On the Edge in Austin
Andy Crouch
July 1, 1999
A young woman in a cool skirt steps out of Austin, Texas's Hope Chapel into a hot Friday night, her cell phone in hand. "I'm at this church," she tells the caller, in a tone of voice that suggests that church is not her usual Friday night -- nor, probably, Sunday morning -- location. By the end of the evening she'll probably be even more surprised. Tonight the audience of about 250 will be assaulted by a hail of simulated gunfire, enticed or repulsed (or maybe both) by lust, and enveloped in an orgiastic frenzy of self-destruction. And all in a stereotypical padded-pew, middle-class church on Austin's outskirts. It's the second weekend of performances for The Merry-Go-Round, a homegrown piece of multimedia theater produced almost entirely by members of Hope Chapel's congregation. These young artists are trying to show their artsy friends, and their Christian community, that there's such a thing as good Christian art. And -- demonic orgies aside -- they're having a great time. The Merry-Go-Round's audience includes a lot of kids, mostly teens, with their parents, giving the place a family atmosphere, more Star Wars than Eyes Wide Shut. Even after the lights dim, instead of the usual expectant hush, the chatter continues, making the audience seem for all the world like an oversized family waiting for the beginning of Touched By an Angel. But the arrival of a barefoot monk, his face hidden by his cassock's hood, does cause a certain lull, and by the time he's finished his ominous ritual at the seven-candled altar at the back of the stage, snuffing out each candle with bare fingers, even the junior high kids have forgotten to breathe. I'm in Austin because of an email that dropped in my inbox that began, "Life is short, so we ...
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