Pastors on the playa

Over the past several years, the annual Burning Man event in Nevada has gained a higher and higher profile. In some quarters, this event is viewed with alarm. Is it a convocation of “earth-worshipping pagans” and a preview of Hell?

Does the Lord tell you to “lead a team to Burning Man”? Does it speak to one of the favorite notions of Abrahamic religion, that, “historically, God has chosen the desert as a backdrop when He wanted to strip the peripherals away”?

The third writer, Randy Bohlender, adds, ” I go to Burning Man because I want the church of the future to learn lessons that can only be learned when one goes to where the future is headed. ” (I have given the links in order of increasing theological liberalism, as I see it.)

Undoubtedly, some Burners would flinch at seeing a Christian spin put on this determindly non-sectarian even–or a capital-P Pagan spin either. A Pagan theologian like Michael York, with his position that “Paganism is root religion,” could argue that Burning Man undoubtedly contains Pagan cultic elements at an almost unconscious level, an observation that would probably delight Thomas Horn, the first author linked to.

I suppose it’s a dubious sign of success when people start trying to “spin” your event to fit their theologies and ideologies.