The answer was surprising. The impediment to family faith was, in a word, men. They balked. Here were the common refrains: "Churches are always asking for money." "Church services are boring, predictable, routine, and irrelevant." "All you do is stand up and sit down." "I don't like being shamed." When he could speak just to men, he really found out the secret: men don't like being religious in public. It's not that they are not eager for the epiphanic experience; it's that they prefer it not to be displayed. Promise Keepers, the fundamentalist Christian group that fills football stadiums with men, has been hectored for its sexist policy, but it has understood male reticence. In the company of women, men don't want to be told to sing, to say stuff, or to give anything. They don't like losing control. They like the sense of voluntary activity, of doing something, of questing, exploring the edge on their own.

—James B. Twitchell, Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld