Good.

Great news! Maybe we can finally tax these cults as well.

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.

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.

Pit of vipers closes due to insufficient snakebite volunteers.

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.

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.

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.

Crazy that it takes the church shitting down for them to actually follow gods message of giving to the poor.

And yet, somehow, they still make all the policy in this country.

Interesting that they can't stay afloat financially, because they don't pay taxes.

The internet is killing God but giving birth to a new age of conspiracy theorists.

So, not much has changed.

I pray to God everyday that i can live long enough to witness the day humanity completely abandons religion. Inshallah🙏

Hip Hip

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.

Oh no! So, anyway...

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%.

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.

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.

No, don't close your damn doors, open them up to the homeless. Make these useless buildings good for something!

Best news I've heard all day

Good! Fuck 'em!

Hallelujah!

Heaven isn't real

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.