Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Hillsong

Tumbi Umbi. Tuggerah. Wyong.
These are the places I'm familiar with, having just visited rellies on the NSW central coast.
Things are different there. It's not just like the difference between Prahran and Hawthorn; or Sydney and Melbourne. It's different.
Firstly, yeah the weather is good. But more importantly, everyone is white. Church is big. And weirdly, there are lots of mums much younger than me, pushing strollers around the shopping centres. Public transport? Forget it, take your big-arse 4-wheel drive to the nearest shopping centre. Shopping centres? Everywhere. No old-fashioned strips there - everything is mega.
Lots of golf clubs for the retirees; lots of surfers. We ate our first breakfast at Bay Beach, on the foreshore, off polystyrene. POLYSTYRENE?!

But the big thing, the big weird uncomfortable thing, was that my family up there are religos. They are members of one of those evangelical new-skool churches. Like Hillsong. Maybe it IS Hillsong. My cousins 21st on Saturday was a sit-down dinner for 100. On the stage in the hall, grace was said into the karaoke microphone.

5 comments:

j. ethan duran said...

very twilight zone...did u get converted?

mskp said...

oh, PLEASE tell me they had those nu-rock gospel songs a la creed and half of eurovision!

Steve Chatelier said...

bugger. bloody religos.

Bonnie Conquest said...

Hey Steve - I thought you'd say that! Heh heh.

Aleks - Anarcho-Syndicalist said...

What's scary is Family First - a Hillsong front organisation. What happened last election? The Victorian ALP made a deal with them, and as a result Stephen Fielding was voted in. Has the ALP learnt from this? No, they are still trying to get prefernce deals for this year federal election.