Heavy metal in church

Hard-core for Christ: Churches cater to 'gutter punks' across U.S. |Dallas Morning News, 3/25/07: "'In every metro area in America, there is at least one church that appeals to heavy metal fans,' said Dave Travis, executive vice president of Leadership Network, a Dallas-based church-growth think tank.

'It's a subculture,' he said. 'As each new generation of believers gets excited about their faith, they invent new churches for their lifestyle. American Christians are very entrepreneurial in reaching young people.'

The Sundance Channel is paying attention to this trend as well. It recently aired the six-part documentary titled One Punk Under God , about Jay Bakker (son of Jim Bakker) and his struggle to plant a church for outcasts in New York.

Mr. Thumma, a sociologist of religion, said that Deliverance Bible Church is part of a vast movement of individualism in American Christian churches that started several decades ago. He said U.S. Christians have a tendency to adapt their spiritual experiences to their lifestyles, whether they're gay, bikers or gutter punks.

'These congregations that have arisen around subgroups in evangelism – and what probably started with the 'Jesus people' in the late '70s to early '80s – have gotten more diverse, doing it in their own idioms and their own ways,' Mr. Thumma said."

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