Summary
Churches across the U.S. are grappling with dwindling attendance and financial instability, forcing many to close or sell properties.
The Diocese of Buffalo has shut down 100 parishes since the 2000s and plans to close 70 more. Nationwide, church membership has dropped from 80% in the 1940s to 45% today.
Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
Others, like Calcium Church in New York, make cutbacks to stay open. Leaders warn of the long-term risks of declining community and support for churches.
That’s something more churches should do. They always preach about “helping the poor” but most don’t give a fuck.
If every church took in two homeless people, there would be no homeless in America…
They’re more than happy to take in everyone’s dollars, though. Can’t get enough of those.
Reverend Larry:
I DO want your money, because god wants your money.
One of the best things my family church did to reach out to the community was running a low-cost daycare center in our tiny rural town. It helped local families, bolstered the church’s finances, and brought new families into the church.
Unfortunately, it was an Assembly of God church with toxic teachings that I’m still working through decades later. So … straights and roundabouts, I guess.
Those poor children. Churches and religion should be no where near education.
People often make the argument that churches do a lot of community service and charity work. Why, then, do you need to include the fairy tale nonsense of mystical deities? We can totally have organized groups of volunteers that do nice things for people, WITHOUT the mythological element involved.
Strictly speaking, you don’t. Several denominations tried to throw out the mysticism in the 60s to significant backlash of the congregations. Mainstream denominational seminaries are actually pretty open minded from what i hear.
The triune mysticism can be looked at as an act by many denominations, it can’t be dropped because not enough of us skeptics engage with the religious systems locally to justify changing theology. If official positions becoke “well the trinity isn’t actually…” they risk loosing significant numbers of members. Changing that requires skeptical people to earnestly engage with churches and their congregations.
Almost like taxing them would have been better for society all along.