Prophet Wanted: Entry-Level Position, No Tablets or Burning Bush Required

Religion News Blog ^ | Aug. 28, 2006 | Michael Luo

[Sopater]

The help-wanted ad had the whiff of a practical joke. “Documentary will pay you $5,000 to start your own religion,” it said. “No exp. necessary.”

“I laughed out loud,” said Joshua Boden, 35, a bald-headed bassist in an indie rock band, the Angelic Bombs, who stumbled across the ad in the Village Voice last spring.

But Mr. Boden, whose friends have long urged him to write down some of the bits of pop religion and philosophy that he has developed over the years, said his curiosity was piqued. He went to the corresponding Web site and dashed off an application.

As it turned out, the advertisement was seeking participants for a very real, albeit unusual, social experiment: take $5,000 to start your own religious movement, in exchange for allowing a film crew to follow you around as you try to get under way.

The project, while certainly amusing to some, is intended to examine a serious set of questions about how religious movements begin and take hold. “It’s not cynical or skeptical,” said Andy Deemer, 33, an independent filmmaker who hatched the idea. “Ultimately, I want the project to be interfaith and supporting different faiths.”

And while it may seem like a funny idea, embedded within this project lies a historical truth: every religion, from the ones with millions of believers worldwide to those with just a handful, started somewhere, with someone.

[Sopater]

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

-Colossians 2:8

[ArrogantBustard]

[shezza]

LOL! My (thetan's) thoughts exactly.

[siunevada]

So, if you took the $5K and didn't actually do anything, how would they know you weren't functioning within your religious precepts?