no complaints. I also didn’t know how much I was supposed to respond; when I did, it sometimes felt a little like hitting on the bartender or misconstruing the bartender’s professional flirting for something more. I wanted to think it was genuine, or that part of it was, because I liked him right away.

It’s not that this story was too self-indulgent. Just that it was more gaga than gonzo:

So the story of my lost Saturday night, which Chris first told me alone and then to the whole packed car: After the club, he and his friends and I went back to his house. And here is where I’d describe his house, except…I don’t really remember any of it. It was definitely…clean. And spacious. But cozy, not too stylish. There were things on the walls. Framed stuff. Pictures. There were…carpets? I’m sorry. I sincerely wish I remembered this better. It definitely had a pool table, because at some point there was a “jump over the pool table” contest, not that I have any recollection of what that entailed. In the car, Chris is enjoying explaining to everyone that at some point I decided to crawl out a window and wander off into the night. “So then my buddy’s like, ‘I think your friend is having some trouble,’ ” Chris says, “and I look over, and there’s Edith in the gutter!” (Not lying in the gutter. This I remember. Sitting on the curb, trying and failing to call a cab.)

So he corralled me back to his house, put me in a guest bedroom to sleep it all off, and told me he’d drive me home in the morning. In the span of ten hours, we’d fast-forwarded from complete strangers to people who let each other pass out in their houses—except, again, he couldn’t really kick me out, because then I’d say, “Chris Evans kicked me out of his house” here in the piece. We were friends, in other words, but not quite. When I awoke at 5:30 a.m., I slipped quietly out the front door, Googling “cabs la,” “taxis los angeles,” “help me california,” on my phone. I was still kind of drunk and had no idea where I was, but there was something peaceful about the heavy, flowery air and the fog and the birds chirping and my heels clicking. No cab companies answered, and no cabs came by. But eventually a very pretty, blonde, possibly Asian transsexual and her much younger male friend pulled up to make sure I was okay and, instead of raping and murdering me, were very sweet and drove me back to my hotel.

To be sure, I really liked this part of the story, which came toward the end. But I couldn’t settle it with the even the new journalism that I love. Of course, it’s at the top of GQ.com’s most viewed.

That conflict probably explains why I’ve felt the need to share this article today. When I shared it with a colleague at GetReligion, I asked her (that narrows the field) whether she could imagine someone on the Godbeat drinking themselves under the table and then going home to crash on their interview subject’s couch.

“Could you imagine someone doing this interview with, say, Rob Bell,” I said. “Or some Christian celebrity.”

And while I searched my head for a Christian celebrity, I realized there was a Christian celebrity that a Godbeat reporter could have such a night with.

Mel Gibson.

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