LeftRightThere
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I guess worshipping golden toilets and your members spewing hate all the time has consequences.
Capitalist mega churches are the future!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/churches-fight-stay-open-attendance-171803480.html
WolvesAreTheBestPeople
TooSoonOldTooLateSmart
This is why the Christian Nationalists are forcing Christian teachings into the public schools.
Rufferstuff
crankyoldgeezer
Turn them into condos
bardman135
Con-dos
Hercules99
Oh no! Anyway.
swedeonamoose
Lol meanwhile my local church just told us that you dont have to come here for god to know you love him, the local priest was jusy happy if people showed up once or twice per year other than for funerals and weddings.
StellaMatutina
Fuck them pedos
StellaMatutina
Or wait
awholelotofnothin
All right. It's time to buy those failing churches in the name of youth hostels for kids who have been rejected by their churchgoing parents!
lightfoot2
Good. And I'm glad this money is now going down the cesspool of huckster preachers instead of some of it finding a way back into the local community. Let these sinners rot.
Raventhief
Burn them all!
TerribleBot
SolarFlaair
Religions are the root of so much evil. Religions are the cause of many wars. Religion divides families. Living in fear of a vengeful being is the basis of religion. Man uses religion to become the hateful being and harm people claiming that their god told them to do it. Think Shira law. Think Christian leaders and pedophiles.
Photeus
In my opinion, the real problem stems from "Only we know the truth regarding the unknownable." For example, Christianity is saying that there is no path to God except Jesus. Since your religion is correct, then you need to impose that on others or they could be punished for all eternity believing in lies. This allows all sorts of evil and the worst of it since only what's beyond matters.
If a religion treats itself as one of many potential paths to the truth, it more promotes cooperation.
blau79
Not here in the south. There's a church every 10 feet
derekjohn
As an atheist, I notice that it is the Churches that are trying to stay closest to Jesus' teachings that are closing. The shysters survive.
an0therthr0waway
One contributing factor is people eschewing Faith in favor of Ideology. "...some Christian conservatives are openly denouncing a central doctrine of their religion as being too "weak" and "liberal" for their liking" -- https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706
TalkingSnake
But… but… what will happen to all that money that would have gone to untaxed churches?
oldguyexlurker
Consolidated in the politically active mega-churches.
Pulger
Give it to me, I don't mind being taxed.
DianaRR
It is probably good for you if your shared-delusion clubhouse closes. Save more for retirement.
lonosham
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… *gasp*… hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
laserfork
I guess that's why they want to bring back religious indoctrination in public schools in the US. And the charter schools/voucher programs are often a surreptitious way to introduce more religious education under the aegis of "school choice".
usernametakenisthestoryofmylife
I was born into a Catholic family in New England, but stopped any real relation with the church as a teen, but remained a non-practicing Catholic. But I was really turned off from religion during this last election cycle. If that's what being 'christian' is, I want no part of it.
whereismymind86
that's pretty much how it went with me, but in 2016
HogWashDiddler
AMercer
Well, have Trump declare church attendance mandatory...except it will not apply to rich people of course. And then wait for his pet Supreme Court to rubber stamp that with an OK and ignore the concept of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
3rdoption
Thoughts and .... um...
WolvesAreTheBestPeople
People are finally beginning to realizing that, “The Bronze-Age Goat Herder’s Guide to the Galaxy” was a lie the whole time.
Mithi
Excellent title.
ErectileFunction
I'm worried it will just be replaced with something else.
leodavinci1
If history is any indicator... there will be.
IDontCareAtAllButIShould
They wear red hats now.
ssjalhazred
It already has been, they're called megachurches. Hope you like preachers like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland, they're the ones who are benefitting from this.
BlueSkinnedBeast
This isn’t quite the flex some of you are thinking. It’s mostly the smaller ones that have tried to actually do the sorts of things Jesus would want (like helping the disadvantaged and standing up for the poor) that are dwindling, while the MAGAt megachurches are mopping up those who still attend
codenameRadical
Eh ... the catholic church has been consolodating, too. I'll take what I can get.
MachineInterface
Recent census data by PEW and such actually show a sharp, accelerating decline of Evangelical denominations and a slight rebound of Mainstream Protestants who're taking on ex-Evangelicals disgusted with the MAGA-ification of their churches.
GiantFlyingLabia
I hope this trend accelerates very quickly
ChrisCorona
I'm an atheist, and generally not a fan of organized religion- but this post is correct. The vast majority of small churches do lots of good in their communities, don't have millionaire or even well off pastors, and are largely apolitical. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
Photeus
Maybe those smaller church members could join up with a bigger church and teach them to serve better. And if not, what does it even mean to have faith if you can't improve a church while in a church?
