Carl Trueman on why the phrase "doing church" is a linguistic "soul patch."
(And if you need a reminder about what Trueman thinks of soul patchs: "A couple of months back, I made some observations on the advent of that most ridiculous facial accoutrement, the soul patch. The size of these absurd tufts of hair is surely inversely proportional to their eloquence: any Christian man the wrong side of forty, or, to avoid sexism, any woman of any age, who sports one clearly suffers from that common Christian ailment of taking themselves far too seriously. The faux-rebellion such things express is really rather sad: along with dog collars and tattoos, these are things that have become oh-so-safe that every armchair ecclesiastical rebel feels the need for doing at least one of them to establish his credentials."
(Image from http://www.soulpatchrecords.com/.)
Update: Please note that the part I excerpted is more of a "teaser" than anything. He's actually making a serious point about "doing church" in the midst of having a bit of fun.
