Churches close their doors as fewer Americans attend

Good.
- Good.
  
  Fantastic news, less grifting. Now shutdown mega churches.
  
  Good.

Great news! Maybe we can finally tax these cults as well.
- Taxing them would force more closures. Do it.
- Considering scientology has their tendrils in a fair bit of Hollywood, that might actually backfire on government coffers. If they demand their members strike, the film industry is going to be in for pain.
  
  No way would SAG strike over Scientology getting taxed. Scientology are parasites and we'd all be better off without them.
- No, we don't want to tax them. Remember "no taxation without representation". Taxing them means allowing their influence in government.
  Not to say that they aren't already influencing our government, but taxing them just opens up the floodgates for it to be done on an official level.
  
  That's the point. They are influencing the government by picking political sides, which officially disqualifies them from tax exempt status but that's something that's never been enforced.
  
  We tax businesses. We shouldn't be allowing businesses or churches to influence government. I believe "no taxation without representation" is meant only to be applied to people.
  
  Remember “no taxation without representation”.
  I do, it referred to people deprived of a vote.
  Houses are taxed. There is no branch of government representing houses.
  
  No representation without taxation

As churches decline we're losing what is, essentially, a free communal space. Church was a place where people built community.
We need to replace it with something, not just cheer because a shitty religion is dying.
- So you're saying we should have more boardgaming conventions?
  I'm all in on that proposal.
  
  Missed you at the latest city council meeting. See you at the next one!
  
  Not conventions. A convention requires paying for a convention space, and that requires making attendees pay for admittance or getting sponsors to pay in their stead so they can sell products. That's not community.
  The power of churches is they are entirely free and not commodified. That's what makes them communal. We'd need something like a communal boardgame hall, supported by donations that anyone can come to without needing to pay anything.
  
  Hell yeah, my wife won't play Arcs with me. I fully support more board gaming.
  
  Or convert them to crack houses.
- That "community" is a judgmental indoctrinating shithole that destroys people.
  Good riddance.
  
  Okay, but that community also kept me from being homeless as a child. I got to eat food when otherwise I wouldn't.
  We need to replace it, we can't just let community die with nothing in its place.
  
  It didn't use to be. I remember most churches on the 80s had a message of, "try to be a good person" and then everyone would hang out and chat. Pretty chill space. Can't stand going to any churches now.
  
  Yeah but now we have a vague aura of judgemental indoctrinating philosophy and 0 community. We're basically where we were just without any of the benefits. There's some opportunity to build something new and better here.
- We'll replace it with more commercial real estate squatting.
  See you in the Library.
  
  The library isn't community, you can't even talk to people there. It's a quiet place by its very nature.
  And squatting? That's better, but it's ephemeral. You can't get attached to your squat, the cops can come at any moment and then everyone has to bail and find a new squat. That's not good enough.
- Unfortunately the internet is now the new 3rd space.
  Religion advocated for bad policies in government which dug their own grave.
  I don't feel bad they're closing down.
  
  The internet isn't a third place! Not only do you have to pay to access it, but more importantly, it isn't a physical place. None of us are people here. We're strings of characters on a screen behind pseudo-anonymous handles. You can't help me, I can't help you.
  This is not community. It can't be.
- Like , say, a community center? I took karate when I was 12 at my local community center.
  
  Having a karate class in a now defunct church sounds amazing.
  
  Absolutely.
  But every rural shithole community has a church. Only cities have community centers.
- My daughters (public) school choir had to pay $2500 to rent a church for their winter performance last year. Well, didn't have to, but the teacher wanted a different space than the school and apparently everyone thought that was an acceptable amount of money for a 2 hour performance. I was pretty upset when I learned the cost.
- We need to replace it with something, not just cheer because a shitty religion is dying.
  Why not both?
  
  We need a new religion that worships reality with clerics who are trained in humanities, epistemology, and combatting disinformation.
  EDIT: Apparently reality isn't as popular as I'd hoped.
  
