Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Leaving Jesusland . . . for good

Leaving Jesusland . . . for good

Last updated on: December 31, 2020 at 2:54 pm by Vance Morgan

Leaving Jesusland . . . for good 2020-12-31T14:54:06-04:00 Vance Morgan

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I make no secret, on this blog or in person, of my love for Canada. I grew up just forty miles south of Quebec, visted both Montreal and Quebec City at least twice per year every year through high school, have visited those cites many more times and have come to know and love Toronto as an adult, have a number of good friends as well as followers of this blog from Canada . . . Canada is awesome! So, when I saw this meme proposing the United States of Canada, a new country formed by adding nineteen current US states to Canada, leaving the remaining thirty-one states as the new nation of Jesusland, I knew I had to send it out on Facebook. “This is a seriously great idea,” I remarked in the introduction line.

Not surprisingly, dozens of comments and emojis began pouring in. There were, of course, my fellow academics who complained that the two-letter abbreviations of Pennsylvania and Maryland in the meme are wrong. I asked one of them if he had forgotten to take his good humor medicine that morning. Friends from Canada, in true Canadian fashion, said “you’re welcome any time—at least after our borders up to you again!” Those who already live in one of the nineteen states that will form the southernmost portions of the United States of Canada expressed both strong support for the proposal and relief that they will be included.

Most interesting was the reaction of people who live in one of the other thirty-one states. To a person, their complaint was “Hey! I want to leave Jesusland too!” A good friend in Colorado proposed that either a several-hundred-miles-long bridge or tunnel be constructed to connect her state with the USC. Persons from Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, and Louisiana (specifically New Orleans) pleaded for creative gerrymandering that would include them as well. One good friend from Colorado proposed that a hundreds-of-miles-long bridge or tunnel be constructed that would connect her home northwards to Alberta.

Others thought that perhaps the original map of the USC was too generous. One person from Chicago suggested that the USC might regret inviting all of Illinois, while a Pennsylvania resident wondered whether many people in her state might prefer to stay in Jesusland. Of note, though, was that of the more than 100 comments I received within just a few hours of posting the map, no one thought the proposal was a bad idea. Instead, it was clear that my Facebook friends lobbied creatively to be included in the United States of Canada. This was not because everyone said that Canada is awesome (although it is). The primary motivation was clearly that everyone is sick to death of living in Jesusland. That should tell you something about how carefully I cull my Facebook friends list.

I was raised in Jesusland on steroids. My USC meme and the subsequent conversations it generated reminded me of a time about a dozen years ago when I encountered a Jesusland offshoot. My friend Michael lives with his family in Florida. That in itself makes me wonder how he can be my best friend. Given our academic professions, Jeanne and I can only visit in the summer. It would be much more convenient if Michael and Suzy moved to Alaska—Jeanne and I have always wanted to visit there. But there probably are few Alaskan opportunities in Michael’s line of work. He’s a Catholic theologian.

Michael and his family live in one of those large Florida subdivisions where everyone has a lanai, a pool, and exclusively St. Augustine grass in their lawns. The subdivision’s yard Nazis would torch my clover and crab grass dominant lawn in a heartbeat. The first summer Jeanne and I visited a number of years ago, we managed to make it to within a mile of Michael and Suzy’s house in a driving rainstorm, but then turned left instead of right. After floating through empty acreage for several minutes, a huge building under construction loomed directly in front of us. “I don’t think this is it,” Jeanne helpfully remarked. Once we found our way to Mike and Suzy’s, I asked him about the vast expanse where we had been lost. “That’s where they’re building Six Flags Over Jesus.”

Six Flags Over Jesus is a gigantic Baptist megachurch that has grown too big for its britches at least twice over the years. Chances are they won’t outgrow this “campus,” as they call it. The sanctuary is massive, surrounded by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prime acres ready and waiting to be developed for Jesus. There is ample room for schools at all levels, recreational fields galore, a theme park, a planned community, and a hospital.

With some creative planning, by the time Six Flags Over Jesus is finished a person could be born, raised, educated, married, raise little megaBaptists, take vacations, get old, be put in a nursing home, die, and be buried without ever leaving the grounds. The foyer of the church includes a Starbucks to help parishioners manage the down time between Sunday School and morning worship.

