[Cronos]

The campus and decor are the culmination of a high-church revival in American Protestantism that began in the 19th century. It was then that evangelical Christians, who had traditionally assembled in meeting houses and preaching halls, constructed faux-Gothic edifices, dressed their preachers in gowns, and "beautified" their services, exchanging tedium for vulgarity.

That seems to be the case when you try and strip The Church into parts ("oh, we won't have sacraments and songs are the work of the devil, only preaching is good") --> these groups veered wildly from one extreme to another. They wanted to have only austerity and solemnity and grayness and took it to an extreme. Then they turned to the other extreme

G.K. Chesterton put it well when he said

When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage.

The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful

- "Orthodoxy"

[presently no screen name]

They veered about from God’s Word or never knew God’s Word.

It’s not complicated. Those churches are all about ‘man’.

God’s Church is ALL about JESUS! And His Body of Believers go to HIM for everything. Never man.

[kosta50]

Why did they file for bankruptcy?

[dsc]

Every time I see something by Chesterton I am astonished anew at the power of his intellect.