  We aren't doing both. That was my point?
- As much as I'm happy to see churches go, I agree with this. I used to go to church even as a non believer for this reason. Outreach into the community is much easier when backed by an organization that is trusted, and has resources at their disposal.
- While I like that the church is less popular, you are right. A sense of community is needed for a social species like us humans. This is how street gangs work, they recruit young and probably lost/lonely kids and make them feel like they are part of something.
- In sectarian societies, there are community centres, free library’s and non-religious community groups with public spaces.
  Even in Capitalistic societies, shopping centres and shopping malls are a place for communities to grow.
  The myth that Community requires Region was created by religions so they could more easily control their indoctrinated (just like capitalism).
  
  When did I say community requires religion?
  Also my society doesn't have jack shit. We're all alone and it's only getting worse. There's nothing for me. If all y'all have community that's fucking great, but so many of us are being left behind.
- It's not just religions drying up, it's all of the old hierarchical social clubs. Their membership are aging and dying off, and they're not doing anything to recruit Millennials or GenZ. The internet opened up vast opportunities for non-work social contact and relaxed the demand that people gather in one physical place at a fixed time with rules to minimize chaos.
  
  Okay, we are physical beings and we need to gather in physical spaces.
  We can't all just be alone in our homes screaming at each other on the internet.
- I'd bet a lot of American churches could fairly easily be converted into small music venues.
  
  Architecturally sure but zoning wise probably not. I can actually sympathize with nimbys in this scenario, locked into a mortgage next door to a church vs next door to a music venue with a liquor license are two totally different scenarios.
  
  A lot of them are built with acoustic architecture, so definitely. Also lecture halls, debate halls, maybe even public theater.
- they weren't free. Attendance required a 10% income tax.
  
  Only in Germany. In America, that is optional. In fact, most of these closings could be avoided if all members gave 5%. Average is much lower.
  
  Is this a Catholic thing? I've been forced to attend many different churches and none of them forced my family to pay anything.
- I wish I could buy into the idea of church as a community; my mom very much saw it that way. However, church is inherently exclusive. It turns away people who refuse to conform to very specific beliefs. It’s hard for me to root for or even accept that as a communal space.
  I want to see more YMCA and less church.
  Edit: yes I know the Y is technically a Christian thing, but it’s not the religion I object to it’s the exclusion. Never been to a Y that felt like I needed to be Christian to be there.
- It's not free, though... I've watched my mother give obscene amounts of money to the church. She even did it when I was growing up, and we had NO extra money to give.
  So yeah, cheer. Replace these with something better, like an affinity club with upfront dues that are significantly cheaper.
  
  We have to actively replace them, it won't happen on its own.
- I agree wholeheartedly. I don't know what the replacement would be, however. I keep thinking about that when I think about trying to bootstrap something in my community. Something that somehow (?) is supported to keep the heat and the lights on, and everything clean and very safe, the taxes paid, but provides a place to: 1) meet-up for book clubs 2) has a maker/hacker space 3) Has break-outs for hosting meetups along with projectors, etc. 4) provides open source training of various kinds. 5) Throws social functions, with food and modest amounts of alcohol.... 6) A place with trained staff that put on things for kids to do after school lets out or in the summers
  Something with wifi, where access to snacks/coffee is also possible, where people can hang out all day and not feel any guilt for buying nothing or only one coffee and just being in the presence of others.
  In some cases, I see libraries trying to serve some of these functions. In some cases, I have seen some "community centers" or the building owned by Elks/Masons also trying for a subset of this... if there is some nonprofit or b corp out there making something like this happen at scale, I'd love to hear it. I've been part of meetups that struggle to find/keep spaces they can use, often they have to rely on someone being employed at some company or another.
  But yes, I'm no champion of churches. I also don't want every single public space to essentially dwindle to nothing. Malls are not that - and they are mostly dwindling, too. Starbucks is not that. If the only remaining public space is only trails and maybe the post office (if Musk et al don't kill that too) and the DMV, what a sad state of affairs...

Boardroom meme:
Boss: Church attendance is down. What can we do to turn this around?
Person 1: discreetly move pedophile pastors around to hide their proclivities?
Person 2: assure the congregation that we still hate gay people
Person 3: follow the teachings of Christ and show love and charity to our neighbors regardless of who they are
Person 3 is thrown out the stained glass window.
- Person 2: Why don't we literally do what Saudi Arabia / Iran does but Christian
- shocked Pikachu face
- I chuckled that the window in this meme was stained glass, instead of the highrise like it usually is.
- I was pretty happy to see the Atlanta church mentioned in the article who appears to be opting for the third option!
  
