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Many arguments for incorporating screen technologies in church services lean heavily on notions of inevitability. These tools are ubiquitous, proponents might say, whether we like it or not. Seen this way, we can only choose careful integration, not principled rejection. |
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Theologian Brad East, in his latest CT review, isn’t having any of it. The review takes issue with a new book from Michael Huerter, a church musician and worship pastor, called Hybrid Congregation: A Practical Theology of Worship for an Online Era. Along the way, East offers a ringing endorsement of embodied participation in worship, the sacraments, and church community. |
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“The book,” he writes, “is an exercise in ‘practical theology.’ One of the hallmarks of this academic style is an emphasis on interdisciplinarity, subjective experience, spiritual practices, and the authority of credentialed experts. Because practical theologians want to analyze ordinary Christian life through a theological lens, they are fond of ethnography, which typically involves embedding oneself in a particular community, observing its rhythms, and offering a thick description of its inner culture. |
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“A method common to sociology and anthropology, ethnography always risks mistaking an is for an ought. This is precisely where Huerter falters. Time and time again, he offers description passing as prescription—as though the mere fact that someone does X or thinks Y means that X or Y must be good or inevitable and thus accepted, permitted, or encouraged. The book assumes what it never demonstrates. |
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“For instance, Huerter writes that ‘it is no longer possible … to draw a firm dividing line between online and offline.’ Who says? Or ‘digital media do not carry more inherent potential for evil, or less for good, than a church building, a pew, or a book.’ Really? Show me the evidence. Or recall quotes I excerpted above, such that online church ‘is here to stay’ or that digital devices are not ‘depraved.’ I certainly think they’re depraved, and none of us knows the future of online church. |
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“Claims this big require more than assertion. This is the next problem: The Hybrid Congregation is not an exploration but a conclusion in search of an argument. We cannot know whether digital inventions are depraved or whether a balance between extremes is desirable until we’ve conducted a genuine inquiry, and the inquiry is not genuine if we decide in advance that the answer cannot possibly be no. For Huerter, ruling out the value of digital church was never an option.” |
A Defense of Christian Summer Camps |
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Megan Fowler is a religion reporter and CT contributor whose husband directs a Christian summer camp in rural Pennsylvania. Each year, she and her family spend most of the warmer months in this setting, affording her a firsthand perspective on the sights, sounds, and symbols that shape the camp experience. |
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This background lends her an ideal vantage point for considering Cara Meredith’s new book Church Camp: Bad Skits, Cry Night, and How White Evangelicalism Betrayed a Generation. Meredith, a writer with extensive speaking experience at Christian camps across California, relates tales of campers who were traumatized and alienated by prevailing cultural and theological norms. Too often, she alleges, these institutions have been inhospitable to non-white evangelicals, teens questioning their sexuality, or anyone longing for a kinder, gentler conception of God. |
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In her review, Fowler defends camp programs that insist on promoting core Christian beliefs about sin, salvation, and sexual ethics. And she questions whether Meredith’s disillusioned interview subjects are telling the only stories worth telling. |
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“Reading stories of people who feel rejected by their church camps saddened me,” writes Fowler. “But the stories also left me with questions: Did Meredith try to verify their accounts? Did she reach out to the camps for comment? (I found just one indication of this in an endnote about one camp.) Would it even be feasible to get to the truth about these situations, many of them years or decades in the past? These accounts may be true—or they may be just one side of a difficult and complicated situation, perhaps even a side remembered from a child’s limited vantage. In Church Camp, readers are simply asked to trust the storytellers’ memories. |
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“This gets to a structural flaw in the book: There are a lot of Christian summer camps. Christian camp researcher Jake Sorenson has estimated that by the early 21st century, there were 2,000 such camps in the US serving 1.5 million overnight youth campers each summer and employing 75,000 seasonal staff. Some camps are under denominational supervision, others independent. Some serve families. Some provide support staff and expect churches to supply the chapel speakers and volunteer counselors. |
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“Meredith is a Christian writer but not a journalist or researcher. She’s not trying to paint a comprehensive picture of the experiences of church campers or present a thorough analysis of what camps teach. She is sketching a picture. It’s a picture many may recognize, but there’s no way to know how well it represents reality across those 2,000 camps. |
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“In this sense, Meredith does a disservice to readers and to those whose stories she stewards. She argues that church camps manipulate children into asking Jesus into their hearts and reject those campers and staffers who don’t fit a white evangelical mold. She has nearly 50 interviews to back up her assertions, which might sound like a lot—but it can’t be a representative sample of 1.5 million campers and 75,000 staffers per year.” |
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As I write these words, I’m on hallowed ground: I’m at Seneca Hills Bible Camp and Retreat Center, the summer camp where my husband is executive director, and our first campers…
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“Nein!” This was the title of an essay published 91 years ago by the Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth. It has a claim to being the most infamous and briefest theological rejoinder…
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Looking for a new listen? Grow your mind and spirit by exploring the shows on our Annual Podcast Guide.
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As developments in artificial intelligence change daily, we’re increasingly asking what makes humanity different from the machines we use. In this issue, Emily Belz introduces us to tech workers on the frontlines of AI development, Harvest Prude explains how algorithms affect Christian courtship, and Miroslav Volf writes on the transhumanist question. Several writers call our attention to the gifts of being human: Haejin and Makoto Fujimura point us to beauty and justice, Kelly Kapic reminds us God’s highest purpose isn’t efficiency, and Jen Pollock Michel writes on the effects of Alzheimer’s . We bring together futurists, theologians, artists, practitioners, and professors to consider how technology shapes us even as we use it. |
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