We've noted over the last week or so a certain detachment from reality. On the one end we watched an atheist grasp at something numinous or transcendent or preternatural. It takes a real thing, a serious thing, to make an atheist wonder if God had a hand in it. It's not the sort of conclusion atheists jump to. And wondering if God has had a hand in our liturgy is not a frequent occurrence in church any longer. It's true that Christians mouth the words, but watch how they sing their songs and ask yourself if there is anything divine in it or is it merely maudlin testimony. Read their texts and see if you find yourself moved or if you merely recite vanities. Vain repetition does not have great standing among the writers of Scripture.

On the shallower end of the gene pool is Trevor Magee with his cartoon notions of moral obligation. Apparently he learns more about God on Saturday morning than on Sunday morning, but he really does think he has advice to offer. I'm sure he thinks he's a serious person.

Then there was Fadel's moronic primer on songwriting.

Gaebelein told us long ago (and his involvement with the arts and his national reputation warranted something of a hearing) to give some attention to standards and to exercise discrimination. This we did not do.

Making every allowance for the disparity in today's religious entertainments, there is an underlying thread here. You might think you escaped Fadel's Asylum Art into Majesty Hymns; I wonder if you should take any comfort in that. The standards and the discrimination are absent.

It seems to me that to leave the heart unwarmed, unchastened and unelevated in church is to be worse than pagan. A pagan can be irreverent in the woods; what sort of man can be irreverent in the temple?

Regularly.

As you sit back and try to discriminate between good and better, as you move certain things from the acceptable column into the unacceptable column, and as you throw the intolerable into the dumpster, ask yourself on what grounds you do so. What informs your preferences? Your innate goodness? Your profound spirituality? Your short hair and long skirts? Your tattoos and knitted caps?

I suspect that to the shocked atheist it all looks preposterous, substandard and totally lacking in discrimination.