Litany for Super Sunday

It’s a little late, but you can save this for next year. Peter Burfeind (Gnostic America) quotes this Superbowl Sunday litany:

“Minister: This is Superbowl Sunday, Lord. Millions will watch as the winner in each league battles for the championship and for a prized trophy.

“Congregation: We thrill to the skill, the ability and the performance of many who will play today.

“Minister: We thank you for the outstanding players in the life of your church – superstars like St. Paul, Peter, John, Stephen and Mary.

“Congregation: Most of us will never be Superbowl material, our Father.”

This illustrates, he argues, the Gnostic trajectory of American Evangelicalism, which he labels a New Age sector of the church: “the antinomian rejection of form, the deprecation of sacramental piety, the anti-intellectual disavowal of bookish knowledge, the relativistic erasing of distinctions (between, for example, man and woman, pastor and lay, or noble and base music), the personality cult centered on one person’s charisma, and the enthusiastic understanding of music.”