A Disney-esque trolley shuttles church goers from the distant parking lots to the front of the sanctuary. I was disappointed to discover that the parking areas are identified simply by color—Blue, Red, Yellow—rather than by something more imaginative, such as the twelve disciples. Those who arrive early could park in Peter, James, or John. Late arrivers would be consigned to the Judas Iscariot lot. They would have to pay for their ride to the sanctuary, waiting until the offering collection for the usher to unlock the doors and let them in.

I have never been inside the church, but that doesn’t stop me from being critical. This is where I come from. Inject my childhood church with steroids and fund it with unlimited resources, and you get Six Flags Over Jesus. Michael, Suzy, Jeanne and I have conversed frequently about the horror of it all—the worst of American capitalism joined in unholy matrimony with the shallowest and narrowest of Christian fundamentalism. This is a union guaranteed to produce the offspring of intolerance, judgmentalism, sanctimonious exclusivity, and simplistic neuron-destroying certainty. I have wondered aloud what temple-cleansing Jesus would do if dropped into the foyer of this church with its Starbucks and God knows what else. I can see the painting now: “Jesus Overturning the Baristas.” No wonder leaving Jesusland and becoming a citizen of the United States of Canada is such an attractive proposition.

It’s comforting to know what the divine prefers in terms of worship, or at least to know what he/she/it definitely doesn’t want. My updated Pharisee prayer from Luke 18 would read “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this fundamentalist, Starbucks-drinking, Jesusland loving, Six Flags Over Jesus Baptist guy over here.” I’m pretty sure I know roughly how the order of worship goes at Six Flags Over Jesus—I saw the error of those ways and left them behind years ago.

But there is another prayer in Luke 16, somewhat shorter and less confident. The publican prays “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Slightly expanded, “God be merciful to me, just another flawed, limited, imperfect human being who wants to know and worship you as best as he can and as much as you will allow.” It is truly shocking just how many varieties of attempts at worship the divine is apparently willing to tolerate as human beings occasionally look upwards.

The very idea of trying to figure out God’s favorite ways of being worshiped is a stunner at its core. Annie Dillard writes that “I often think of set pieces of liturgy as certain words that people have successfully addressed to God without getting killed.” And yet God invites our worship. If I presume that God’s standards preclude divine attendance at Six Flags Over Jesus or citizenship in Jesusland, I’d better remember that the divine standards are broad enough to include even me. The divine love respects no boundaries, certainly not mine.

God in the flesh was remarkably flexible and welcoming with respect to everyone who crossed his path. What would Jesus do if he dropped by the foyer of Six Flags Over Jesus on a Sunday morning? He’d order a double espresso macchiato grande. Sometimes the morning service goes overtime.

Previous Post

August 11, 2020

I'm not a Catholic, but I could play one on TV

Next Post

August 16, 2020 What if my "Best Self" isn't that Good?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Advent AI Angels Artificial intelligence atheism attention baptism Baptists beauty belief Benedictines Bible bicycling Big Bird books Bovina Camaldoli hermitage Canada Catholicism cats certainty change Christianity Christmas Collegeville Covid-19 creativity Development of Western Civilization dogs doubt Easter Enneagram Epiphany Episcopal ethics Eucharist evil extroverts Facebook faith family fear flowers forgiveness freedom friends God goodness grace happiness heaven hell history Holy Spirit Holy Week hope human nature humility humor idolatry incarnation introverts irreverence Islam Jeanne Jesus Joe Biden joy Judaism justice Kamala Harris knowledge Lent listen literature liturgy love Marsue Memorial Day miracles movies music mystery mythology NPR Old Testament optimism paradox peace Penguins philosophy piano podcast politics power prayer Protestantism Providence College Religion Rhode Island sabbatical sacrament science seeing silence Simone Weil Socrates soul sports St. John's College stories suffering tattoo teaching technology television theology thinking time tolerance transcendence travel trees trust truth Uncategorized Vermont wisdom wonder writing

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz