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Christianity Today recently reported the unusual outcome of a story reported widely through the media - a man who offered his soul for sale on ebay. The offer was for one hour of church attendance for every $10 in the bid. Jim Henderson (no, not Kermit the Frog!) of Off the Map won the bid with $504 and asked "Mehta" to give his take on church life - the view of an outsider to the faith. While his experience was different to his expectations ('everyone would be asleep'), he found them 'entertaining' (good point or bad?!) and 'interesting', and 'developed a lot more respect for churches', particularly appreciating the atmosphere of some of the megachurches. Finding the
extras a little showy, he found the sermons strong and the preachers dynamic, especially when they brought in personal stories. One pastor told the story of his mother's decline and the comfort he drew from the Bible, which Mehta found "completely gripping... I can understand why people would be drawn to the Bible when he tells a story like that. You're really telling me how I can go back and change anything that's wrong with my life."
Impressed with the live music (something absent from the atheist conventions he attends), he found the quality of the words, however, to be another story: "I have no idea who writes the lyrics to this stuff, but it sounds like what a four-year-old could write: 'God is good. God is strong.' And repeat. And repeat. And repeat."
Christianity Today reports his observations: "The churchgoers were friendly, and, on the whole, Mehta felt welcomed. He was, however, offended by some things that were said. At a missions prayer meeting, he encountered anti-Muslim sentiment, with followers of Islam being equated with terrorists.
He also detected a definite "us vs. them" mentality.
Although Mehta doesn't think he's any closer to believing in God, the soul-selling (actually soul-renting) experiment helped him to think about faith in a different way."
Mehta has started his own website.
Posted by gary at November 17, 2006 12:18 PM
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