Bumped. Guess this is what happens when you lose to Karl Dorrell with a National Championship on the line. GO BRUINS. -N



Earlier this evening, at the request of a friend who did not want to go alone, I attended a service at the Agape Spirtual Center in Los Angeles. For those of you who have not heard of it, Agape is a non-demoninational place of worship (housed in a large section of a business park in Culver City) that is run by man who is an Oprah regular and is profiled in the new age book du jour The Secret. Although I wasn't excited about going, I was slightly curious to see what this place was all about and boy was I glad I went.

An important point to make before I go in is that the only thing I noticed while walking through the parking lot was a large, shiny black Range Rover with a usc license plate frame. My first thought was "I never would have expected to see that here" This was more of a place for the Berkeley crowd and industry folks who are trying to find a deeper meaning of life that goes beyond a new BMW, weekly yoga classes or guilt-free Pinkberry.

Let me give you some names of real and fictional people who might attend Agape:   Diane (Cheers), Drama and Lloyd (Entourage), Kramer (Seinfeld), Amanda (The Bad News Bears), Denise (The Cosby Show), Vic the Brick Jacobs and Britney Spears.

Here's the WTF? part.

Ten minutes into his welcome address the reverend asks for members of the audience to share what they have learned from coming to Agape. The first person to testify was a woman who said "now I really feel alive." The next, was a man who now knew that he "had the power" to be what he wanted to be. And then the reverend asked the following question:

"Pete, where are you? Pete?"

Pete stood waved from the shadows in the back.

"Oh, there you are," said the reverend. "Pete is a football coach.'

I had a funny feeling in my stomach as I sat up and looked across to the other side of the room. I said to myself "It can't be." And then I remembered the Range Rover and, my god, it was. Pom Pom was in the audience. His face was televised on the jumbo screen. He was wearing a t-shirt, but Agape is very casual so that wasn't inappropriate (still, it seemed strange). He looked just like any random guy who dropped in for some fellowship after a walk on the beach and the reverend made the appearance seem so matter of fact like "Pete" was such a down-to-earth and deeply in tune guy. If you ask me, the whole thing is a calculated move on Pom Pom's part to give him the appearance of a spiritual man doing his best to guide the lives of the young men on his team. And what better place to do that then at the church of a guy who is praised by Oprah? Maybe the reverend will introduce the two of them and then he can go on her show and explain to the country how he understands the importance of being spiritually awake. Now I have no problem with spiritual enlightenment but Pom Pom sure as hell is not the Dalai Lama of South Central.

I will end this story by sharing with you a small portion of what Pom Pom said to the reverend (and the audience) about his attendance at Agape:

"It's great to be in this place, to be among all these angels." And by angels he was referring to the audience. I swear this is true. I probably let out a sigh of disgust that was not in alignment with the spiritual vibe of the place but can you blame me? I am still rolling my eyes just thinking about it.