September 3, 2006

"Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion"

I've been going to church at this place in Metarie called Calvary Chapel. Its this seemingly very cool non-denominational church that is oriented to more youthful and chilled out people. However, the particular pastor at the Metarie Calvary Chapel is a TOTAL fundamentalist.

All of the sermons that I've heard him give so far have included the following themes: 1)We're right 2)They're wrong 3)There can only be one Truth and that is the word of Jesus Christ, everything else is wrong.

This morning "Pastor Dave" (as I think of him in my mind, I can't remember his real name) once again got around to talking negatively about Islam. The exact term that he used was "cult religion" and my memory's quote is, "...Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion...". In all my life of going to church (pretty much every single sunday of my life, without fail) I have never heard a pastor blatently regard another religion as a "cult". But here's the real kicker: a few weeks ago, we had a guest pastor. I think this guy was from Colorado, he's the pastor for another Calvary Chapel. His views were not much different at all. His exact words were, "There's no life in Muhammad! There's no life in Buddha! There's no life in ME!". Once again, a Calvary Chapel minister openly disputed and denied other faiths.

I'm seriously thinking about bringing my minidisc recorder to a sermon and recording what this guy at the Metarie Calvary Chapel says. Its not suprising that these guys were from a non-denominaitonal church; they probably don't have to answer to as much authority as your standard Methodist or Baptist, or especially Catholic ministers, do.

The testimony of just two prechers probably does not reflect the belief of Calvary Chapel as a whole organization, but it does bring some questions to my mind. Particularly, could this be a church that America needs to look out for? Moreso than southern Baptist churches or the TV evangelicals?

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