The radical left plans to get into the megachurch business, worshipping ... itself. In a profile in Wired, Markos Moulitsas, founder of the uber-left fringe blog, Daily Kos, says he’s going to start a chain of megachurch-like communities across the country for liberals.
At what’s arguably the top of his game, Moulitsas says he’s “going offline” next year, taking his obvious knack for building online communities and applying it to that other great American pastime: sports. And once he gets his network of sports blogs ramped up, he’ll turn to building communities in the real world, a chain of giant meeting places “replicating megachurches for the left” – complete with cafés and child care. Moulitsas has shown he can harness people’s enthusiasm, but he says he doesn’t want a leadership role in these “democracy centers”...
While working on the mechanics of the sports blogs, he plans to embark next year on building real-world destinations for progressives and liberals throughout the Midwest, “cultural outposts” designed to attract thousands of like-minded liberals. “Each one of these would have a vast left-wing conspiracy component,” he says, like leadership training or discussions on progressive issues.
In other words, he’s building Unitarian megachurches. Of course, such “mega”-places already exist outside of Unitarian “societies”, “fellowships”, and churches. They’re called universities.
In essence, he’s creating a religion without God. It reminds me very much of the Soviets confiscating churches and turning them into museums extolling the wonders of Communism and the Soviets. Didn’t Hitler do something similar, aping churches with temples of fascism? I’m not saying that Kos is a fascist or communist, but in general there seems to be a need within atheistic movements to re-create churches, only replacing God with some human construct, and then ultimately some inhuman construct.
What he’s missing is the foundational principle why people go to these churches. Yes, it’s nice to be around other people who believe as you do, and sure the free wi-fi and coffee shops are convenient, but when it comes down to it, without Christ it’s all an empty shell. I’m not saying that megachurches are great or even to be emulated, but the little truth they manage to hold on to is the reality that if it is not Christ that binds you together, then nothing does.
Either such constructs will collapse under their own weight or they will turn toward a sinister purpose. It’s the inevitable reality of history.
Technorati Tags:Daily Kos, liberalism, megachurches
