Summary: 7 missions (5 successful, 2 aborted) around San Jose California. My trusty God Detector never went off, and Dan Barker's Easter Quiz was a great item to leave on the literature table.
- Christ the Life Lutheran Church had an Easter sunrise service. I stayed for the first two minutes and left two flyers in pew books.
- St. John the Baptist Catholic Church had another Easter sunrise service. I left a flyer in a pew book, but I didn't take a photo because it was standing-room-only, and I felt like I was being watched. (Almost all of the people were Filipino. I'm not.) The priest said that "our cousins" the Eastern Orthodox priests bless eggs on Easter and give the eggs out to attendees. He didn't say whether he believes in the Easter Bunny, but now I wonder how the flyer will be interpreted. Maybe the reader will think:
- Since the priest suggested that Easter eggs are blessed, then Easter Bunny may be real.
- Jesus is real.
- Since the flyer says the answers are always the same, Santa Claus must be real.
The priest also said "pessimism has no place in Christianity", then went on to say that an optimist (like Peter) is a merely a future pessimist (like Peter), and that people should be believers rather than optimists or pessimists. After hearing that, I started to understand "Catholic guilt" and why the old man sitting next to me had a "beaten dog" look on his face.
- North Valley Baptist Church and Golden State Baptist College is basically a miniature version of Bob Jones University, but instead of being located in the Bible Belt, it's right in the middle of Silicon Valley. There were lots of young couples walking to church and lots of buses bringing in the
suckers people. I left a DVD and a couple flyers in the pew books, but didn't stay for the meeting. The guy shown in the photo of the GSBC Commons seemed embarrassed about having a tourist (me) taking his photo like he's part of a museum display.
- Five Wounds Portuguese National (Catholic) Church
is a beautiful cathedral. I arrived for the last 10 minutes of the meeting. People took their time leaving-- dipping holy water onto themselves, touching and praying to the statues around the building, lighting candles, saying the rosary, kneeling and praying at the rail, etc. After most people left, I left a DVD and a flyer in the pew books. (This article says "Rev. Leonel Noia... was convicted of molesting a boy on a camping trip in 1976. He [then] served for 16 years as the pastor of Five Wounds Portuguese National Church in San Jose" from 1986 to 2002. It also quotes victims' attorney Robert Mezzetti Jr. as saying "These cases settled because of the insurance carrier stepping forward. These cases did not settle because of the archbishop.")
- Liberty Baptist Church is listed in
Way of Life's directory of fundamentalist Baptist churches. I stayed for part of Sunday School and left a flyer in a pew book. I also left a few copies of Dan Barker's Easter Challenge on the literature table. (I just printed out the questions without the commentary or the URL. That way, it will take more than a glance to realize that it's a Bible contradictions study.)
- Mission Peak Baptist Church is a terribly sad place. The ceiling is low, the lighting is dim, and the people all seemed very broken down. Entering the auditorium, the first guy I saw had a recently shaved head and a what looked like a big post-operative scar. The pastor tried to look confident, but he was wearing a yellow(?) shirt and a blue polyester suit with sleeves that reached down to his fingers. I left after a few minutes and didn't have the heart to leave any flyers.
- Bridges Community Church is the most hip church I've ever attended. It has a band playing contemporary music and a "Video Cafe" where you drink free coffee and eat free pastries while listening to the sermon. I was so busy looking at the cute Scandinavian girls that I didn't leave flyers. (Also, I noticed someone systematically cleaning all the pew racks, and I was still sad about MPBC.)
