The little brown church in the vale

(Saddleback Church video tour-it's huge!)

Some interesting stuff in the news about McStraightTalkExpress and the Saddleback Church love fest. But that's not important right now.

Why was a mega-church, that has its own street and practically its own ZIP code, charging people to attend the Obama-McCain event? It wasn't a fund raiser, and it was a chance to watch historical Democracy in action, yet this rich church charged people.

The Glibertarian OC Register had this to say:

"Church officials said they decided to charge admission for people who wanted a chance to see the Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls because of the expenses to stage the event and provide television feeds to a host of networks."

This is utter crap. I have done audio tech work at Saddleback Church as I mention a few posts ago, and I've seen their operation.

They have audio & video facilities that would embarrass the L.A. NBC, CNN & CBS affiliates, including high-tech and expensive fiber audio & video links between various parts of the campus, ProTools rigs for recording every utterance that comes out of Warren's mouth, state-of-the-art wireless microphones, a recording studio, complete audio & video post-production, all with the finest equipment available.

This place could handle any Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical with simultaneous satellite up-linking, network distribution, SAP language feed, and a full orchestra without breaking a sweat. They could do that in the main church, while holding a rock concert in one of the other venues, while rehearsing an 80 voice choir in still another building.

This place is more high-tech than the L.A. Music Center and Kennedy Center combined. The only thing that might complicate their "feeds to a host of networks" might be buying a few more $10 BNC cables, available at RadioShack. In other words, it's a complete lie.

In this case, I don't know who are the biggest bastards, the church, or the OC Register.