http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2519752,00.htmlTom Creekin Willow Creek, Illinois
American Evangelical Christians scare the hell out of secular Britons and, while their reputation may be unfair, it has been long in the making and is reinforced by some truth.
First came the monstrous sexual hypocrisy and fraud of Jim Bakker, then the foaming homophobia of Jerry Falwell — whose rants have included declaring Aids to be “the wrath of God” and saying that Hillary Clinton was more hated by conservative voters than Satan.
And more recently the European Left has been concerned about an American Religious Right bent on ensuring that the Book of Revelation’s apocalyptic prophecies come true through the current President’s policy on Iraq, Israel and the Middle East.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Evangelicals have a very different, but also damaging, image. The damp-palmed jeans-clad vicar who plays guitar in a Christian rock band does not scare anyone but fashion writers.
Somewhere between these two caricatures there may be an answer to the riddle about why Britain and America, nations with history, language and culture in common, have grown so far apart on religion.
That answer may just be found in Willow Creek Church, near Chicago, recently rated in a survey including 2,000 pastors as the most influential of any in America. It has grown from virtually nothing into an Evangelical megachurch with weekend congregations of 20,000, assets of $150 million (£76 million) and an annual turnover of $26 million. If that sounds like a business, that is because it is run like one: Harvard and Stanford MBA s handle the day-to-day management.
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