Rathbun's Post-rapture Radio

Rathbun's book is a satire on the state of current American evangelicalism told through the voice of a narrator who stumbles upon the writers and journals of the Reverend Richard Lamblove. Lamblove finds himself in a highly-exaggerated evangelical church, trying to make sense of everything and ultimately, tries and fails to change it. Rathbun's overall critique is upon evangelical and megachurches focus on numbers, individualism, and status.

pxix "A seeker would never consider entering an antique building, dark and dour, to listen to old-fashioned music and hear an oddly costumed professor give a speech. But it was not a stretch for that same seeker to pull into the new church's large parking lot, enter the wide glass doors, sit in the theater-style seats, watch a band play familiar-sounding music, and hear a person dressed in regular clothes share a little bit about life."
p19 "...any church not meeting the Retail Needs of its congregation had an average of only six to thirteen months of "Potential Relevance" left.
p40 "This peace that Jesus is talking about is what we would probably call convenience."
p53 Evangelical Hermeneutic: It is about me. It tells me what to do or what not to do. It condemns those who are different from me. It implies the opposite.
p81 "Salvation has nothing to do with eternal self-interest. Salvation has nothing to do with building your own security pod that will jettison you to heaven when the world gets too hateful or your body gives out."
p86 "what takes more faith--to believe that God can save you and offer personal fulfillment and comfort, or to believe that God can reorient the whole world from one of hate, greed, fear and personal gain, to one ruled be peace and justice?"
p107 "I just want everyone to feel comfortable"
p145 "Where is the fire in baptism? Everybody does the water but where is the fire?"
p151 "Christ sacrificed himself once and for all, and when we remember that definitive act of love through the ritual of the Lord's Supper, there can be no qualifications in our invitation to the table."
p155 "We know the trajectory of power and glory...Sacrifice and humility is another story."
p160-2 "The people in these churches had adopted the culture of Rome, and so the message of Revelation is that they are living by the values of the Empire and not the values of the Kingdom of God."