Strange Fellowship

There are two churches in the Dayton area that have lately taken to aggressive radio advertisements. One is a Baptist congregation and the other some kind of non-denominational church. I’m sure this isn’t particularly unusual.

The thing that I find noteworthy is that both of these advertisements are based around the idea that church should be a good time. On the surface this bears close resemblance to a contradiction. How exactly do you square, “O Lord, forgive us our sins” with free coffee and bagels?

On further consideration, though, I realized that these two ideas share a peculiar consistency of message. It doesn’t matter what you think or feel or what motivations you have, all that matters is that you go to church. There you will presumably catch some salvation, almost as though it’s a fungus.

In other words, if the ends are good, it doesn’t matter what you have to do to get there. Intrinsicism on the hoof.