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Very rural middle GA here and while there are a LOT of churches (8 or 10 that service an area with about 5~6k pop), I'd be willing to bet they are hovering in the 10~15% full area. I was forced through Catholic school as a kid, they completely beat all interest in organized religion from me. My wife was active with her family until college ~ we go once a year as family obligation on x-mas eve. Even for that service, the church is less than 50% full (as in, plenty of empty spaces).
But, thinking back multiple of decades, the same was true for the Catholic church of my youth. And there sure are a lot of new church buildings being constructed around me... Idonno. I'm turned off from organized religion, just seems like a giant scam preying on the weak-minded to me.
Very rural middle GA here and while there are a LOT of churches (8 or 10 that service an area with about 5~6k pop), I'd be willing to bet they are hovering in the 10~15% full area. I was forced through Catholic school as a kid, they completely beat all interest in organized religion from me. My wife was active with her family until college ~ we go once a year as family obligation on x-mas eve. Even for that service, the church is less than 50% full (as in, plenty of empty spaces).
But, thinking back multiple of decades, the same was true for the Catholic church of my youth. And there sure are a lot of new church buildings being constructed around me... Idonno. I'm turned off from organized religion, just seems like a giant scam preying on the weak-minded to me.
Really? I’m surprised churches are still being built in this day and age. Here in Cincinnati, there have been churches that have closed or merged with another church or completely repurposed for some other use. There actually have been a few old churches here that have been converted into trendy breweries.
And I completely agree about your viewpoint of organized religion. There are pastors (not all) making lots of money off of desperate, gullible people. It’s sickening. I truly feel sorry for the people who are being taken advantage of.
I spent over twenty years in Kentucky and I can say religious life for the religious is strong.
Post #3 is exactly what I experienced. Coming from Connecticut where religion isn't mentioned in conversations with people outside of your family it was not only an eye opener, it was a bit scary.
I still think church is a big deal in the south but it's certainly a stronger component in the smaller and rural towns than it is in the larger towns.
However, the trendy megachurches have taken many of the younger parishoners away from the larger towns. This is particularly true of the suburban areas and are encroaching into the smaller communities.
Pretty soon you won't be able to tell a church from a Walmart.
I still think church is a big deal in the south but it's certainly a stronger component in the smaller and rural towns than it is in the larger towns.
However, the trendy megachurches have taken many of the younger parishoners away from the larger towns. This is particularly true of the suburban areas and are encroaching into the smaller communities.
Pretty soon you won't be able to tell a church from a Walmart.
I went to a wedding reception at a church outside of Cincinnatti that used to be a Lowe's...
Really? I’m surprised churches are still being built in this day and age. Here in Cincinnati, there have been churches that have closed or merged with another church or completely repurposed for some other use. There actually have been a few old churches here that have been converted into trendy breweries.
And I completely agree about your viewpoint of organized religion. There are pastors (not all) making lots of money off of desperate, gullible people. It’s sickening. I truly feel sorry for the people who are being taken advantage of.
Several churches were I live have ceased being churches. The Alliance Church next door to my house is now a private residence and the Church of God (which I thought was awesome because it actually had a bowling ally in it) is now a ... well ... I don't even know what the hell it is. Something to do with veterans I think, but I'm not sure. I also hear that the Methodist Church is now in financial trouble. Just last week, they had to hold a town-wide rummage sale just to scrounge up the preacher's salary.
BUT ... around here (here being NW Pennsylvania) doubt this is due to flagging interest in religion. This area is a piece of transplated Dixieland. There is nothing 'northern' about northwestern Pennsylvania. This place would give rural Texas a run for its money regarding its obsession with guns, its fundevangelist religion, its suspicion and/or hatred of non-whites and immigrants, its membership in Trump's cult of personality (I guess the bigger of a jackass you are, the more popular you become), its conservative Republican politics, and its disdain for higher education.
I'm just waiting to be run out of town on a rail considering I have no particular love of guns, I'm a militant atheist and anti-theist, I'm an immigrant and partially non-white myself, I absolutely cannot STAND Trump, and I'm a leftist liberal Democrat ... and I have three degrees.
I am EVERYTHING they are not.
Fortunately, at least from my perspective, the reason why church membership is declining precipitously is due to a massive decline in the overall population. There's so much brain drain here, all the young people leave as soon as they get the chance, and the older people are dying off. Plus, the social climate is so unfriendly that, in all honesty, who would want to move here? Oh yeah, speaking of climate, the weather climate is the most miserable of anywhere I've ever lived -- only 74 sunny days per year on average, winters lasting 7+ months with 30(F) degree temps right into May, drizzle rain that can go on for literally months, and even the summer months get damn cold at night ... when seeing your breath during the 4th of July fireworks isn't uncommon.
Oh, but don't let that fool you -- because climate change is a hoax. Never mind that the weather was completely different when I went to high school here. So was the social climate, actually.
And thus churches all over this region are falling into disrepair with congregations dwindling down to less than two dozen people. Many churches don't have have a full time preacher/pastor. Instead a preacher/pastor drives in from one of the larger neighboring towns, gives the sermon, then heads home.
As I've said in previous posts: America has the same amount of religiosity as an impoverished, uneducated Third World nation.
That's nothing to be proud of since it means we're the only nation in the world that produces Christian fundamentalism -- the kind of religion that behaves in much the same way as Al Qaeda, ISIS, or the Taliban. Just without the horrific violence.
What I find to be truly sad about the religious state America is in right now is that, instead of having an America that is overflowing with peace, love, harmony, tolerance, understanding, and compassion due to our high degree of religiosity, we instead have precisely the opposite.
The more religious an area in America happens to be, the more intolerance, racism, superstition, xenophobia, homophobia, hatred, ignorance, and war-mongering there is. Even our domestic policies are absolutely horrendous in religious areas as compared to more secular places. For instance, NONE of the Bible Belt states expanded Medicaid coverage to include the extremely poor whereas the more secular northern states did.
Plus, the Bible Belt states keep passing unconstitutional laws regarding religion in the hopes that no one will even notice.
Christians rarely if ever act like this Jesus character that they supposedly have their imaginary relationship with. Christians in the South are a whole other breed of Christian. As you said, other more truly secular countries in Europe mostly probably laugh at the US. This country masquerades as a first world country but is really an oligarchy that serves the rich and the military industrial complex. The religiosity makes it worse.
From an outsiders point of view the majority of the US is extremity religious, the south more so, driving through Tennessee and Alabama there are just farms and churches and that's it.
Oh good grief.
Thats not all there is, there is just a church on every corner.
In most of what is commonly referred to a "The Bible Belt," most of what you described still applies. Many people still attend Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday midweek services, plus whatever extra things are going on at their church. Once a year, many churches hold a revival with meetings every evening. Vacation Bible School every summer for a week. Many denominations have summer youth camps too.
Church attendance is on a decline pretty much everywhere, but that doesn't mean religious belief is on a decline in the Bible Belt. Tennesssee just passed a law allowing schools to post "In God We Trust" signs in schools. In West Virginia, you have to wait until 1:00 PM on Sundays to buy beer or wine at grocery stores, and liquor cannot be sold on Sundays at all. [Interestingly enough, the only other days when liquor cannot be sold are Christmas Day and Election Day.] In many places, a newcomer isn't asked IF he's religious. That's assumed. Instead, they are asked which church they attend. Again, the assumption is that the do attend one, and if the newcomer hasn't found one, a recruiting job will likely happen. (I think asking people which church they attend may be beginning to decline a little.)
I'm not making any judgment about this. I'm simply describing what I've seen happen.
Look and see where the Freedom From Religion Foundation is asked to step in and help government agencies understand that they cannot promote religion. You'll see Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas represented much more than states in New England.
I've lived in the South most of my life, but I've also spent some time in New England. The difference in attitudes about religion is remarkable.
I still think church is a big deal in the south but it's certainly a stronger component in the smaller and rural towns than it is in the larger towns.
However, the trendy megachurches have taken many of the younger parishoners away from the larger towns. This is particularly true of the suburban areas and are encroaching into the smaller communities.
Pretty soon you won't be able to tell a church from a Walmart.
Except in Wallmart you can see what you got for your money.
It's the best business in the world. You don't need to buy your goods, you can charge what you like and, since you don't actually give anything in exchange for the dish, they have to come back next week and do it all over again.
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