On March 2nd Sally and I went to attend church at Skyline Fellowship Southern Baptist Church in Mesa. I wanted to go earlier to participate in bible study but Sally was too nervous. She just wanted to go to the worship services and get out. She had no interest to talk to strangers, especially about the bible. (Sometimes it seems like I was the christian and she was the atheist--she is very apprehensive about church.)
We found this particular church through a co-worker of mine so we arranged to meet her and her family at the chapel. We were almost late so when we arrived, things were just getting started. I was surprised to see that the worship band were all kids and was told that the youth band performed for services once a month. They were actually very good and I could even "feel the spirit" so to speak. There was a point when we were encouraged to move about the chapel and mingle with the congregation. I started shaking hands and walking around until Sally asked me to come back. She was too nervous to leave the pew and didn't want to be left alone.
After several minutes of musical worship, the pastor finally came out. He thanked the youth band for their performance and called al the little children to the front. Apparently, this was a weekly ritual where he would give a short sermon directly to the children. On that day, the message was that they should read the bible everyday. Although it was best for them to read the entire bible, he said if that was too hard, they should focus on a list of specific scriptures that were "very important".
I was a little stunned because I have a theory that if a christian was to read the entire bible they would see all the inconsistencies and start to question. I thought it was strange that he would tell these kids to do the very thing that could put doubt in their minds. But when he reduced the mandate to only needing to read certain versus from a list, it became clear. He was just propagating more brainwashing and thought control.
The children were dismissed to their Sunday school and all left the chapel; leaving the adults to hear the real sermon. I don't remember his central message (if there was one) but I remember he was bashing mormons, muslims and Hilary Clinton. I thought that was an odd approach of interpreting "god's word" and felt very uneasy. I wish I had blogged this earlier because I do not remember most of what he said. I only remember that I didn't like how he was saying it.
After the sermon, he brought back the youth back to set a "spiritual" mood. Then he stated that he wanted people from the congregation to come forward and accept Jesus in their hearts. He even hinted that they had all afternoon and would be willing to wait "as long as it took" to save souls (although that was said tongue in cheek).
Well, I was intrigued to see how long we would wait and what exactly would happen but Sally had a desperate look in her eye. She turned to me in a panic and asked if we could leave right away. I felt like she was whispering the "safe word" to end a session of S&M and I felt sorry for her. We, not so discreetly, exited the back of the chapel to the freedom of the parking lot. We then drove away to get our usual cup of coffee and discuss what we had seen.
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