from my daughter saying that she’d ‘missed the bus’ and that a counselor, some random youth leader, was driving her home.” On the other hand, he con- fesses, “We let her take an Uber to MyCity once. Later, I thought about it; maybe that’s not such a good idea.” I asked him, “What’s


Landmarks you thought you knew A Bridge at Last


Among local bridges McDaniel favors the Cabrillo, spanning Highway 163 in Balboa Park, for its old-fashioned, nostalgic appeal. The Coronado Bridge over San Diego Bay is another project for which he has some admiration; it’s not too spectacular, but its height, geometry, and color are appealing. His unqualifi ed praise, however, is reserved for the Lilac Road Bridge over Interstate 15 about ten miles


north of Escondido. BY JOHN FRY, JUNE 19, 1980


A Small Role to Play The trolley’s fi rst leg, to San Ysidro


and the border, was completed for $116 million, about $30 million more than the 1978 prediction. This was true, in a technical sense; a single trolley track to the border had been completed for $86 million. But by the time construction on the fi rst track began, MTDB had already decided it needed two


tracks and additional trolley cars. BY MATT POTTER, JAN. 25, 1990


You Can’t Take Much with You The Navy decided to build a wall around the property to hold vaults that would contain the ashes of more than 5000 veterans and their families. “In the future, it could be built to accommodate 30,000 to 40,000 more,” he says. Each cubicle measures 11- by 16-inches and is sealed by a thick slab of white marble. The vault has the ability to hold three sets of ashes for the veteran, wife, and dependent


At Fort Rosecrans,


child. BY MELINDA POWELSON, MAY 5, 1994


God’s Dirt “It’s not for the faint-hearted. It’s


pretty high-risk because they’re very, very, very, very perishable. When the fl owers are bloomed, you have to pick ’em. And you have to sell ’em. Otherwise you throw them away. It’s very intense. Let’s say you’re sitting there with $15,000 or $20,000 in the fi eld, and it rains. And you can’t pick. You throw that money away. If it’s hot, it burns ’em. If it’s cold, it


freezes ’em.” BY JEANNETTE DE WYZE, MARCH 9, 1995


Drive to the Sky It’s a design originally used by


German naval engineers building battle ships. Instead of showing off its muscles like a suspension bridge, it keeps them all hidden inside, beneath. It doesn’t have huge shoulders that brag about its strength like the Golden Gate or Brooklyn Bridge. It was originally set to be painted red like the former (red is easier and cheaper to maintain), but the planners decided on blue: it’s more harmonious with the surroundings. BY THOMAS LUX, MARCH 16, 2000


How Is the Coaster Doing? Mitchell Reiss can relate.


“Freeway capacity provides 24-hour availability and true point-to-point access. Contrast that to the heavily restricted and infl exible nature of the Coaster. That, of course, is one of the main reasons no one wants to ride it. A dollar spent on a freeway buys something vastly different from a dollar spent on a train.” BY JOE DEEGAN, JUNE 3, 2004


sdreader.com/news/from-archives


Finally — the 1,500 best stories from 44 years of the Reader — fully transcribed. An ongoing project through the end of 2016.


your fear? Pedophiles?” Hesitating, he replied, “This one girl, who said she was 26, told me that she’d had a background check and was approved by C3 Church. In my anger, I said, ‘The world’s largest church was brought to its knees by church- approved folks.’ The counselor said, ‘Don’t worry — it’s women with girls, men with boys’ and so on. ‘I don’t care,’ I said. ‘In my mind, it’s inap- propriate.’ She’s probably a great gal, but it bothers me that they think it’s okay to do that.” Are MyCity youths


having too much fun while getting introduced to God? John’s concerned. “Let me tell you,” he


exclaims. “A lot of it is just a ‘hook-up’ for mid- dle-school kids. It became apparent (and I’m not alone in thinking this) that my daughter realized, ‘this is a great place to meet other kids.’ That would include boys. So, I’ve been letting my daughter, who just turned 13, and my son, who’s 12, go to a place where there are 18-year- old high school seniors. Is it a ‘make-out party’ or is it a church? I’m a little taken aback; the environ- ment makes me uncom- fortable. I’m just not used to young kids holding hands, swarming all over one another and snuggling during a sermon.... It’s just a little too wide open and they pander to the kids too much.” David Chiddick dis-


misses John’s concerns


as much ado about noth- ing, minor technicalities at most. Speaking in a preacher’s cadence, he sounds a note of weariness. “Our leaders give up


their job, their time, their money — to pick up kids whose parents are too lazy to take them. So for the focus to be, ‘I never signed a consent form,’ is pretty shocking and amazing.” But, admits Chiddick,


in apparent response to said concerns, MyCity Youth has implemented some changes. “We no longer con-


tact kids under 16 without parental consent; that’s a policy of our church that’s in place now. And when we hold organized events, such as summer camps, every parent signs a waiver form.” He adds, “Every


leader is over 18 and has gone through an exten- sive background check,” but admits, “as of yet, we don’t have parents sign a waiver for counselors to pick up their kids because, legally, we’re not required to. That’s something we definitely would look into in the future if parents are concerned. But we’ve had zero feedback and input from parents suggest- ing that.” I asked John, “Orga-


nized pranks aside, are C3’s teachings consistent with your own beliefs?” “I’ve never been to


their services,” he con- cedes. “I guess I’m cynical, but personally, I wouldn’t get involved in a church like C3. My kids tell me it’s a cult. That’s part of my fascination. What’s their game?” The word “cult” is a


lightning rod around fun- damentalists, and in the hinterlands of the inter- net one can find critics (who appear to hail from obscure non-denomina- tional Protestant sects) who term C3 Church a


cult. The critiques read like dispatches from interne- cine skirmishes. “What’s their defini-


tion of a cult?” asks Chid- dick. “What do they mean by that? A lot of people call things a cult when they don’t know what they are. I would say to those people, ‘You need to come and spend time with us.’ I’m not going to say, ‘We’re not a cult,’ because to me, there’s no point in defending that. I don’t have to defend who God is or what God is doing. In the Bible, Jesus says, ‘I will build my church,’ so I don’t have to worry about that. Everywhere we go, people are going to say things like that.” Setting aside for the


moment allusions to Shakespeare’s oft-quoted excessive protest com- mentary, Chiddick is all in. Imbued with all the fervor one would expect from a pastor whose flock embraces glossolalia, he spoke of his personal jour- ney from would-be com- mando to youth preacher. “All I know is that I


walked into the church a broken person with no thought of what I was going to do with my life. I had got dropped from Navy SEAL training, which is what I was try- ing to do with my life. I walked into church and encountered God. He radically changed my life and I know thousands of others with the same story. Unfortunately, people are entitled to their own inter- pretation of what we do; they’re going to call things for what they think it is. It has less to do with what we’re doing and more to do with what’s happening in their hearts.” I asked John if MyC-


ity has changed his kids. “Do your son and daugh- ter come home Friday nights and exclaim, ‘Hal- lellujah, Dad! Praise the


20 San Diego Reader February 9, 2017


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