OCR Text |
Show Village Christianity The Coffeehouse Pulpit The beatnik or eccentric adolescent who frequents frequ-ents coffeehouses on the West Coast leaves calico, taffy pulls, and Debbie Reynolds for the masses. No one really swings at a church social in a gingham dress where potato salad sells for two bits, and the relish on the hotdogs is free. Now, however their is a tendency for that small portion of the world that lives in a T-Shirt and dirty chinos to communicate with their "brothers" on the other side of the civilized civi-lized fence. : In the dimly lit coffeehouses of the United States, many Protestant ministers now appear havin gabandoned their pulpits and pews to pursue pur-sue that restless bit of America which sits in the ! smoked filled rooms of Le Rapport and the Thre shing Floor. It is claimed by the proprietors of the coffee-louse coffee-louse that the Christian perspective is being presented pre-sented "in a relevent but straightforward manner." Discussions include "chats" on civil rights, liturgical liturg-ical jazz, sex, love and meaning, religious existentialism, existential-ism, peace and disarmament, and Bertrand Russell. The Threshing Floor, in New York City, was founded as a religious coffeehouse by nine students and staff members from Union Theological Seminary. Its purpose was and still is to "provide a place in the Village where we could encounter the Village environment en-vironment and Villagers could encounter Christianity." Christian-ity." I What these religious "klatches" do is hard to say At The Door several months ago a member of the coffeehouse clan was heard to remark: '"I came here because I want to see what religious people are like before I decide whether to get involved myself. And, just between you and me, I may get involved." i |