  The United Methodist Church in my town is similar. However, the American UMC just had a schism, where all the homophobes left for their new denomination.

Pit of vipers closes due to insufficient snakebite volunteers.
- chef's kiss

Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
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.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  Those poor children. Churches and religion should be no where near education.
- Almost like taxing them would have been better for society all along.

churches are closing
Good
Leaders warn of the risks
The risks of what? The risk of not returning to the dark ages where we damn near all believed the imaginary writings of goat herders and killed for that?
Thanks, no thanks, I love that risk.
- I think the risk more is the bad theology and idol worship that American Christianity is becoming. It’s sorta like how almost all mega churches are “non denominational.” There’s not a commitment to an actual ideology or set of religious beliefs, it’s become a strange cult fixated on Trump. It’s more dangerous in some ways because it’s less predictable. Being a “Christian” has nothing to do with believing that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it’s more a conservative White identity status.
  
  The cultists drive out the moderates who would keep things on an even keel.
  
  Yes.
  Say, Islam as a religion has the "cut in stone" part, the only way to change that is a new prophet. Literally. And it has the rest, which is up to very wide interpretation. And it doesn't have a central authority (no Caliph today, though a certain ISIS type claimed that role).
  So, that didn't make Islam a more tolerant religion. Not even remotely.
- The risk is that all the mindless drones and zealots that they have actively created over hundreds of years are now off somewhere else doing the same shitty things they were doing before but for someone else, potentially someone even worse than the church.
  
  Just look at the overlap of religious fundamentalists and conspiracy believers.
  They got the most crooked and bonkers president elected. Ah yes, the spoiled NYC billionaire is going to save the children from the lizard people. Praise be!
  
  For example of a modern religion that exists outside of traditional churches, look at something like ufology. Then in Silicon Valley they have the new AI religion.
- Serious answer: an astonishing, alarming chunk of the american population believes the reason why there are social problems, things like school shootings et al, is because there isn't enough religion. They truly believe that MORE religion is the answer. It's disgusting and intellectually offensive, and I'll fight to the death against anyone trying to force me to adhere to their superstitious dogma (praise be, under his eye). So you should be aware that's the ideology.

Government grifters and charlatan faith leaders have completely debased the idea of 'Christianity' over the past few decades to the point where most people associate Christianity as some joke religion that no one really takes seriously.
Personally, I see anyone who proclaims themselves as Christian as a liar, bigot, narcissist and someone lacking in empathy for others. Sure you can tell me about Jesus Christ but I associate anyone who claims him are just paying lip service to the religion and that they are just psychotic sociopaths who are only interested in power and money.
I don't mind Churches dying out because they've basically destroyed their own religion themselves.
Unfortunately, humans are a dumb species that rely heavily on wanting to believe in something so once this religion dies out another one will take its place and repeat the process. It's been happening for thousands of years so I don't think we'll stop that tradition any time soon.
- most people associate Christianity as some joke religion
  But, it started as an essenic cult. It's not accidental that scient\ologists consider someone leaving the cult as a death, the same metaphoric resurrection if they return; you get how that's similar, right? Your brother is executed instead of you, you have survivor guilt, you nope out of the cult, they call you dead, you reconsider over a few days, you're back in - yay, it's a resurrection!
  Anyway, considering Christianity a bit of a scam or a sham isn't strictly a new thing.

The small churches that are more likely to actually be charitable and are more likely to be inclusive will shut down. The bigot-run megachurches will be just fine.
- The mega rich that run them are the fundamental issue.
  As always.
- Crazy how the same thing happens to businesses when times are tough. The only difference is that businesses have to pay taxes..

Crazy that it takes the church shitting down for them to actually follow gods message of giving to the poor.
- There's shit down everywhere!
  
  it's shit turtles all the way down
- They are working behind the scenes to push women back into the kitchen and stoking white nationalist rage.

And yet, somehow, they still make all the policy in this country.
- A very vocal and very active minority I guess.

Interesting that they can't stay afloat financially, because they don't pay taxes.
- Sometimes parasites suck their hosts dry.
- OK I'll make you a deal you no longer pay taxes but your full pay gets cut to 1/4 of what it is now.
  Why do you think not paying taxes makes magic money appear? If people aren't attending and donating they don't have money to not pay taxes on in the first place.
  
