Big difference between the % of people who belong to a church and the % of people who regularly GO to a church.
That number hasn’t been above 25% in my lifetime, and is below 20% today.
But don’t worry, they usually vote with the church anyway.
4 Likes
Which church? There is no one “church”… even in a more hierarchical organization like the Catholic church.
8 Likes
Obligs:
11 Likes
This has been an ongoing problem - even with historic churches that had large congregations. Megachurches and the convenience of attending at home (my aunt calls this “going to St. Mattress”) have made it very difficult for small churches to survive. Taxing them would be the last straw, so maybe a scale based on income would help.
During the pandemic, churches using Zoom and/or recorded services on social media have been increasing their attendance. Not sure if they’ve also set up online payments for offerings, though. Before the pandemic, visiting other churches usually involved a special event, an invitation and a road trip. A few of my family members in NJ and MD have recommended services from churches in VA, NYC, and FL. So, they’re enjoying more variety (and frequency of services) because of technology. They’re still members of their “home churches,” but most haven’t set dates to reopen yet because of changing state guidelines.
8 Likes
Those who imagine American Christians as a monolithic force of regressive, white supremacist ideology tend to forget how many progressive causes were championed by various churches.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s doctorate wasn’t in physiology.
20 Likes
Nor Sen. Warnocks… And let’s not forget those radical quakers.
17 Likes
One of Warnock’s sermons (the one about what happens when you’re wandering in the wilderness after leaving Egypt) showed me he had the insight to be a great political leader.
6 Likes
thank god I’m an atheist
9 Likes
In my experience, they don’t. The catholic church down the street from me (even with multiple masses during covid times) is empty 4 of the 5 weekdays. The main Methodist church in the center of town is merely a landmark every day but Sunday, and others operate the same way. The only church in town that is busy 7 days is the one that operates as a synogogue on Saturdays and has a daycare/preschool the other 5 days. I am sincerely glad to hear that in other places they are being used more efficiently, but from my POV the one well-utilized church building in my town of 30,000 people isn’t exactly batting 1000.
When I was a kid I grew up in a town of 800 people and there were 8 discrete churches in town, each with their own buildings. It boggles my mind how much of that offering money at each of them went to maintaining the most surperfluous buildings for so long.
2 Likes
1 Like
Now if only people would stop giving money to those TV preachers–the ones that make “God” a 3-syllable word–so they can buy planes and, of course, donate to the GOP. You know who I mean (hint: all of them).
…But this is a good start.
5 Likes
“It tells them that you are interested in the appearances of things, and that they are free to work on the substance.” Can confirm this to be true. When I challenge my religious family members about their hypocrisy vis a vis T**** etc, they’re essentially happy that I’m distracted by that and am not actually getting around to criticizing their policy preferences and other agenda items.
3 Likes
I personally praise god every Sunday for the extra hour of life I’ve enjoyed after becoming an adult, and leaving the church.
8 Likes
The idea that “faith” is what matters, and “religion” is an unnecessary, or even corrupt, outgrowth of that, is an exceedingly modern and extremely narrow viewpoint that only makes any kind of sense in the context of post-Enlightenment Western Protestant Christianity, and not even all of that. It’s quite inaccurate about most human religion across the world and throughout the history, including most of Christianity. It dismisses all the cultural and social aspects of religion, with a myopic focus on abstract dogma and “personal faith” as opposed to faith manifesting in your lived life and your relationship with your neighbors and society.
5 Likes
Grew up Catholic had the constant fear I would get smited at any moment
fortunately I was spared Catholic school and have spared my kids all of that
and they can think for them selves as well
9 Likes
We may have different definitions of faith and religion and I’ll grant that religion has been a primary source of much good in the word such as literacy, but I can’t think of one religion that hasn’t resulted in masses of people doing things that an individual would likely never do. Whether on the balance a particular religion has done more good than harm is a bit beside the point, imo. Maybe a more appropriate wording would be organized religion as opposed to the practice of faith.
4 Likes
I grew up in a very religious family, our last name appeared at the bottoms of stained glass windows in our church as donors. We attended every Sunday and big holidays. We were involved in church business and upkeep.
But I never believed. Going every week, doing all the motions, singing in a dead tongue, it only emphasized that it was all just superstitious hogwash. I could pretend to believe to get through the service, but pretending is basically just lying, so its a “sin” either way.
Ironically as a young adult reading the story of Jesus as a fiction helped me more than believing it as historical truth. If I were to define the point of “Christianity” it’s being kind to one another, helping those in need. But for a lot of Christians the point is “accepting Christ as your Savior”-- in other words the point of being a Christian is being a Christian, it’s about security.
I can’t honestly call myself anything, not even agnostic. I still think Jesus is a pretty cool dude, I just don’t think he would have demanded we go to church. Assuming he ever existed.
8 Likes
Well there is that whole thing about saving one’s eternal soul from hellfire and damnation. And wanting to save others from that fate, because what are you some kind of monster that would let that happen to people? When those are the stakes it shouldn’t be surprising to see kindness or not insisting on the right to stick your nose in other peoples’ lives fall down the list.
I always recommend that if someone wants to understand christianity (well, assuming one is already familiar with the basics) is to read the sermon from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The sermon lays it all out in plain sight and impeccable internal logic why christians, if they take their own teachings seriously, tend to be such assholes. I think it’s a mistake to assume they are being selfish and power hungry; most of them think they are helping save your soul.
2 Likes
Naturally you aren’t referring to Christians who frequent this bbs. While I am not one, I’d find this a bit insulting.
4 Likes
Sorry, perhaps I should have said “historically”, or specified the list of behaviors I’m sure people here wouldn’t do.
2 Likes
