DAVID CRUMM: Getting to the root of religion

this is the kind of place i want 'next' to be...

DAVID CRUMM: Getting to the root of religion: "On Sunday morning, I walked into the battleship-gray church, set up in the gutted interior of the mall's former anchor store. People settled into rows of plastic chairs facing a central stage, most of us curiously staring at the huge pile of topsoil in the middle of what other churches call the altar.

After 20 minutes of rock-style hymns, Bell walked up to the dirt pile in a work shirt. He lifted a handful of soil and retold the Bible story of God taking dirt and breathing life into the first humans. For half an hour, Bell talked about the wondrous nature of breathing, borrowing from Jewish, Christian and Hindu teachings.

He described breath as a form of prayer and urged people to relax and 'breathe out' all of their anger and stress from the past week. He knelt and prayed, 'God, we are fragile clods of dirt, and we need you to breathe into us hope and truth and love and courage.'"