The Seattle Bizarro World Anti-Church

I assume that most people will remember the Seinfeld episode where Seinfeld and his friends meet their “oddly normal” counterparts, which they refer to as “Bizarro World.” Well, I have met the Bizarro World counterpart to our home church.

While here in Seattle, visiting my cousin, who is a humanist and atheist, we met up with some of her friends from the Seattle Atheists organization for a party for the 4th of July. We got there late, and I walked into the room, and was greeted by a few friendly faces. I looked around, and there was a middle-aged guy teaching a young teenager how to play a song on the guitar. We went outside, and there were several others out back, sitting around in a circle, talking about “normal” stuff. They had had a grill potluck, complete with beef burgers and veggie burgers… but all the beef burgers were gone. I sat down and listened as one of them said suddenly, “I finally found an issue that I can join the conservatives on.” “Why would you want that?” replied someone. “I miss being conservative. I want to be conservative, but I just can’t be now.” So, before he could explain his issue that he could be “conservative” about, the group made him explain why he wanted to be conservative. Then he went on to share his thoughts, which resulted in good-natured ribbing, honest discussion, and total civility. A little later, a guy pulled up a chair and started talking to my cousin and me. He talked about how one of the members of the group wanted to produce an Atheist Show for public access TV… and how he didn’t have time to work on it… and thought only astrologers and weirdo Christians had public access TV.

Apparently, this is pretty typical for this group. They meet regularly, have meals together (either potlucks or at restaurants), sit in a circle and talk about things, celebrate birthdays and weddings and holidays, share songs on the guitar, and generally seem to function like extended family. The parallels were more than a little unnerving.

So, this Bizarro World anti-church reinforced a couple of things to me. First, Atheists are normal people with normal lives who are seeking very similar things in life. They don’t have Bible burnings (though I think some of them wouldn’t mind it), they don’t have a monolithic political agenda, and they value marriage (at least, some do; they recently had a wedding in their group, and some are married) and relationships. Second, Atheists are seeking the same thing our group is seeking – relational intimacy (ie, family). In this respect, I begin to really value to “model” of relationality that a Triune God involved in the perichoresis provides to those of us seeking intimate relationships.