  80 to 45 is less than a 50% decrease

The internet is killing God but giving birth to a new age of conspiracy theorists.
So, not much has changed.
- Agreed. I welcome this, but I will withhold being optimistic that it means that it is because critical thinking skills are proliferating throughout the population...sure, it should be, because for decades now we have the ability to easily debunk really stupid claims nearly instantly, there are a lot of people making a lot of money pushing complete nonsense at people with algorithms now....
  If I were to guess at the real reason it's because, well, there is a lot of entertainment that church is in competition with: games, streaming services, social media, sportsball, reality TV and so on....and face it, attending church is generally dull as dirt.
  
  Or the membership of individual churches is increasing, while the number of churches is declining. Reverend Bob's Drive-Thru Church of Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezus on a Jet Ski is probably doing roaring business.
- They feed on gullibility and a craving to be pushed around by authority. Sadly, those aren't going away anytime soon.
- Theist's are killing god.

I pray to God everyday that i can live long enough to witness the day humanity completely abandons religion. Inshallah🙏
- You will never witness this. God Emperor Leto is the Holy personification of Shai-Hulud and the Orange Catholic Bible is the only truth in the deep dark known Universe. The only faith humanity shall ever have constantly at its side is war.

Hip Hip
- Hooray
- There'll be no Weezer in this thread...

Oh no! So, anyway...

From what it seems to me, the megachurches are doing okay. It's the more traditional denominations that are suffering. Overall religion might be on a decline, but certain sects are flourishing. One silver lining about some of the megachurches is that they're led by a strong personality and once they're gone, the whole organization putters out. They're more organized around an individual than a theology.
- I'm just happy people identifying as religious is dropping overall in the US. I'm fairly young and I really hope before I die it's under 30%.
  
  Or at least under 50%. So tired of them constantly being coddled and catered to in all their feelings.
  I remember talking to an evangelist type and making offhand remark that xtians are only like 78% in this country (or thereabouts - this was a while back - it's even less now) and he got so VERY MAD about this basic fact about demographics. The reason I mentioned it was because he was waxing on about how "okay, maybe it's not technically a xtian country, but nearly everyone here is xtian, damn it, so we should matter more (than stupid atheists or those Jews or Muslims or whatever)!" kind of argument they eventually get around to.
  I said, what are the 22% supposed to do? Just not have any representation at all? Him being faced with the simple fact that the number of xtians was not the percentage he thought it was and that it was set to trend downwards just set him off. He couldn't even form a coherent answer, just started muttering and kind of wandered off, very red-faced.
  I think these kinds of interactions give a lot of insight into just how deluded some Americans truly are about basic facts about the world around them. I blame Faux and other outlets for constantly keeping these people safely tucked away in a big fuzzy blanket of coddling, giving them what they want to be true...

And some are forced to sell off the massive amount of prime real estate they were totally going to build churches on and not pay any taxes on the profits....

45% is considerably higher than I expected. I thought it would be closer to 10-15%.
- Membership is not the same as attendance, and it's WAY less than the number of people giving financially.
  I was a preacher at a 1200-member church that had weekly attendance around 150-200.
  And based on the demographics of the area, we received less than 1% of the annual income for those who did attend regularly.
  The thing about churches is that they don't require payment of any kind, and kind people will dedicate time and effort in a very loving way that is inefficient, when what we really need is cash.
  My go-to example is the quilting ladies who spend 40 hours each on handmade quilts using expensive materials to give to the poor. It's extremely kind and their work is exquisite, but with the money spent making those quilts for 20 people, we could buy blankets, a couple weeks of food, and new clothing for 50 full families.
  The thing about giving money, though, is that it feels impersonal to the person giving the gift. This is also why the poor should be taken care of through taxation. Taking care of people's basic needs shouldn't need to feel intimate and spiritual - it should be routine and boring.
  
  My go-to example is the quilting ladies who spend 40 hours each on handmade quilts using expensive materials to give to the poor. It’s extremely kind and their work is exquisite, but with the money spent making those quilts for 20 people, we could buy blankets, a couple weeks of food, and new clothing for 50 full families.
  Yeah but those ladies feel better about themselves, which is what religion is about not helping people.
  
