³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now, Charlie is  freethinker, and he is Scottish by adoption. One of the reasons I like him is that he often comes to the same conclusions as I do from a completely different starting point. There is much wisdom in this world, and not all of it is Christian. In these times, when large, cold and powerful bodies tell us what to think and do (and want us to spend money on sport when those who depend on grain as suffering because the prices of wheat and grain are very high: the USA and Canada are in drought) we need to praise all those who tell the truth.

What Stross has done in his book — which is now out on Kindle is attack three errors in the current MegaChurch Gospel.

1. He nails the showmanship and professionalism in which emotions are manipulated. He describes the use of rhetoric in occultic terms — as a glamour, as something that we will fall for.
2. He notes that the leaders end up following something that one of the more sympathetic characters (his mate, who is a Vicar with a PhD in Essene doctrines on the end times) describes as beyond loopy and highly dangerous. If you follow your emotions and heart — and truly believe you are doing right — you can do a lot of evil.  And the antichurch he describes deserves a good crusade. Of the Albigensian type
3. Most importantly, the antichurch was seeking power and control. It preached prosperity gospel and influencing politicians, not care for the poor and needy.