Even the small churches doing good for their communities are against LGBT+, are single-issue voters, and would defend Donald Trump. There are good individuals in churches, just like their are in any organization. They'll still do good works regardless where they are.
whereismymind86
nah, it's all cancer, the big ones are worse than the little ones, but the little ones are bad too.
leodavinci1
One would think that an atheist would realize there never was a baby in that bathwater.
Skizmo
Thank god religion is dying.
spazztastic
I don't know if it is as much as I want it to.
UsernameMayBeSubjectToChange
I see what you did there
psmith00
it's not dying. it's consolidating under the megachurches. the grift will continue bigger and faster than ever EXCEPT where the local church may have used some of its resources to support the local community the megachurches are setup for the sole purpose of directing their donations and other resources to making an opulent life for their church leader.
jac1
The vast majority of humans need religion. If one goes away, another three will pop up in its place.
L3NTON
It's not really going anywhere. It's just changed paradigms. Just attendance at small churches is down. Megachurches have sprung up all over the country. People don't like the small churches/parishes because in a small community setting, the people around you actually keep you accountable. People preach from home so they don't have anyone to tell them how wrong they are.
justme2759
I agree but in the south around me they are buying up more properties.
toetag
The worst thing "man" has ever invented, religion.
TotallyNotVillain
Sure, the local parish churches (i.e. the good ones). Megachurches are doing fine.
bourbonandbaddecisions
It’s going to be a bit dangerous with the fanatics though.
rmichelsen480
You mean he's finally doing good for a change?
imakeeper
People have been saying that for centuries. Enlightenment thinkers in the late 1700 thought religion was on its way out.
AsheLake
Has it not declined since then?
BatmanAndCradleRobin
I mean, they were right. Turns out indoctrination is a pretty tough thing to stamp out though.
rowanww822000
Yes, the world today is exactly the same as it was in the 1700s. Great observation. I would suggest that the change in access to information and alternate views has changed irrevocably in the last 30 years, and that will be the death of religion.
poscduke
Catholicism is certainly weakening but evangelical churches are still fairly strong and Hinduism and Islam are hugely strong and popular and tied to governments
rowanww822000
Evangelical churches are niche and too crazy to be relevant. Catholicism is working hard to recruit in third world where they don't know better. Islam and Hindu will face their own watershed moments as those countries continue to develop into modern nations with all the knowledge and technology that comes with it.
TotallyNotVillain
Too niche to be relevant? The biggest megachurches in the US are evangelical.
rowanww822000
I am not doubting their size, and due to the US lack of compulsory voting and the electoral college they do have an effect on politics. I just don't see their growth argument going forward as their social policies are a bit too extreme to hold sway on the larger populace. It is interesting that their decline is slower than moderate churches, as religion becomes more polarising they seem to attract hardliners. But by nature they are insular and closed shop, limiting their relevance.
TotallyNotVillain
In a 2021 study by Pew Research 24% of Americans described themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians. That is a higher than the percentage who described themselves as Catholic (21%), and much higher than the percentage who described themselves as Protestant but not evangelical (16%). https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/
pfrazier21044
I guess we poor Buddhists are just SOL... LMAO
TheChunguskaEvent
excellent, now let's put that all property to some productive use and expand the tax base
azimir
Score us some walkable neighborhood buildouts with 5+1 apartments and ground floor business spaces! Don't be afraid to build them with no parking. Cities don't need free parking everywhere when there's human-scale development instead of car-scale development.
Thoth43
Well, the moderate to liberal denominations are dwindling but the more extreme and non denominational churches seem to me to be growing. People want extremes. There are still some good churches out there but considering liberal people tend to not be religious and conservatives want hate, they're dying.
whereismymind86
nah, they are declining too, it just feels like growth because they are consolidating a bunch of small disparate congregations into a few big ones.
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
Moderate xianity is a very recent fringe phenomenon anyway. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s, liberal xianity didn't exist. There wasn't a single denomination that was LGBTQ-inclusive. After all, society as a whole was rabidly bigoted against us. Every time someone tells me that I can't condem xianity as a whole because moderates are a thing I can only laugh bitterly. It's a new fad that adds insult to injury by calling *us* bigoted for condemning a hateful religion that continues to murder us
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
Catholicism already accounts for more than half of global xianity, and we know how they feel about us despite some double-tongued "love the sinner, hate the sin" style speeches from Bergoglio (who was rabidly homophobic before he became Darth Francis and continues to be transphobic as shit). The orthodox fuckers are even worse. That leaves 35% protestants, who are a very mixed bag that includes some of the most bigoted nazi fucks under the sun.
Photeus
Thank you. Argued with some idiot once that we should be happy the Pope is trying to reach out. Fuck the Pope. They need to change completely, give up the pedophile priests, end world hunger, lay out a bunch of fucking apologies and etc at MINIMUM if the Catholic faith is to be seen as anything more than the evil grift it's always been.