GoingChurching.com was established as an outlet to open up the lines of communication about religion in our world. This site will be used to critically analyze ideas of faith, deity worship, religious tradition and religious practice.
On a regular basis (hopefully), a reporter for GoingChurching.com will visit a church, or place of worship in their local area. During these visits, the reporter will document every detail of the venue, including: name of venue / venue leaders, size of church vs. number of church goers, religious denomination / doctrine, summary of that visit’s surmon / lecture, and much, much more.
It is our mission, to provide fresh meaningful commentary on a wide variety of religious topics and to give critical reviews of the places of worship that we visit. GoingChurching.com is an atheist cooperative. This being the case our reviews will be based on skeptical / critical analysis, and are not influenced by any devotion to a certain religious affiliation or denomination.
Our Halo Rating System: Everytime GoingChurching.com visits a place of worship, we will conduct a survey, create a review and establish a “Halo” rating. We also assign “Halo” ratings to every post to signify our general attitude towards the topic. As a general rule, the following can be determined by the “Halo” rating:
1 halo
Standard Post: If this article doesn’t directly address “Atheist’s Worst Nightmare,” then it is something just as ignorant. Trust me.
Church Review: Nothing too exciting or mentally demanding going on in this place. This is your run-of-the-mill church experience. It is possible we slept through this service out of boredom.
2 halos
Standard Post: This article probably has something to do with Lee Strobel and his “evidence.” lol. If it’s not that, then we’re talking about some preacher who asks working class people to donate $1000 “seeds” into his ministry so that he can buy hookers and blow…. or something like that.
Church Review: Not much better than 1 halo. Maybe the church band was good enough to actually keep us awake for the sermon.
3 halos
Standard Post: You might be interested in this… you might not. There might be something worth reading here… there might not. More than likely, this will be about some whacky religious person doing something whacky. ………………..Whacky.
Church Review: Ok, now things are starting to get a little more lively. Perhaps the sermon was actually challenging, or maybe we were invited to a social luncheon following the service.
4 halos
Standard Post: Pat Robertson said that someone should be assasinated, Todd Friel thinks that he’s actually being effective, or the Vatican just installed a water fountain in the shape of stigmata that dispenses fruit punch kool aid. These are all worthy of 4 halos. Ok, maybe the fountain is worthy of 5 halos.
Church Review: We walked away from this service with something to think about. More than likely we weren’t convinced that god actually exists, but maybe there was some intellectual meat to be had from the sermon. 4 halos could also mean that some pretty crazy stuff happened as well. Maybe we didn’t get a whole lot of intellectual stimuli, but perhaps a good old fashioned “10% of your income will create a 100 fold return from God” sermon was preached. As the organs flare and holy spirit dancing becomes more prevalent, the halo ratings go up!!!
5 halos
Standard Post: This is the shit you need to spread to your friends. If you don’t read these articles, you are going to burn in hell forver! I swear to god.
Church Review: One of two things happened to us during this visit:
1) The craziest, most undeniable proof of the existence of a god was revealed to us, and now we are converted believers, or ….
2) Handling snakes and drinking poison were a standard part of the service.
So there you have it! Our halo rating for a given venue will always be accompanied by a review and summary of the experience, so you will know for certain why a certain halo rating was given.