when teen christians attack

You know the mega-churches? The giant "we have our own newspaper, own gym, own culture under here" giant giant churches? (Our own local mega-church is currently the site of a four lane expansion because the nice old road can't handle the traffic they pour in and out. Yes, it's an eye-sore, ruining a great twisty road.)

Louisville's mega-church, which Christopher dubbed "The Death Star," has about 14,000 people attending weekly services there. Here's a (bizarre) BBC story about it. They also run a bible camp outside the city, which is where the fun starts. From last week's Courier-Journal:

Barthold is a low-key, but devoted, Catholic. About four years ago he carried a statue of the Virgin Mary up the almost 45-degree trail to the top of Rock Knob. That became his sanctuary, his place of refuge. He would go there to read, pray, meditate, say his Rosary.

Barthold was vacationing in South Carolina late last month when he received a call from his son; the statue of the Virgin Mary had been smashed into pieces.

The executive director of the nearby Country Lake Christian Retreat Center, which is operated by Louisville's Southeast Christian Church, had called to say the statue had been broken by some teenage campers who had studied an Old Testament chapter on worshipping false idols. The campers were under the guidance of an adult supervisor.

Is anyone else picturing that sort of ugly bacchanal scene from THE SECRET HISTORY? Follow-up news story (it was originally broken as a column) here. They're gonna use the incident to teach tolerance. Isn't that special?

My kneejerk postulation is that the youth minister in question was making comparisons between mega-churchy Protestantism and "those Catholics with their statues." Only god knows if I'm wrong.

worm "Trampin'," Patti Smith

namecheck Christopher "Whatchya think he told them?" Rowe