  You make the comment "the poor should be taken care of through taxation". How do you feel about churches being taxed?
  I am not religious at all, but I do know a pastor who is very kind, and have talked with him quite a bit. While he believes in God and the Bible etc, he is also respectful and understanding of the times. He believes in abortion, and takes criticism in stride without trying to make stuff up when responding. If he doesn't know, he will admit as much.
  I called out his entire church group in front of him for being hypocrites (I had/have some minimal involvement with them due to my relationship) when they openly criticized another religion and started trash talking them because an extremist did a suicide bombing. They immediately started trying to backpedal and make excuses for what they were saying. There were several other very shitty things a few of them did over a period of several months so I started pointing everything out. They all got silent and the pastor stepped in to appreciate in a manner of words what I said, and told them that kind of response to an event no matter how bad it was, was inappropriate and not representative of an entire group of people.
  Ok, so sorry for the back story but there is a reason. Pretty much every church I have been a part of (I grew up in the Bible belt and had religion shoved down my throat growing up) I have seen nothing but hypocrites. One single pastor that I have met, in my entire life, I feel would not complain if churches started getting taxed.
  So what is your take on churches getting taxed?

Mega churches are still going strong though. There definitely needs to be a way (other than taxes because separation of church and state is impt) to get churches to spend that money back in the community, but instead it just ends up enriching the owners and investors. If there was anything which needed an anti-corruption intervention.
- Churches should be tax exempt only so far as they are demonstrably charitable. All other income should be taxed. The taxes should go to fund abortion and gender affirmation surgeries.
  
  The "charities" can have a hateful agenda, as well. So even there, we're left dubious. "Render to Caesar (pay taxes), feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked, minister (take care of) prisoners." It doesn't take a religion to fund necessities (like food, health, clothing) through taxes; and it also satisfies most religions' basic tenets.
- Mega churches are still going strong though
  The worst people still go to church and still run them. I guarantee you 99% of every mega church's attendance is MAGAts and 100% of their pastors are.
  
  The small country church by my house is filled with cars bearing "Trum*” tags.
- There isn't a true seperation of church and state at this point. There are plenty of fundamentalist politicians, and churches and religious organizations donate (bribe) politicians as much as business orgs do. If they are going to donate to politicians they should be taxed.
  There have been plenty of laws passed attempting to force xtians bullshit, it usually gets challenged and removed but it constantly happens.

Goes hand in hand with a similar story I heard about a month ago regarding a shortage of pastors. Apparently it's so bad, quite a few have to lead sermons at multiple churches and many simply skip some weeks. Also less trained people taking up the role, whatever that means anyway.
Honestly, get ratio'd, cultists.
- IIUC, some are coming from developing countries.

No, don't close your damn doors, open them up to the homeless. Make these useless buildings good for something!
- You don't even need to click for the article, it's in the post by op:
  Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
- In Amsterdam there's a former church that is now a leather club.

Best news I've heard all day

Good! Fuck 'em!

Heaven isn't real
- We have the means to make our own right here, right now but some of us are too greedy to make it happen.
- More importantly, in heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here.
- Neither god

“Nobody wants to church anymore!”

Hallelujah!

I have a better idea. Seize the land and assets of the churches. They haven't contributed their fair share of taxes, so the land belongs to us.
Next seize the homes and bank accounts of the pastors and clergy and the holy rapists (or whatever they call themselves). Indict them in international courts for crimes against humanity. Offer them plea deals for them to work in their seized homes that are now converted to public housing.

fucking good.

Psh. Until trump’s project’25 handlers make church attendance mandatory for citizenship.
- Prayer day in kenshi IRL

while former houses of worship are being converted into bars, clubs
i want to see the pastors faces when their church gets turned into a full nude titty bar
- depending on the church that could be a very interesting idea.
  literally just walk into a full on church with the pews and altar and stained glass and strippers and communion shots
- A kink club
- It's not that far, but a couple of years ago, a Spirit Halloween took over an abandoned church at a town near here. I'm still mad I never took a picture.
- Amusingly enough, one of the ministers at my childhood church brewed his own beer - and this quality featured heavily in my church's decision to invite him to preach at our congregation.
  
