Cowboy churches get back to basics, emphasize salvation

[damntexdem]

Hey, all y'all, here's what's happening in religion in Texas!

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/041209dnmetcowboychurch.d1d14c.html


By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Many churches will round off Easter worship with the "Hallelujah" chorus, but others will be singing "Happy Trails," the old Dale Evans and Roy Rogers tune.

Here, Easter bonnets will give way to Stetson hats, and any baptizing will be done not at a font or in a baptismal pool, but in a galvanized steel trough usually used for watering horses. Easter is a big deal in these churches, but as for the Easter theme of redemption – well, that's what it's about all year 'round.

These, pardner, would be your cowboy churches, a fast-growing part of the crowded religious landscape of Texas. They celebrate Western culture while trying to reach both cowboys and tenderfoots with an unpretentious, nonjudgmental approach.

...

[CreekDog]

1. i thought they emphasized tarnation

:P

[NeedleCast]

2. Seems Resonable

As long as this part is accurate: with an unpretentious, nonjudgmental approach

In Fact, if I were still a religious person, this sounds like just my cup of tea:

"People who have a problem with the traditional church – and problems in general, such as multiple divorces or substance abuse – are especially welcome.

"What we're really shooting for is to keep the riffraff in," said Gary Morgan, pastor of the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, in Waxahachie. "We tell people to come as they are, and buddy, they do."

[Chulanowa]

4. Well, I imagine the cowboy lifestyle doesn't have much time for all the bullshit

Dunk your head, say a prayer, and get back to work.

[arcadian]

3. Yeeeeeeee-Haaw!!!

[BoneDaddy]

5. I always find it so amazing how religion really doesn't change people

rather the people adapt it to their particular world view.

[Stevenmarc]

6. Religion like a theme restaurant, God bless America.

[Aristus]

7. I was born in Texas, but I live in the Pacific Northwest for a reason.

Texas: where every loser with a Stetson hat thinks he's a fucking cowboy.