Comments on: Chapter IV: News Babe

By: Mike Duchemin

Mike Duchemin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:06:15 +0000

And I love how “News Babe” doesn’t ever have a name.

By: Mike Duchemin

Mike Duchemin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:05:13 +0000

Bimbeaux, perhaps?

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:30:52 +0000

Excuse the typos above, please. That should be “mentioned.”

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:30:09 +0000

The mention of Emergent threw me a little, too.

However, I do know a large local suburban church that likes to think of itself as “emergent” and tried to dabble in a bit of this, a bit of that. But really, they just offer a million choices to everyone, so if you want the candles and liturgy stuff, you just go to that service, like a choose-your-own adventure in worship.

And that same church I metnioned above– the Pastor drives some sort of fancy silver convertible (I think it’s a BMW or a Mercedes or something). It’s not a Creflo church, just some rich church member gave it to him as a gift. And he kept it.

I could see Chad doing that, too.

By: Tim Etherington

Tim Etherington — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:49:51 +0000

Finally got a chance to read this before I start on the next installment.

I find it interesting that Chad, a mega-church pastor, would refer to the emergent church. Emergent types tend to react against mega and “traditional” churches. They see themselves as alternatives.

That said, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if mega churches co-opt the name “emergent” and render it meaningless much as has happened to the term “evangelical.” Hop on whatever wagon is popular this week.

I thought the Ferrari was appropriate. It is a symbol of excessive spending, male mid-life crisis, and it is fast. All of which apply to Chad. Don’t touch it Doug, well written.

By: Gerv

Gerv — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:05:37 +0000

“was to visit for just a moment”

I know you are an American (and I have no problem with that; as they say, “some of my best friends are Americans”) but in case you are trying to write for the international market, I would note that this is a fairly strong Americanism as such things go. “was to linger for just a moment”?

By: Christopher Witmer

Christopher Witmer — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:01:52 +0000

Actually, Ferrari makes their cars available in several other colors of red besides so-called “Ferrari Red” (Rosso Corsa).

By: lewsta

lewsta — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:18:19 +0000

Hmm.. let’s consider this: five or six services weekly, three to ten thousand a pop, twenty acre car park… quite likely the tithe Miguel ferrets away from the tithe could easily be skimmed for a tithe as a “hush money”fee for Chad’s silence on Miguel’s indiscretion, despite the fact this fund is also the source of Chad’s cover fund for his dalliances. That being so, over a few years a Ferrari could quite easily be had. Oh, and there is only ONE colour red on a Ferrari: Ferrari Red, always a proprietary colour, unchanged since the beginning, and always the most expensive colour to mix. The chemical source of that rich, deep, vibrant red is nothing less than gold… in abundance.

Further, it would appear our “hero” is one many others are trying to emulate, the remainder of the details we see in his life and “ministry” reek of cubic money, he seems to have no problem with conspicuous consumption (nor do others), ans thus the Ferrari fits… even to the detail of cutting round everyone else to get to the motorway with no delay. He MUST have his own personal car park, directly accessible to the feeder road.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:18:48 +0000

So if everyone is tithing like they should be who cares if the pastor has a Ferrari? I trust our session to set a suitable salary for our pastor. If he can squeeze a sweet, sweet car out of it more power to him (and all the doctors who tithe )

By: Blake

Blake — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:44:32 +0000

I think commas are over-used, especially as people try to use them to reflect the cadence of their own voice in their head when writing.
“She was so good-looking that when she first started out in television five years before everyone who saw her simply assumed that she was an idiot,” is a sentence that doesn’t need any commas.

Yeah, well I think the main thing counting against the Ferrari is Chad Lester’s policy on approachability. Also, for some reason in my mind, the unlocked doors at the church seem to oppose the pastor driving the Ferrari. Land Rover maybe?

Oh, and Miguel deserves some hard time for what he is doing. Wouldn’t he be a multi-millionaire by now? How could he hide it all? Despicable–worse than Lester.