  In the middle ages, it was the monasteries that kept the arts of beer brewing and wine making alive.
- maybe not a safe space for girls, daughters, and grandmothers.

Congrats to Buffalo, it sounds like things are looking up there.
In my area (WA state) there was a small-ish Xian church (the one-storey building was probably <2000 sq ft and cheaply built - the steeple-ish thing (w/o a bell of course) blew off in a windstorm once)) that shut down a year or two ago and was boarded-up. It's been repurposed as a homeless shelter that specifically serves people with serious medical problems. The change has greatly improved the 'hood.
People here are arguing for the (gate-kept) community that Xian churches once offered in the US. By "gate-kept" I'm referring to the fact that Xian churches were, and are, open to only the "right kind" of people. I'm sympathetic to the need for community, and have even looked around locally for what's on offer from Xian or Xian-aligned/compatible organizations, but haven't found any that promote an ideology that isn't based on superstition and that don't demand that I defer in all things moral/ontological to a human power hierarchy within the church. One whose authority, such as it is, is based on "it's in the Book".
Hard pass on that. I'll find my community through volunteering and possibly, one day, through fraternal orgs, though I've found the ones around here (Masons, Rotary, &etc) are still hardcore on gatekeeping themselves, despite being on the wane just as much as Xian churches are. If you think you'd be most comfortable in a Xian-churchy sort of context, but are politically and socially "liberal", the UCC seems pretty inoffensive, though they still (at least locally here) carry on about "worshipping" invisible deities all the time. The Unitarian Universalists (uua.org) seem the least offensive of any old-timey church that I've encountered and it has a certain appeal to me for its association with New England and with 19th-century intellectuals like Emerson and Thoreau. The local UUs have had a local schism in the past five years, with the historical church taking a politically rightward lurch and another UU church spinning-off it but seemingly being more preoccupied with how their church is controlled (no more all-powerful pastor-types, only collective decision-making allowed) and less with charity and community. Finally we have Unity here (unity.org) which has potential for community, but where weekly service addendees seem to be almost exclusively elderly, so I wonder how much longer it will be a going concern?
I'm hoping that someday we get a Satanic Temple that meets in-person here. I could definitely see myself joining that. The Church of the Subgenius (https://www.subgenius.com/), praise "Bob", would suit me well too, and I already own a copy of the Sacred Text, but they don't meet in person AFAIK.
- It’s been repurposed as a homeless shelter that specifically serves people with serious medical problems.
  Church had to shut down to accomplish what Jesus would had done? Sounds like an onion article.
- I tried to join the Masons here last week. I was a decent fit, and I didn’t mind the dude being a little up himself about the org, but they don’t take agnostics. Ok good luck, I’m sure you’re getting plenty of interest from younger prospective members.
  
  Honest question: does collective consciousness not for criteria for "Supreme Being?”

Good

Now the religious companies that remain are all merging together or being bought out by larger religious companies. They change their names to some douchey name that sounds like a shitty christian rock band and franchise. Somehow they're still allowed to be non-profits despite being so much for-profit.
- Now That's What I Call Christianity: Des Moines Volume

quite region dependent, in the rural south they're still pretty strong, in the rest of the country and in large cities, not so much
- Hi. Indiana here. Plenty of full church parking lots on Sundays in this shithole. Lots of Jesus billboards too.

Good riddance.

At least there's some good news!!!

Safer for the kids

Next up: Republicans trying to make church attendance mandatory.
- They're already turning schools into churches, so they're probably not too upset over this.
- Prayer day in Kenshi

thank god

The church is nothing but a tool of opposition. Glad to see it have less influence.

If a church can't be supported through its active membership, it should close. Better no church at all than one sold out to the world, making money from investments and forgetting their true purpose.

Kids can sleep easy tonight. The cult is dying.

Churches that shut down don't get burned down.

Good.

Hallelujah

but if they don’t get 10% of everyone’s income how can they afford to reallocate and protect the offenders??

Should have been burned down, but nothing will ever right the wrongs religion inflicted against the human species.

Should be noted that the Roman Catholic Church required individual parishes to give their churches and the property on which they stand to the church. If a parish refused, they faced excommunication. It's all about raping kids and a money grab all the way up.