Our Lady Of Manifest Destiny
I’ve shown you this one before…right…?
It’s the flagpole at one of those churches that look nothing like churches, just down the road from Love In Action in Memphis. The church it’s in front of has no steeple, nothing at all in it’s style or structure to suggest that it’s even a church at all. It looks from the road, like your basic office building. Seems the god of the white upper class, at least in the bible belt these days, likes its sanctuaries to look like either office buildings, or shopping malls. A look perhaps befitting fundamentalism’s new emphasis on worldly things.
I can’t say much about the rest of the bible belt because I haven’t wandered there much, but Memphis seems to have more megachurches that look like shopping malls per capita then the rest of America has shopping malls. There’s Germantown Baptist, which I visited the last time I was down there. Nestled in the midst of a very well-to-do suburb of Memphis, it has it’s own tennis courts, day care, and big screen TV’s inside the sanctuary, so the folks in the back rows can see what’s happening on the stage. Then there is the place the locals call Six Flags Over Jesus…Bellevue Baptist Church. I’ve not been there yet, but the locals say it not only has the big screen TVs mounted on either side of the stage like Germantown, but TV cameras mounted on cranes that can pan around and capture all the action for the TV audience. It’s got a bookstore, A GRACE Family Life Center, a JOY Christian Recreation Complex, a Love building, a Praise building, a really nice website where you can find a link to their Live Sermon Webcast, and a User Agreement with this wee notice:
Hypertext Link: You may provide a hypertext link to this web site on another web site only upon the receipt of written consent from Bellevue. To receive such consent, fill out a request form. Upon receipt of written consent, you may provide a link in the following manner: (a) the link points to the URL http://www.bellevue.org and not to the pages within the site; (b) the appearance, position or other aspects of the link do not create a false impression that Bellevue is associated with, or endorses, another web site, church or product; (c) the link does not dilute or damage Bellevue’s trademarks, service marks or goodwill; (d) the link does not display Bellevue’s web site with frames. Bellevue may revoke its consent to the link at any time in its sole discretion.
We all have to protect our brand I guess.
Okay…so much so obvious. You’ve all heard me going on about megachurches before. But last night I was surfing my bookmarks and via The Flypaper Theory I discovered World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church, and I think they’ve done them all better. World Overcomers Outreach Ministries has a grand Walk Of Nations entranceway, a bookstore, a gym, an Olympic sized swimming pool, a bowling alley, a video arcade, and a pool hall. I’m a bit surprised they don’t have a bar somewhere in there too. The next step, is for someone to put a floating megachruch on the river somewhere, with a casino inside. But to make sure they leave their competition in the dust, World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church are even building their own Statue Of Liberty.
Well…kind of…
Our Lady Of Manifest Destiny, as PeskyFly puts it. I had to stare at it for about five minutes before I could convince my brain of what my eyes were seeing. The torch is gone, replaced by a cross. The tablet that once read July 4th, 1776, has been replaced by the ten commandments. And yes, they will unveil the thing tomorrow, on the fourth of July, 2006. According to this article in the Memphis Commerical Appeal, the seven spikes on her crown that represent the seven seas of the world has been changed to signify the seven redemptive names of Christ. The crown itself has been inscribed with the name "Jehovah". An old colossus, to replace the new one given this nation as a token of esteem once upon a time…
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The lamp of course, had to go, because the golden door has to go. Yearning to breath free are you? Don’t you know that freedom is only possible if you believe what we tell you to believe, live how we tell you to live, and worship how we tell you to worship? Democracy is a lie straight from Satan, because only the devil would think up a system of government that gives heathens the same rights as the righteous. Think about it. True freedom means doing what we tell you to do and thinking what we tell you to think because we’re righteous and if you’re not one of us then obviously you aren’t. Give your conscience to us and you’ll be free. We’ve got a really swell video arcade and pool hall you can while away the hours between sermons in. And the TV reception inside the church is great. Have you visited our gift shop yet?
